HELP. Everything is dead or dying!

[reeftanknewbie]

I have a 56 gallon tank with live rock and sand that has been running for over a year now. I have been very very patient in the cycling of the tank (ran 8 months before adding anything) I have for equipment a fluval canister filter with carbon, redsea skimmer, and HOB refugium. I have 3 powerheads in the tank for cirulation at different levels (plus the canister filter pump). I am using 2 65watt power compacts for lighting with moonlights. My parameters are SG 1.026, PH 8.26, nitrate 0, nitrite 0, phosphates 0, ammonia .25. My maintance consists of weekly 5 gallon water changes, dosing of calcium once a week. My questions are why can't I keep fish for longer then 4 weeks? I have tried several times and am paying more attention to this tank vs. any other tank I have ever had (had many...some even neglected but were thriving). Seems like everything I put in dies. Even my coralline algae is dying back. I know the ammonia is a problem which I am dealing with this week by increasing my water changes.

 

[PRDubois]

Tank is testing your Mental Health!

How are your fish dieing?Ick? ????
What type of fish?
How many do you add at one time?
How do you acclimate them?
Are your lights on a timer? for how long?
Are you using RODI or Tap water?
Have you had your water tested by your LFS?

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Agreed my mental health is very much tested. (funny how I picked this hobby to relax me and instead I'm stressed)

Great questions...thanks.

I acclimate my fish they way I always have (again never had problems for years of doing this) by floating their bags in the tank, opening the bags, and over the coarse of an hr add my tankwater to the bag water a little at a time. After an hour I remove the fish from the bag (careful to not dump any of the bag water into the tank) and add them to the tank with the lights off for 1 day.

I'm guessing the fish I have had (4 in total) died from ammonia toxicity but not sure as I thought toxic levels were at .5 and above. All were found the same way: found under rocks, labored breathing, fins were damaged, not eating. All died this way. I added only two fish initially (chromis) and they died in the first two days. I got fish shy (I guess I had to grieve a bit) and waited several months, did lots of maintance and tried again about a month ago (ammonia at 0ppm then). (salfin tang and dragon goby). This time they appeared healthy and happy for several weeks then I lost the tang from the same thing (found under rocks, labored breathing, fins were damaged, not eating). goby stopped sifting sand about a week later after the tang died and I knew he was next. Did more water changes, etc....dead....
My lights are on a timer and run for 12 hrs in total (10hrs daylight, 12 hrs, atinic). I always use DO/RI water I make myself with my coralife Maxxim 4 stage unit. Never thought to take the water to my LFS to have it tested. Think I will do that this weekend.

Interested in hearing your thoughts PRDubois

 

[PRDubois]

Was tank used or new? if used, test tank for copper.

 

[PRDubois]

Test kits could be bad.
Do you have a skimmer?
Are you dosing Vodka or anything else?
Lack of O2? (Vodka Dosing will cause this if you dont have a good skimmer)

 

[muttley000]

Is there a possibility of a cycle trying to occur when the fish are added? Maybe try feeding the tank a small portion of food each day for a month before adding the fish to allow bacteria levels to increase before the fish are in htere producing ammonia.

 

[bkaradza]

Re: HELP. Everything is dead or dying!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15647099#post15647099 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reeftanknewbie
I have a 56 gallon tank with live rock and sand that has been running for over a year now. I have been very very patient in the cycling of the tank (ran 8 months before adding anything) I have for equipment a fluval canister filter with carbon, redsea skimmer, and HOB refugium.

What model of redsea skimmer? Is he good enough for 56galons? It's realy strange how you fishes die... You prepair your aquarium very well as I can see but something is wrong since fishes die. I never test that much things in my aquarium (i only test NO3) and I never had not a single fish diying (only when I fish come to me already dead).

 

[jason2459]

I like the idea of muttley in trying to increase the bacteria population. I have no idea and this is more of a question on my part but could a tank that has been sitting for so long, 8 months, with 0 bioload cause the bacteria to die off or reduce the amount of bacteria to such a point in the tank that when someone introduces anything this will cause a new initial cycle becaues there's not enough good bacteria? Could there actually be bad bacteria growing feeding on the good bacteria at this point of sitting around for so long?

 

[ed102475]

You should not have ammonia in a tank 1 yr. old that is a problem did your tank run a full cycle ? You said you didnt put anything in for 8 months but a cycle will only last about four at most . Maybe its just a dead fish you couldn't get out . Good luck finding out what it is .

