ontheairship
New member
No really it just has ick.
So long story still kinda long...I had a 65 gallon tank back at my old place that I ran with an Aqueon 110, 1 powerhead, and a bunch of really mature established live rock I got from someone breaking down a tank. Had that running about 9 months then my fiancé and I moved in with my in-laws. The tank was lightly stocked, 1 yellow tang, 3 damsels, some brown/green palythoa, 2 starfish, and a camel shrimp (plus assorted snails and hermits). In the move we lost a damsel but otherwise everything made it.
We replaced the old sand when we moved, added new powerheads a month later, and bought a test kit to keep up with water parameters as we would be adding more fish in the future. Two months after that we brought home 5 green chromis and a watchman goby.
And then everything died.
We were pretty upset since my fiancé had named the fish (I told her not to) and we let the tank sit empty but running with only the surviving inverts.
Then our neighbors across the street moved and we inherited their 90 gallon setup. The tank is drilled (and scratched as all hell, but hey it was free) they ran a wet dry with bio balls and a Coralife super skimmer, no powerheads, and a 2x150 metal halide/PC combo light. The tank was running with fish but boy was it rough. After we moved a couple of rocks to catch the fish you could barely see in it. So we scooped out a coral beauty angel, dwarf yellow angel (funny enough these two were best friends and always side by side) and foxface and put them in the 65 and setup a 10 gallon tank for a lion fish and engineer goby fearing the lion fish (and possibly the engineer?) would eat our camel shrimp survivor.
Dad (my father in law) started repainting the stand/hood so we could set the 90 up in place of the 65, and in the meantime since the new fish were doing really well in the 65 we tried again to add more fish.
Again everything died so the 65 sat empty until the 90 was ready.
We took down the 65 and set up the 90 in its place hoping that the heavier filtration may work in our favor since we're pretty sure we just totally overstocked the hell out of the 65 with that dinky HOB filter. We set the new tank up with new sand, bought some extra dry bulk rock and added only the old live rock but none of the old water. We swapped out the bio balls for some live rock rubble that fills about half of that compartment in the wet dry and upgraded the skimmer to a Reef Octopus 110 I had lying around. After about a month of "œcycling" Dad impulsively brought home some fish (as he will continue to do) to test out the tank. Those two seemed ok and so we added the lionfish and the engineer goby we'd been holding on to.
The two other fish died.
Convinced that it's not because our tank isn't mature enough OR that the store we buy from just has crap fish, Dad brings home a clownfish. You guessed it.
In the meantime the lionfish is doing great but the engineer goby has developed this weird white slime all over his body and what look like ick spots.
Finally Dad caves (after Mom and I have been suggesting it for months) and sets up a QT tank for new fish friends. The day after he comes home with a blue cleaner wrasse and a tiny valentini puffer. The day after the wrasse dies in the QT tank (and it's why I'm convinced the store we buy from sells **** fish) but so far it's been 2 weeks and the puffer is fine. He's eating well and growing and although he shows sign of spots on his fins, he's lived 2 weeks which is more than any other fish can say.
(I'm getting to the end I promise)
So this past Sunday we decided to make the drive and try out a new fish store. Complete 180 from the store we buy from, guy that owns it was super knowledgeable, spotless clean tanks, told us exactly every single medication he treats his tanks with and why, and won't sell fish until after they've been quarantined. So impulsive *** Dad brings home 2 beautiful paired tomato clowns, skips the QT tank altogether and throws them in the tank. This morning, they're gone.
So! I'm taking over his tank until I can get this under control because I'm getting pretty ticked off at all the fish he's killing. Finally, my questions:
1. What can we do for filtration besides the live rock and skimmer? There's that blue and white filter floss in the tray of the wet dry. We tried one of those nitrate sponges but it got clogged and then the water spilled over. I've been reading about chemipure elite/chemipure blue. Is there a difference?
