Stumped

[lclark209]

So I'll fully admit I'm a newb but not all that new. Had a successful 120g mixed reef running for 2 years and recently upgraded to a 180g with all new dry rock and sand about 2 months ago. I added microbacter7 for the first 2 weeks and have been doing weekly testing on my water since the start. I also ghost fed 1/4 cube of mysis daily till I got my first fish about a week or so ago. The params from Fri are amm, nitrite - 0, nitrate - barely perceptible color change so less than 5?, PH - 8.2, mag - 1480, cal - 440, dkh - 9, phos - 0. I had a slight amm spike about 2 days into the cycle, nitrite for a few days after that, and undetectable every test since. Had a diatom bloom about a month ago and have been seeing little spots of hair algea the last couple weeks. I have been doing weekly 40g water changes for the past month.

So the issue...I just woke up to use the bathroom and grabbed a flashlight to check out my tank and found one of my pair of juvi clowns dead and stuck to the over flow. I don't understand....it ate and was swimming around just fine (I thought) just hours ago. There were no blemishes or spots on it. The clowns are the only things in the tank other than coral.

What could have happened? I know its a new tank still but my parameters were good and I'm adding slowly to try and keep an ammonia spike from happening. Could it have just been unhealthy even though it looked good and ate well?

I'll test again tomorrow to make sure everything is still good and post the results if anyone is interested.

 

[Mr. Fish]

If one of the clowns is dead and the other is fine, I would guess it was just a sick fish. Do you have a quarantine?

If both fish died I would guess it's a problem with the tank.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[lclark209]

Just one is dead. The other came right up to the light.
No qt. I have an extra couple tanks I can set up if I need a hospital tank and intend on getting a sponge filter to keep in the sump to set up a temp qt for the more expensive fish I intend to buy.

 

[Mr. Fish]

Just one is dead. The other came right up to the light.
No qt. I have an extra couple tanks I can set up if I need a hospital tank and intend on getting a sponge filter to keep in the sump to set up a temp qt for the more expensive fish I intend to buy.

Quarantining the "cheap" fish will protect the more expensive fish down the road. A qt tank should be one of the first things set up.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2