EugeneReef
New member
Hi all,
Kind of a hail mary post here as something is wrong with my tank and I have no idea what it is. First off I do not have a QT or HT which I know is bad, bad, bad. I know your first instinct here is going to be to tell me "well this is your own fault for not running a QT" but my LFS quarantines all fish for 2 weeks before selling so I feel (felt) pretty safe in purchasing from them, as safe as I can be without a QT anyway. The reason I don't have a QT or HT is the same as most I suppose, no room, and because I have the reputable local fish store to rely on. Anyway, enough of me and my no QT excuses. Here's the issue (I think I need to give you a full history for this to make any sense):
Timeline:
Early March: Purchased a new 60g marineland tank (basically a taller 55g) after having been out of the hobby for 15 years.
2nd week March: Add 50lbs lace rock, 30 lbs cured live rock from LFS, and either 20 lbs of fine sand (not live sand, I can't recall amount but it was one bag).
Towards end of March: After repeated tests for nitrate / ammonia, all reading 0 (I did not test during first week of adding live rock), I start adding livestock. First additions were a pair of occellaris clownfish, some scarlet reef hermits, 10 Astrea snails.
Early April: Throughout the month, continued stocking the tank. Added a 5" Melanurus wrasse, 3.5" flame angel, 2 emerald crabs, few more scarlet hermits (total of 6 in the tank), a banded serpent star I never see (he could still be in there), and 5 trochus snails. Additionally, began adding corals: Toadstool leather, florescent green mushrooms. In addition to those corals I have GSPs that came on the live rock.
2nd week of April: I decide to start testing for tank params beyond PH, ammonia, nitrate, and salinity. I order magnesium, calcium, KH test kits. Results were 380 calcium, 1100 mg, and 8.3 kh. I was not happy with these results of course so I purchased SeaChem products to begin dosing. For calcium, I began dosing Reef Complete. For KH, I started Reef Builder. For MG, I began Reef Advantage Magnesium. I dosed KH on Mondays and Thursdays, and Calcium / MG on Tuesdays and Fridays. Initial results seemed good; two of my hermits molted shortly after I dosed calcium for the first time.
End of 1st week of May: Per the SeaChem product instructions, I waited two weeks before testing CA KH and MG again. Results were 450 CA, 8.9 KH, and 1250 MG. Here's where I made a mistake. I felt like my KH needed to be around 10 at least based on something I had read (I know now this is not correct). Additionally, I felt like I was dosing well within safety limits of the KH additive and could increase it a bit. So during this week, I increased the dosage of the KG additive by 1/3rd (was dosing for about 80g instead of 60g). I also upped the frequency of the MG additive (began dosing on Tuesday, Weds, and Friday) to try to get it towards 1350 faster.
During the first weekend of May I also purchased a Lawnmower Blenny. I do not scrape the back glass of my aquarium, so as to encourage coraline growth and to provide a source of food to my snails. By this time I had a fair amount of hair algae on the back glass especially towards the top. The Blenny immediately began eating the hair algae after being added to the tank, and for the next several days.
2nd week of May: Here's where things went bad.
After testing KH and and Mag again, I got 9.6 kh, and 1350 mg. Which is fine, but maybe I raised it too fast?
My flame angel died on or around the 9th. I noticed him hugging the sand more than usual for a couple of days, then one morning he had a huge, distended stomach, and died shortly thereafter. (Google tells me "dropsy"). I chalked this up to the unpredictability of keeping flame angels. In hindsight maybe it was the large does of KH. Or maybe the Lawnmower Blenny was a disease vector because ...
A couple of days after that, the Lawnmower Blenny stopped eating and was dead by the next morning. No outward signs of disease. (this was on or around the 12th).
Yesterday I noticed one of my clownfish pair had a ragged looking slime coat (the runt of the pair). The closest I could find to how he looked on Google was Brooklynella, though there was not that much mucus, and he was not scratching himself, and was not gasping for air at the surface. By morning, he had died.