2. I'm not sure the skimmer is working to its full potential, somedays it pulls out tons of nasty water sometimes nothing. I think that's affected by the water level? (I don't like sumps/or wet dry filters. Don't seem to understand them just right, that's why I went with my HOB originally)
3. I know we need water movement. We have 3 cheap powerheads we got off amazon, they look like Koralia knock offs. In the future I'd like the upgrade but I don't have the money for that currently (no pun intended). Based on the aquascape, where would you suggest we set these to eliminate dead spots?
4. Besides the lionfish the only thing that seems to thrive are inverts. We have 4 emerald crabs, 2 arrow crabs, a red brittle star (Sir Acha), a sand sifting star, and a giant snail of some sort. What would you recommend to beef up the clean up crew?
5. If it matters we tossed the MH and we're running a Current Marine Orbit I had on my 65. The palys seem to like it and we wont be doing other corals anyway
6. We do use tap water, conditioned with Seachem Prime (I'd like to get an R.O. system we can use for drinking water too, but it's not my house)
The big question is how do I go about dealing with this ick? The only fish in the tank is the lionfish and I'm wondering:
Do I take him out and let the tank run its course for a couple months? Do I have to wait that long? Do I have to wait longer?
Is there medication that won't wipe out the inverts?
Should I just leave the lion in while the tank runs? He seems to be the only one not affected by it at all
Should I drop the salinity or raise it? Drop the temp or raise it?
Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated. In the long run I know he's going to want to keep the lionfish and have "œsome color". He really liked the foxface and those tomato clowns so we may look towards those again. He's also really fond of the engineer goby but I'm not sure that he'll make it.
Attaching pictures that I think may be relevant and water parameters as of yesterday (before the clowns died)
5/9/2018
Salinity (I bought a refractometer off Amazon and I'm not entirely confident in it so I tested the water 3 times. All with varying results)
-Coralife Deep Six Hydro: 1.025-1.026
-Fluval Sea Hydro: 1.024
-Refractometer: 33-34 or 1.025
Temp: 77-79 throughout the day (its FL)
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 40ppm
Phosphate: .25ppm
I didn't test for Calcium or KH, should I?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So long story still kinda long...I had a 65 gallon tank back at my old place that I ran with an Aqueon 110, 1 powerhead, and a bunch of really mature established live rock I got from someone breaking down a tank. Had that running about 9 months then my fiancé and I moved in with my in-laws. The tank was lightly stocked, 1 yellow tang, 3 damsels, some brown/green palythoa, 2 starfish, and a camel shrimp (plus assorted snails and hermits). In the move we lost a damsel but otherwise everything made it.
We replaced the old sand when we moved, added new powerheads a month later, and bought a test kit to keep up with water parameters as we would be adding more fish in the future. Two months after that we brought home 5 green chromis and a watchman goby.
And then everything died.
We were pretty upset since my fiancé had named the fish (I told her not to) and we let the tank sit empty but running with only the surviving inverts.
Then our neighbors across the street moved and we inherited their 90 gallon setup. The tank is drilled (and scratched as all hell, but hey it was free) they ran a wet dry with bio balls and a Coralife super skimmer, no powerheads, and a 2x150 metal halide/PC combo light. The tank was running with fish but boy was it rough. After we moved a couple of rocks to catch the fish you could barely see in it. So we scooped out a coral beauty angel, dwarf yellow angel (funny enough these two were best friends and always side by side) and foxface and put them in the 65 and setup a 10 gallon tank for a lion fish and engineer goby fearing the lion fish (and possibly the engineer?) would eat our camel shrimp survivor.
Dad (my father in law) started repainting the stand/hood so we could set the 90 up in place of the 65, and in the meantime since the new fish were doing really well in the 65 we tried again to add more fish.
Again everything died so the 65 sat empty until the 90 was ready.
