Fish keep dying Please HELP

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DBullet22

New member
Hello everyone, i have a 30 gallon tank and havent had much luck with it. Anyone with any sugestions will be welcome amd if im doing anything wrong please let me know
Set up is a 30 gallon tank with about 20-25 lbs of live sand and about 15 lbs of key largo dead rock that had been in a friends tank few months before. I run a Marine Land canister filter c220 (up to 55g) and a 200 gph powerhead,aquatic life mini 115 skimmer and a led full spectrum light. A friend of mines has helped me along the way since hes had tanks for years
Sooo i started of the tank and after a couple weeks i had a big algae bloom and all my parameters where at 0 so after that algae started to go away my friend said i was ready to add fish. I bought 2 small ocellaris clowns and at first they seemed to be doing well. One lasted 1 week and the other one lasted 2 weeks.The water parameters seemed fined but they seemed to be breathing a little hard. So i figured i might of just got sick fish or maybe the tank was to young. Waited about 3 weeks in case the fish had any parasites to add a Royal Gramma. At first he seemed shy but after 1 day he satarted swimming and eating very well for about 4 days. Than all of the sudden he would not come out of his cave and the next day i found him dead. My ph has been between 8.0-8.2 amonia between 0-0.25 nitrite at 0 and nitrate at 0. Tank has been running for almost 10 weeks and i dont want to keep adding fish only to see them died soo i would like to know if theres anything im doing wrong. Thanks
 
Ethuman is right if there is any ammonia it can drop fish like flies. Get it out with water changes and if you want you could add some AmQuell. Other than that, it could just be that it's a new and unestablished tank and sometimes these things just happen. If you want to be cautious you could get a couple CUC before adding new fish. Something like a couple hermit crabs or aestria snails that cost around $2 each. If they die it could be an indicator that your not ready for fish yet. Good luck with your new tank!
 
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Your Nitrate and Nitrite seem okay, as does your pH. Make sure your ammonia is 0, any ammonia can cause fish to become ill and die. Check your salinity is between 1.023 and 1.026. Make sure your temperature is between 24 and 26 degrees celcius(about 77F). If you have cycled the tank correctly and your water chemistry is good then you should be good to go. If all seems good then put a small fish in like a chromis and see how it goes.
 
Have about 5 hermit crabs and 5 snails and they have been doing very well they took care of the algae.They have been in there for about 3 weeks
 
no amount of ammonia is safe. If you have ammonia, your other parameters can't really be zero. Something's not right with your test kits or something.
 
let's be clear about something here:

something your friend was suggesting isn't working, so you came here for advice. Whether your friend's tank is doing well or not doesn't really matter...something's not right with yours. So, given the run of new folks lately who were told stuff they apparently didn't want to hear and argued and/or made new threads thinking we'd give in and tell them what they want to hear....I just want to be sure you'll listen to us first, or if you prefer the advice of a friend.
 
Iam open to try anything i just have taken my water to get tested to different places and they all seem to tell me its fine but what can i do to get the amonia to 0 (its very very close to 0)
 
Usually just takes time. nothing out there can make a 4+ week process to a 1 week thing. The bacteria needs to grow and be able to convert the ammonia (fish pee) to nitrite and nitrate, etc. It isn't established enough to do it to a point where it can support fish.
 
Did you test your tank when cycling? What did the ammonia spike to when starting, what was the ammonia scorce? Did nitrite spike, did nitrate spike?

I would guess the the tank is not cycled and does not have the bacteria to process the ammonia. Fish could be getting ammonia poisoned and then by the time you test the ammo of could have been processed down, just not fast enought for 2 fish in a small tank with not enough live rock and not enough bacteria.
 
The amonia did go up in the first week or soo than went back down. After the 2 clowns died (about 5 weeks running) the amonia did go up and i did a 20% water change and it went back down. Nitrites and nitrates have always been at 0
 
My recent test from 2 days ago.
 

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Sorry for the rough start.

You never answered the "salinity" question what is yours and how do you measure it? Also what salt brand do you use and what source of water?

Temp also does seem very low i would get it above 75C

One possibility - are you doing regular water changes already? During the cycle I was told NOT to change the water (until it was complete) if you are doing frequent water changes it is possible that the cycle isnt really done but you are not measuring it build up?

Also I am sure your friend told you this - but you are topping off with plain (ro/Di) water not salt correct?
 
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