One more thing to add, I only just recently learned that brine shrimp are not an ideal food. The only thing that the flame angel and smaller clown were willing to take as food had been Prime Reef Flakes, spirulina enriched brine shrimp, and omega-3 brine shrimp. I could not get them to take Mysis or Reef Frenzy. Even when the smaller clown did eat, he was a very timid eater. He was also a very small fish (only about 1.25") and did not grow much (if any) during the two months or so I had him.
One more thing to add, after the flame angel died, and I foolishly chalked it up to the tempermental nature of flame angels, I went out and bought two more fish, a canary blenny and a royal gramma (not wanting to take another chance on a dwarf angel). So now I have two more fish in this tank where everything is dying. They were added 3 days ago and seem OK so far.
So now I have left: One Occellaris clown, one canary blenny, one very small royal gramma (about 1.25"), and a 5" melanurus wrasse. All of which seem in good health.
I have tested PH multiple times, it seems my morning PH is right around 8.0 which I've read is fine. It has not changed during this crisis.
I have tested ammonia and nitrates many times during this. Ammonia reads either 0 or 0.25, hard to tell from the gradient. Nitrates are always 0.
My thoughts are:
1. Disease introduced by Lawnmower Blenny. After he was added is when things started dying. However he never showed any signs of disease, and the symptoms between the three dead fish are not consistent?
2. Contamination in the tank. I did use nail polish remover on the tank side last week trying to remove adhesive from a Jebao web controller. I really do not think any got in the tank though and I am just being paranoid. Also the inverts and corals are all totally fine, wouldn't they succumb first if it were copper or some other chemical?
3. I killed my weaker fish with an overdose of KH and/or Magnesium (especially the poor Blenny, who was just added). In hindsight I should have only been dosing reef complete and *maybe* dosed a little magnesium.
Solutions:
???
I have thought about doing a series of water changes but a) if it's a disease, that won't help b) a larger water change at this point will almost certainly drop the KH, further shocking the fish if that was the issue in the first place
Anyway if you've made it all the way through this long post I thank you for reading. Is there some obvious cause here I may have missed? Did I just overdo it on the dosing? Are my fish all going to drop dead of disease? I wish it were something simple like an ammonia spike, something with a simple solution
Kind of a hail mary post here as something is wrong with my tank and I have no idea what it is. First off I do not have a QT or HT which I know is bad, bad, bad. I know your first instinct here is going to be to tell me "well this is your own fault for not running a QT" but my LFS quarantines all fish for 2 weeks before selling so I feel (felt) pretty safe in purchasing from them, as safe as I can be without a QT anyway. The reason I don't have a QT or HT is the same as most I suppose, no room, and because I have the reputable local fish store to rely on. Anyway, enough of me and my no QT excuses. Here's the issue (I think I need to give you a full history for this to make any sense):
Timeline:
Early March: Purchased a new 60g marineland tank (basically a taller 55g) after having been out of the hobby for 15 years.
2nd week March: Add 50lbs lace rock, 30 lbs cured live rock from LFS, and either 20 lbs of fine sand (not live sand, I can't recall amount but it was one bag).
Towards end of March: After repeated tests for nitrate / ammonia, all reading 0 (I did not test during first week of adding live rock), I start adding livestock. First additions were a pair of occellaris clownfish, some scarlet reef hermits, 10 Astrea snails.
Early April: Throughout the month, continued stocking the tank. Added a 5" Melanurus wrasse, 3.5" flame angel, 2 emerald crabs, few more scarlet hermits (total of 6 in the tank), a banded serpent star I never see (he could still be in there), and 5 trochus snails. Additionally, began adding corals: Toadstool leather, florescent green mushrooms. In addition to those corals I have GSPs that came on the live rock.
2nd week of April: I decide to start testing for tank params beyond PH, ammonia, nitrate, and salinity. I order magnesium, calcium, KH test kits. Results were 380 calcium, 1100 mg, and 8.3 kh. I was not happy with these results of course so I purchased SeaChem products to begin dosing. For calcium, I began dosing Reef Complete. For KH, I started Reef Builder. For MG, I began Reef Advantage Magnesium. I dosed KH on Mondays and Thursdays, and Calcium / MG on Tuesdays and Fridays. Initial results seemed good; two of my hermits molted shortly after I dosed calcium for the first time.