We took down the 65 and set up the 90 in its place hoping that the heavier filtration may work in our favor since we're pretty sure we just totally overstocked the hell out of the 65 with that dinky HOB filter. We set the new tank up with new sand, bought some extra dry bulk rock and added only the old live rock but none of the old water. We swapped out the bio balls for some live rock rubble that fills about half of that compartment in the wet dry and upgraded the skimmer to a Reef Octopus 110 I had lying around. After about a month of "œcycling" Dad impulsively brought home some fish (as he will continue to do) to test out the tank. Those two seemed ok and so we added the lionfish and the engineer goby we'd been holding on to.
The two other fish died.
Convinced that it's not because our tank isn't mature enough OR that the store we buy from just has crap fish, Dad brings home a clownfish. You guessed it.
In the meantime the lionfish is doing great but the engineer goby has developed this weird white slime all over his body and what look like ick spots.
Finally Dad caves (after Mom and I have been suggesting it for months) and sets up a QT tank for new fish friends. The day after he comes home with a blue cleaner wrasse and a tiny valentini puffer. The day after the wrasse dies in the QT tank (and it's why I'm convinced the store we buy from sells **** fish) but so far it's been 2 weeks and the puffer is fine. He's eating well and growing and although he shows sign of spots on his fins, he's lived 2 weeks which is more than any other fish can say.
(I'm getting to the end I promise)
So this past Sunday we decided to make the drive and try out a new fish store. Complete 180 from the store we buy from, guy that owns it was super knowledgeable, spotless clean tanks, told us exactly every single medication he treats his tanks with and why, and won't sell fish until after they've been quarantined. So impulsive *** Dad brings home 2 beautiful paired tomato clowns, skips the QT tank altogether and throws them in the tank. This morning, they're gone.
So! I'm taking over his tank until I can get this under control because I'm getting pretty ticked off at all the fish he's killing. Finally, my questions:
1. What can we do for filtration besides the live rock and skimmer? There's that blue and white filter floss in the tray of the wet dry. We tried one of those nitrate sponges but it got clogged and then the water spilled over. I've been reading about chemipure elite/chemipure blue. Is there a difference?
2. I'm not sure the skimmer is working to its full potential, somedays it pulls out tons of nasty water sometimes nothing. I think that's affected by the water level? (I don't like sumps/or wet dry filters. Don't seem to understand them just right, that's why I went with my HOB originally)
3. I know we need water movement. We have 3 cheap powerheads we got off amazon, they look like Koralia knock offs. In the future I'd like the upgrade but I don't have the money for that currently (no pun intended). Based on the aquascape, where would you suggest we set these to eliminate dead spots?
4. Besides the lionfish the only thing that seems to thrive are inverts. We have 4 emerald crabs, 2 arrow crabs, a red brittle star (Sir Acha), a sand sifting star, and a giant snail of some sort. What would you recommend to beef up the clean up crew?
5. If it matters we tossed the MH and we're running a Current Marine Orbit I had on my 65. The palys seem to like it and we wont be doing other corals anyway
6. We do use tap water, conditioned with Seachem Prime (I'd like to get an R.O. system we can use for drinking water too, but it's not my house)
The big question is how do I go about dealing with this ick? The only fish in the tank is the lionfish and I'm wondering:
Do I take him out and let the tank run its course for a couple months? Do I have to wait that long? Do I have to wait longer?
Is there medication that won't wipe out the inverts?
Should I just leave the lion in while the tank runs? He seems to be the only one not affected by it at all
Should I drop the salinity or raise it? Drop the temp or raise it?
Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated. In the long run I know he's going to want to keep the lionfish and have "œsome color". He really liked the foxface and those tomato clowns so we may look towards those again. He's also really fond of the engineer goby but I'm not sure that he'll make it.
Attaching pictures that I think may be relevant and water parameters as of yesterday (before the clowns died)
5/9/2018
Salinity (I bought a refractometer off Amazon and I'm not entirely confident in it so I tested the water 3 times. All with varying results)
-Coralife Deep Six Hydro: 1.025-1.026
-Fluval Sea Hydro: 1.024
-Refractometer: 33-34 or 1.025
Temp: 77-79 throughout the day (its FL)
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 40ppm
Phosphate: .25ppm
I didn't test for Calcium or KH, should I?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
