KingfishJohn
New member
Hi all,
I have been setting up a new holding facility for fish at my store and have encountered some truly puzzling fish death. First, some background on the system;
(10) 70 gallon tanks all plumbed into a common sump
300 lbs or more live rock
200 lbs of live sand (soon to be more)
100 gallon refugium
(3) Sequence Darts as returns (running approx 5-600 gph a tank)
Deltec AP1003 protein skimmer
The system has been setup and running for around 2 1/2 months and I cannot keep a fish in it for longer than around a week. The fish seem to get into the system, begin to act groggy and try to eat but the food hits them in the forehead, then quickly go south from there.
Ammonia is undetectable, Nitrite is the same, Nitrate is around 5, and a small amount of carbon has been used.
Does anyone have any clue as to what is going on with these fish?
I have basically 2 theories (and these are just that, theories);
1. A parasite is running rampant in all my tanks (these deaths have occured on systems not attached as well).
2. The space we're in used to be used for woodworking and something is contaminating the tanks.
The REALLY strange things is that inverts in the fish tanks (shrimp, crabs, snails, even corals) are doing great but every fish (including established fish brought into the system) die.
Does anyone have any ideas?
John
I have been setting up a new holding facility for fish at my store and have encountered some truly puzzling fish death. First, some background on the system;
(10) 70 gallon tanks all plumbed into a common sump
300 lbs or more live rock
200 lbs of live sand (soon to be more)
100 gallon refugium
(3) Sequence Darts as returns (running approx 5-600 gph a tank)
Deltec AP1003 protein skimmer
The system has been setup and running for around 2 1/2 months and I cannot keep a fish in it for longer than around a week. The fish seem to get into the system, begin to act groggy and try to eat but the food hits them in the forehead, then quickly go south from there.
Ammonia is undetectable, Nitrite is the same, Nitrate is around 5, and a small amount of carbon has been used.
Does anyone have any clue as to what is going on with these fish?
I have basically 2 theories (and these are just that, theories);
1. A parasite is running rampant in all my tanks (these deaths have occured on systems not attached as well).
2. The space we're in used to be used for woodworking and something is contaminating the tanks.
The REALLY strange things is that inverts in the fish tanks (shrimp, crabs, snails, even corals) are doing great but every fish (including established fish brought into the system) die.
Does anyone have any ideas?
John