 

[leoristo]

+1 on testing for heavy metals like copper. This could be the cause of suffering (fast or slow depending on the fish) and the ammonia levels that you see could be due to dead fish/snails/others that decompose...

other questions:
What are you running in the canister and what maintenance do you do on it?
Do you have a clean up crew?

 

[mikersx02]

Get some Eheim euphusubstrate balls to put in the canister. They are quite expensive. Also find some Matrix Rocks and put them in there too. What media are you currently running in your canister?

You need to have adequate bio filtration to where you NEVER see ammonia. I had a purple tang die in my tank once and couldnt get to it. I didnt have an amonia spike at all. Granted- my snails and lobster probably ate it- but still- Most people would have had a nuked tank,.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15647295#post15647295 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ed102475
You should not have ammonia in a tank 1 yr. old that is a problem did your tank run a full cycle ? You said you didnt put anything in for 8 months but a cycle will only last about four at most . Maybe its just a dead fish you couldn't get out . Good luck finding out what it is .

+1 I'm surprised ammonia wasn't caught earlier, that is the reason your fish are dieing, there are many reasons to have ammonia in an established tank,

1. You add too many fish at once and your bacteria couldn't handle the extra bioload so your tank had to create more bacteria to assume the bioload,

2. You added more uncured live rock and again the die off wasn't something your tank could handle so it went through another cycle.

3. Your feeding way to much and the uneaten food breaks down and cause a cycle

4. Or like ed102475 said you have a dead fish decomposing and it is causing an ammonia spike.

What ever the cause you need to pinpoint it and get it taken care of, and in the future anytime you see ammonia at all you need to start crisis mode and start changing water to help dilute the toxic ammonia.(even an ammonia detoxifier can help)

 

[reeftanknewbie]

First let me thank all of you for your time in responding to this post. I am very please to hear all of your ideas and will try to respond to each question asked.

First the tank was purchased new, I never tested for copper, never considered it to be in the tank since I haven't introduced. I have a RedSea HOB prizm skimmer (convergent/divergent kind). Like I said earlier I had only added two fish at any given time so unless the tank was not fully cycled (which I disagree with as I have watched and monitored the levels very closely until they were zero). I have removed all the fish after they died so as to prevent tank pollution. Only other living things in there are 3 turbo snails, 1 blue legged crab. I use regular carbon in my canister filter which is changed monthly.

Don't know anything about putting Vodka in my tank (I don't even drink the stuff haha). My test kits are a little old, do they go bad?

Mikersx02 I agree with you "You need to have adequate bio filtration to where you NEVER see ammonia".

I like to idea of feeding my tank a little at a time to monitor for another cycle.
All thoughts welcomed based on this response. And again thanks

 

[Denbf58]

there may be some other toxin in your tank you might try running poly filter and see if it changes colors the package will tell you what thy are
by any chance do you use glass cleaner to clean tank?

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Denbf58

Thanks for the response. I don't use glass cleaner or any cleaner on the tank. just water and a towel. as for the toxins, were do I get this poly stuff from?

 

[mal1099]

just looking at the parameters. But if you have ammonia shouldnt you have nitrite? im new so many a question for me also. thought the cycle was ammonia nitrite nitrate. Also none asked from what i saw .. How much LR do you have im running a 52 cube with 80lbs of rock and i have a heavy bioload and cant read any ammonia and nitrite and only have rock and a skimmer for filtration

 

[albertan22]

I strongly believe that the tank was left empty to long (like someone else mentioned earlier) and that you're seeing another cycle. Just like any other living thing, the de-nitrifying bacteria in your tank can't live without a food source.

I'm no marine biologist, but I am an environmental scientist, I believe that leaving the tank 8 months with no bioload likely killed off enough of the beneficial bacteria in the tank that you're restarting the cycle every time you add a fish. JMO

 

[reeftanknewbie]

You might be right...think I will start to "feed" my tank again.

 

[eyesinthedrk]

i would agree with everyone but for the "ripped fins" do you have a clean up crew? is there any other physical damage to the fish besides this? is there any chance of a crab or some other nasty hitchhiker gone unseen?

 

[reeftanknewbie]

I only have one blue legged crab at this point. Haven't seen any hitchhikers but that doesn't mean I don't have one. When the sailfin tang died his fins were looked torn/damaged and he wasn't this way when he was alive. I assumed it was the crab having a snack after he died.