help!! water parameters are good , corals look fantasic, but livestock is dying off?

[mmenz22779]

I am wondering what is going on.

A bit of my background, I have had 55-400 gal fresh water tanks for 20 years, recently moved into salt. Got a 29gal BC and did a big trade my freshwater stuff for his salt water stuff. The trade went well and everything survived. So the tank body is new but everything in it is 3-4 years old.

I know about water quality chemicals ect temp, what the fish look like when they are getting sick ect. due to my fresh water exp..

so here is my problem.

I am newer to salt so I need some help.

when i first got the tank in feb this year, it had no CUC or fish in it, just coral.

over the course of a month -2 I added 2 clowns, a CUC to be crabs and snails, 2 peppermint shrimp, 1 fire shrimp,1 cleaner shrimp, 1 algae blenny and 14 jawfish.

everything was alive in my tank last month. Then my 1 of my clowns died. It looked like he got ich. but by the time i noticed it the crabs took care of him real quick.

that was it i did some aquascaping ect.. then 2 weeks ago I noticed that my jawfish and blenny were missing. I thought maybe they were just hiding but to this day i still have not seen them. My guess is they died and my CUC did their job.

about 1 week ago I noticed that my peppermint shrimp were missing. Again i assume they died and my CUC ate them.

the bigging of this week my last clown died. I left in the morning he was looking great no signs of sickness, came home and did not see him. After 10-15 minutes of looking around in the tank i saw a group of CUC hanging out. Sure enough they were already 80% done eating his body.

This morning I woke up and found my Fire Shrimp on the floor. so now I have 1 cleaner shrimp left.

During this time i checked my water parameters 2x a week to see any spikes in my PH or nitrates due to the dying fish and nothing.

My nitrates are 0-3,
PH is 8.3
kh is 10
phosphate is .01
calcium is 480
temp is 79

I run the following in the tank

chamber 1 polyfill and heater
chamber 2 filter floss, macro algae, carbon and purichem
chamber 3 is return pump and phosban
no bio balls.
I do weekly water changes of 10-20%
stock lighting
stock return pump with k nano on the other side
Dose with Iodine and reef solutions when I do water change


here is a few images of my tank yesterday and this morning.

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As you can see the coral looks great and my water is very clear, no real algae, so my tank is not showing any signs of distress. But why in the world have I lost everything in the past 2 months.

I have been doing a lot of aquascaping during the past 2 months. I am now finally happy with the look and an done.

My only guess is maybe the aquascaping stressed them out.

I had feed them 1 shrimp cube 1 once or once every 2 days, but now with only 1 shrimp i will change that. I am hesitant to buy any more live stock until i can figure out what the heck is going on?

any help would be great.

 

[sslak]

"Dose with Iodine and reef solutions when I do water change"

Are you testing iodine? You may be over-dosing. In a tank that small water changes should be all you need. I would stop all dosing.

 

[mmenz22779]

"Dose with Iodine and reef solutions when I do water change"

Are you testing iodine? You may be over-dosing. In a tank that small water changes should be all you need. I would stop all dosing.

No I was adding a small amount of both reef solutions and Iodine to try and help my corals.

I guess maybe that was not such a good idea. Things did seem to start dying off when I started dosing. Just never put 2 and 2 togeather.

I will take my water to the fish store this week and have them test it for other things. I fear you may be right.

I thought dosing would help, but since i am doing 10-20% weekly water changes I am sure that is more than enought to keep the elements in check.

Should i do a bigger water change a few times? or if there is excess elements how long does it take for them to disappate?

 

[mikid]

dieing

dieing

whats your salinity?.........

 

[mmenz22779]

1.022

 

[sslak]

Should be up around 1.026

It isn't horribly low, but lower than it should be. It depends how much salinity fluctuation you have...do you top off daily?

 

[mmenz22779]

Should be up around 1.026

It isn't horribly low, but lower than it should be. It depends how much salinity fluctuation you have...do you top off daily?

no i dont top off. I have a BC so the tank is covered. I have no evap issues, I just do waterchanges with my LFS premixed water 2x a week.

I also made sure evap was not causing a salt concentration. It fluxuates between normal parameters depending on my LFS

 

[mmenz22779]

i do let my the water i use for changes sit for 1-3 weeks. Would this be an issue?

I usally buy 15 gallons of water and do weekly changes of 5 gal. So sometimes by the time i get to the 3rd bucket it could be around 3 weeks old. It just sites in the 5gal jugs in my house.

 

[sslak]

i do let my the water i use for changes sit for 1-3 weeks. Would this be an issue?

Sit with a pump constantly circulating, or sit stagnant?

Stagnant water is always bad. You can't just leave it sit.