End of 1st week of May: Per the SeaChem product instructions, I waited two weeks before testing CA KH and MG again. Results were 450 CA, 8.9 KH, and 1250 MG. Here's where I made a mistake. I felt like my KH needed to be around 10 at least based on something I had read (I know now this is not correct). Additionally, I felt like I was dosing well within safety limits of the KH additive and could increase it a bit. So during this week, I increased the dosage of the KG additive by 1/3rd (was dosing for about 80g instead of 60g). I also upped the frequency of the MG additive (began dosing on Tuesday, Weds, and Friday) to try to get it towards 1350 faster.
During the first weekend of May I also purchased a Lawnmower Blenny. I do not scrape the back glass of my aquarium, so as to encourage coraline growth and to provide a source of food to my snails. By this time I had a fair amount of hair algae on the back glass especially towards the top. The Blenny immediately began eating the hair algae after being added to the tank, and for the next several days.
2nd week of May: Here's where things went bad.
After testing KH and and Mag again, I got 9.6 kh, and 1350 mg. Which is fine, but maybe I raised it too fast?
My flame angel died on or around the 9th. I noticed him hugging the sand more than usual for a couple of days, then one morning he had a huge, distended stomach, and died shortly thereafter. (Google tells me "dropsy"). I chalked this up to the unpredictability of keeping flame angels. In hindsight maybe it was the large does of KH. Or maybe the Lawnmower Blenny was a disease vector because ...
A couple of days after that, the Lawnmower Blenny stopped eating and was dead by the next morning. No outward signs of disease. (this was on or around the 12th).
Yesterday I noticed one of my clownfish pair had a ragged looking slime coat (the runt of the pair). The closest I could find to how he looked on Google was Brooklynella, though there was not that much mucus, and he was not scratching himself, and was not gasping for air at the surface. By morning, he had died.
One more thing to add, I only just recently learned that brine shrimp are not an ideal food. The only thing that the flame angel and smaller clown were willing to take as food had been Prime Reef Flakes, spirulina enriched brine shrimp, and omega-3 brine shrimp. I could not get them to take Mysis or Reef Frenzy. Even when the smaller clown did eat, he was a very timid eater. He was also a very small fish (only about 1.25") and did not grow much (if any) during the two months or so I had him.
One more thing to add, after the flame angel died, and I foolishly chalked it up to the tempermental nature of flame angels, I went out and bought two more fish, a canary blenny and a royal gramma (not wanting to take another chance on a dwarf angel). So now I have two more fish in this tank where everything is dying. They were added 3 days ago and seem OK so far.
So now I have left: One Occellaris clown, one canary blenny, one very small royal gramma (about 1.25"), and a 5" melanurus wrasse. All of which seem in good health.
I have tested PH multiple times, it seems my morning PH is right around 8.0 which I've read is fine. It has not changed during this crisis.
I have tested ammonia and nitrates many times during this. Ammonia reads either 0 or 0.25, hard to tell from the gradient. Nitrates are always 0.
My thoughts are:
1. Disease introduced by Lawnmower Blenny. After he was added is when things started dying. However he never showed any signs of disease, and the symptoms between the three dead fish are not consistent?
2. Contamination in the tank. I did use nail polish remover on the tank side last week trying to remove adhesive from a Jebao web controller. I really do not think any got in the tank though and I am just being paranoid. Also the inverts and corals are all totally fine, wouldn't they succumb first if it were copper or some other chemical?
3. I killed my weaker fish with an overdose of KH and/or Magnesium (especially the poor Blenny, who was just added). In hindsight I should have only been dosing reef complete and *maybe* dosed a little magnesium.
Solutions:
???
I have thought about doing a series of water changes but a) if it's a disease, that won't help b) a larger water change at this point will almost certainly drop the KH, further shocking the fish if that was the issue in the first place
Anyway if you've made it all the way through this long post I thank you for reading. Is there some obvious cause here I may have missed? Did I just overdo it on the dosing? Are my fish all going to drop dead of disease? I wish it were something simple like an ammonia spike, something with a simple solution
