My fish are dying...Please help

df_puffer

New member
1. How old is this aquarium? almost 3 months & LR was added...fish added 5 weeks ago

3 Yellowtail Damsels
1 snowflake ell
1 valentine puffer
2 chromis blue green
snails
crabs
Live Rock

36 gal bow
hang on back filter Quietflow 50
200 watt heater

NO sump...NO Skimmer

10% water change each week w/LFS RODI


2. what is ammonia level? ?...getting ammonia test kit NOW

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.025 - hydrometer

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? 3 weeks ago valentini puffer

5. Was it quarantined? no

6. If you are using a copper based medication? ?no

7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer? ???

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? look perfectly healthy.

I have a Reef Master test kit and values as follows.

Nitrate 0-.25
Phosphate .25 or less
Calcium 480
KH 10dkh

Ph 8.2-8.4
Temp 79
SG 1.025

no real changes in water chemistry since I started adding fish 5 weeks ago. the water does look very very slight cloudy last few days

Added 2 powerheads yesterday for more water movement. koralia 425 & 600. also put a clam on a half shell for the first time for the puffer and he loved it.

Got up this morning and puffer on its last breath at bottom and all others in bad shape breathing very heavy at bottom of tank barely moving. they all look in perfect health otherwise.



Any ideas on what to look at would be greatly appreciated. looks like im gonna lose all my fish when all looks good? love the hobby but a lot to learn. my wife has wanted saltwater fish for 20 yrs now and now she got em...

Thank you for your time.
 
Need your ammonia results. Since your tank is so young between the bioload and a clam left open it could be excessive ammonia. Have you done a water change?
 
Ammonia is the most likely issue. Bioload is probably too high for that sized tank as well.
 
Sounds like ammonia to me too. You can get an ammonia neutralizer anywhere, even Wal-Mart. Use it and a big WC ASAP. How did you cycle the tank without an ammonia test kit?
 
As others have said, how did you know your tank finished cycling without an ammonia test kit? Your fish are probably dying from ammonia poisoning. Also, your tank is way too small for the bio load, especially the eel.
 
Thanks for the input. When cycling I had some strips left from a long time ago when I had cichlid tank.

History of my tank.
Added all my fish randomly throughout the last 5-6 weeks. The whole time my water tested to what thought to be in a good range"¦not moving much week to week.

Nitrate 0-.25
Phosphate .25 or less
Calcium 480
KH 10dkh
Ph 8.2-8.4
Temp 79
SG 1.025

Sunday purchased a pack of small clams on a half shell giving one to the puffer and he loved it. What he didn't eat I threw out about an hour later. Few hours later I installed 2 new power heads that I got when purchasing the clams. One positioned low going just above the crushed coral and the other smaller one across the middle just to get water moving. Before turning the lights out at bedtime fish looked great. No different than any other day.

Monday morning I find my puffer on its last breath on the bottom and all other fish breathing heavy on the bottom? So I checked my water and it was the same as it was for weeks (results above). I didn't have an ammonia test kit (ran out of strips). I did a 15% water change and put the PH toward the surface to get more O2 thinking there was an O2 problem. Maybe I stirred up some crap off the bottom or off the rocks over night when I had the PH down low and that could have been the straw that broke the camels back...don't know.

researching some online and here I come up with probably an ammonia problem or something with the power heads? Introducing the PH is when the problem visually started to show? Without the ammonia test kit I was "dead in the water" with that. So maybe something crazy like the power heads? So I shut them off for a few hours and the fish started to look a little better. Thought that was crazy so I turned them back on and few hours later fish started to look worse again??? Immediately shut the larger one off and let the smaller one ripple the top some and left it like that.

Tuesday I throughout the day I was losing half my fish.

Today, Wednesday I finally got Ammonia test kit (don't know if the level would be the same or close as on Mon & Tues) I checked everything I could.

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 5-10
Phosphate .25
Calcium 440
KH 10dkh
Ph 8.2-8.4
Temp 79
SG 1.025

I checked the ammonia 2x and got same value. I'm at a loss/puzzled but it don't take much.

Thanks again
 
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