What went wrong.

S

sgtfuzz

New member
My tank has been cycling for a few weeks now. Last 4 days my test kits have shown.
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
0 nitrate
8.0 Ph
1.025 salinity

After the 4th day of the same results I went and got a pair of false percula clownfish. Using my tank water I filled a 10 gallon qt tank and slowly drip acclimated the clowns.

After 24 hours the first clown died. No visible signs of disease or ich. Did a 50% water change on the qt. And measured water prams. All of which still showed the same numbers as above. The next day I found the 2nd clown dead. I'm thinking they had brooklynella.

Was there anything I could have done to protect them or was this basically bad luck. If any additional info is needed I can probably provide.

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Is there enough flow in the qt tank and how are you filtering it?

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ahuaia said:
Is there enough flow in the qt tank and how are you filtering it?

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Air stone and small hob filter that came with it. I also have a small live rock from my dt.

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It almost sounds to me like your tank wasn't cycled and they might have died from ammonia poisoning. How exactly were you cycling it? You should've seen a rise in ammonia and nitrite and once those drop back to zero, nitrate should rise. When you have readings of 0 for ammonia/nitrite but have a reading for nitrate, the tank should be cycled.
 
Hmm well I can't think of anything you could have done differently however if you do ever use medication in your qt you will want to take out the live rock so it doesn't sock up the meds and leach them into the tank latter also I like to dose my tank with bio spira any time I add new fish to help prevent an ammonia Spike. You could also run the HBO filter on your regular tank to help it grow some beneficial bacteria.

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But it sounds like you acclimated the fish properly and if there is no sign if disease I'm not sure what went wrong. If they were in the bag to long there could have been a build up of ammonia in the bag that could have killed them but they would have had to been in there a long time for that to happen.

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GimpyFin said:
It almost sounds to me like your tank wasn't cycled and they might have died from ammonia poisoning. How exactly were you cycling it? You should've seen a rise in ammonia and nitrite and once those drop back to zero, nitrate should rise. When you have readings of 0 for ammonia/nitrite but have a reading for nitrate, the tank should be cycled.
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I kept a dead shrimp in the tank for 4 days. There was an initial spike in ammonia and nitrite. Nitrate did rise too I'm away from my logs right now but it was in the neighborhood of 5ppm. All 3 numbers slowly dropped to 0 and have been there since.

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ahuaia said:
But it sounds like you acclimated the fish properly and if there is no sign if disease I'm not sure what went wrong. If they were in the bag to long there could have been a build up of ammonia in the bag that could have killed them but they would have had to been in there a long time for that to happen.

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It's about a 20 minute drive from the pet store. And after an hour of temp and drip acclamation I added them to the qt tank. I also made sure to not let bag water into the tank.

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Fish dying that fast is very abnormal. I suggest hold on adding any animals for one whole month and then start with adding one or two snails and hermit crabs. See how they act in about a week and then plan adding fish.


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humphreyhh said:
Fish dying that fast is very abnormal. I suggest hold on adding any animals for one whole month and then start with adding one or two snails and hermit crabs. See how they act in about a week and then plan adding fish.


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I think I'm going to pick up ammonia from the hardware store and basically dose that to start a new cycle.

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So I went back and re-read your original post. Are there two separate tanks in this equation? I see you mentioning filling a 10g QT with existing tank water and then clowns went into the QT?
 
GimpyFin said:
So I went back and re-read your original post. Are there two separate tanks in this equation? I see you mentioning filling a 10g QT with existing tank water and then clowns went into the QT?
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Correct I have a 65 gallon dt. I used tank water and a small live rock from that tank to make a 10 gallon qt.

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I dont think cycle can complete in 4 days. Generally ammonia would at least be present for a week before starting to decline and that is when you start to detect nitrite and nitrate (i think you cycle started and than crashed because ammonia got depleted and bacteria starved to death). Plus you put the clowns in a 10 gal and still didn't read any ammonia. Which is impossible for a small qt tank with fish in. I think you might have bad kits, make sure they are not for freshwater.
 
Tripod1404 said:
I dont think cycle can complete in 4 days. Generally ammonia would at least be present for a week before starting to decline and that is when you start to detect nitrite and nitrate (i think you cycle started and than crashed because ammonia got depleted and bacteria starved to death). Plus you put the clowns in a 10 gal and still didn't read any ammonia. Which is impossible for a small qt tank with fish in. I think you might have bad kits, make sure they are not for freshwater.
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The cycle was started two weeks ago. The 4 days was when prams were measuring 0.

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I know 2 weeks sounds too quick for a cycle. But I just know I have to go by what my water tests tell me. I'm going to dose ammonia and try and start the cycle again and see if I can get it to go for at least 1 month.

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The problem most like had to do with the live rock being in the qt this most likely still had die off .you can place clowns in Fresh saltwater for ttm and be fine for 3days no ammonia .also match the salinity to the qt to store and simple temp acclimate 10-15min float and they are in

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There is no such thing as using cycled water from one tank to start another and not get a cycle in the second tank. You will need to cycle the qt just like you cycled the main tank. Your fish died of ammonia poisoning due to uncycled tank.
 
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