Help! Fish Dying?

[AEIOU9]

Hi,

I recently decided to get back into the hobby so I purchased a 40 gallon IM tank as my display tank and added one of those live bacteria mixes into my water to get the cycle going.

Over the last three weeks I observed the usual spike in ammonia, nitrites & nitrates. My nitrates were hovering around 5-10 PPM so I drained 10 gallons from the display. I used 7.5 gallons from the display to set up a 10 gallon QT tank (2.5 gallons of freshly mixed salt water) and I filled the display with 10 gallons of new salt water.

A day later I went to one LFS and purchased a clown fish for the QT, which died within 2 days. I tested my water parameters with my API test kit and everything came up clean except nitrates being somewhere between 0-5 PPM. I also have a Seachem ammonia badge, which reported the ammonia levels were safe.

Several days later I tried a different LFS and purchased a purple pseudochromis also for the QT. Tonight, which is two days later as well that fish also died. I tested my water levels and everything still looks fine - same story from the ammonia badge.

At this point I'm a bit stumped. When I originally did the hobby back in college I was no where near as cautious (cycled with damsels, no QT, etc.) and didn't have anything like this to get the ball rolling.

I'm hoping that someone can give me some insight on how to proceed. Here are a few other facts that are useful:

• Using RODI water from Spectrapure filter
• Using ESV salt mix
• Salinity is about 1.025 in QT
• pH is about 8.4 in QT
• Temperature is about 76 F in QT
• Drip acclimated both fish for about 1.5 hours after floating in bag for 15 minutes
• QT tank has a heater, MJ-400 powerhead, Aqueon HOB filter with a sponge & ceramic rings to retain bacteria

 

[bundybear1981]

You may be taking too long to acclimate your fish. Try to match the salinity of your QT to that of your fish store. Then allow the salinity of the QT to change slowly over the 6 to 8 week QT period.

 

[Mikesmith34]

API is highly unreliable. Wi would get yourself a better test kit such as Salifert for testing ur params. Something is going on with your water to stress those fish out like that.

 

[AEIOU9]

You may be taking too long to acclimate your fish. Try to match the salinity of your QT to that of your fish store. Then allow the salinity of the QT to change slowly over the 6 to 8 week QT period.

Also, what type of filtration/aeration do your have on your QT?

QT tank has a MJ-400 pump to agitate the water surface and a Aqueon HOB filter with a sponge & ceramic rings in there to hold some bacteria colonies.


Mike, might be a good idea. I have also taken water to the LFS for testing to get a second reading. I plan on doing so again tomorrow.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

I'm with Bundybear on this when it comes to acclimation. The easiest way to acclimate a fish is to test the salinity in the bag when you get it home. I do this by punching a small hole in the side of the bag with a pin below the water level and catching some in a cup. Use that to test the salinity in the bag and then put some duct tape over the hole. Make sure it isn't leaking and then float the bag in the DT while you prep the QT.

Using your bag water salinity, match the QT salinity and temperature of the DT. Then you can just drop in the fish, discarding all of the bag water. I do this by dumping the fish in a small glass bowl and then scooping him / her up with a cup. Then you can dump as much out as possible before adding the fish to the QT.

I'm not a fan of nets which is why I go with the cup routine.