I had a 14g biocube and saw about 1 cup of evaporation every 2 days which would actually produce a measurable change of salinity.

 

[mmenz22779]

Sit with a pump constantly circulating, or sit stagnant?

Stagnant water is always bad. You can't just leave it sit..

ok I will change this then, I will either just go to the LFS once a week and get 5 gal of water or put the 15 gal of it in a container with a pump running.

I had a 14g biocube and saw about 1 cup of evaporation every 2 days which would actually produce a measurable change of salinity

Maybe because i do water changes every 3 days i really dont noticed it. I will start being more diligent on checking the SA level more often for a few weeks.

 

[sslak]

If you do a WC every 3 days you may not have much evap. Definately put a powerhead in your saltwater if you leave it sitting around.

 

[mmenz22779]

I will put my 15 gal of water in a rubbermaid, put a heater in there and a pump. When i need to do water change i can just bring a hose from the pump to the tank and pump the water in from the hose. Heck this will be better than the good old bucket rutine, plus my water will be tank temp.

 

[snorvich]

What are you measuring SG with? Refractometer? If so, what did you calibrate it with? What is your ammonia? Nitrite?

 

[alovely]

Am i seeing that correct 14 jawfish??

 

[prickles]

I would check your test kits? Perhaps buy a diff brand and retest. The reason I say this is you have alk of 10 and ca of 480 but no coralline?

 

[justnmatt79]

Assuming the 14 jawfish is a misprint

Stop dosing. Natural seawater iodine levels are 0.06, and genereally mixed saltwater comes very close to this. Unless you have animals like clams that need supplemental iodine, it won't be used up fast enough to need any additions. Regular water changes should suffice. As a rule of thumb, never add anything you don't test for. Although, unless your iodine levels are extremely high, I doubt this is what is killing the fish at this rate.

Did you quarantine these fish? You mentioned ich, so my guess would be this. Stress from high iodine levels, overstocking, aquascaping and the like can cause ich infected fish to "flare up" and fall to it very fast. If you have no fish, let your tank run fallow for 8 weeks. This will ensure any crypt parasites die off from lack of hosts. Then QT all incoming fish, and go slow.

If I read correctly you have no fish now, so study up and maintain the corals. Make a stock plan and you will be fine.

Great looking tank btw!

 

[mmenz22779]

What are you measuring SG with? Refractometer? If so, what did you calibrate it with? What is your ammonia? Nitrite?

My SG came in at 1.028 at the LFS using a refractometer. I also tested thier salt water and on my hydrometer it says 1.022 and that is incorrect as they keep their salt levels at 1.026 sooo

my hydrometer was not reading correct, eventhought 1.028 is not deadly it is high.

I have since put in 10% fresh water and now my SG is 1.026

 

[mmenz22779]

Assuming the 14 jawfish is a misprint

Stop dosing. Natural seawater iodine levels are 0.06, and genereally mixed saltwater comes very close to this. Unless you have animals like clams that need supplemental iodine, it won't be used up fast enough to need any additions. Regular water changes should suffice. As a rule of thumb, never add anything you don't test for. Although, unless your iodine levels are extremely high, I doubt this is what is killing the fish at this rate.

Did you quarantine these fish? You mentioned ich, so my guess would be this. Stress from high iodine levels, overstocking, aquascaping and the like can cause ich infected fish to "flare up" and fall to it very fast. If you have no fish, let your tank run fallow for 8 weeks. This will ensure any crypt parasites die off from lack of hosts. Then QT all incoming fish, and go slow.

If I read correctly you have no fish now, so study up and maintain the corals. Make a stock plan and you will be fine.

Great looking tank btw!

Thanks for the complement on the tank.

After a trip to the LFS so they could do more intense testing, their conclusion was the stale water was the issue as my parameters were very good with the expect ion of a bit high salt level. I have since corrected.

They reminded me not to let it sit for more than 2 days. Lesson learned. I now have a power head and a heater in a 20 gal rubber-maid that I put my premixed salt water in I get from the fish store.

correct I had no fish, but I bought some Damsels 5 for 12.99 so my 1 and 2 year old has something to take a look at. I also got a banded shrimp. The this will be about all the livestock I put in for a month or 2. If the damsels hold up the I might get a clown depending on how aggressive the damsels will be.


I am also not dosing with anything since I do weekly water changes.

 

[atrox]

Sounds like you may have an aeration issue among other things. I would make sure you have a significant amount of water breaking the surface i.e. a powerhead pointed torwards the surface. Stop all dosing, if you cant test it dont add it. If your nitrate and nitrite levels are good then I would hold off on doing any water changes. Let the tank and water buffer itself out. You have good intentions, but less is more. Sit back and give the tank 5-6 weeks without adding new water, chemicals, or livestock.