Sick Fish - Can't solve the problem

[Jaws]

So about a week ago my tank came down with velvet, or at least what looked like velvet. After I added about 30 pounds of live rock from another reefer's tank, all the fish started showing signs of blotchy skin, heavy breathing, and erratic behavior within about 24 hours. They definitely had some kind of parasite so I removed all the fish, placed them in quarantine and treated with chloroquine phosphate about a week and a half ago. They seemed to bounce back pretty quick over the next few days. All looked good and were eating well. Then about 3 days ago all the fish decided to go on a hunger strike. Now some of their fins are starting to deteriorate and they're showing signs of blotchy skin and swimming funny again. Temp is 78, pH is 8.1, NO3 is under 5, PO4 is 0.1 and Alk is 10. I've got power heads pointed up too so there's lots of surface agitation for added oxygen. Am I missing something? I can't stand sitting here and watching them get worse. If anyone has any other suggestions I'm all ears. Thanks.

[DigitalWeight]

I am no expert but my thoughts went to what your ammonia reading is at with that new rock?

[Jaws]

I didn't test ammonia but the rock was cycled for months before I added it. There was only about 30 pounds of rock in 700G of water volume too so it shouldn't be ammonia. I'll check though to be safe.

[Aquattro]

Sounds like ammonia poisoning

[reefwars]

That's how it sounds to me too , maybe worth a check to be sure.

Adding some prime, amquel or other amonia binder would help if that's the case.

[Jaws]

Ok so I added some prime first thing this morning. I'll do a water change tonight and turn on the carbon reactor too. My ammonia test kit seems to be missing so I'll have to pickup a new one today. Is this something the fish can recover from or is it bad news once they've been exposed?

[Jaws]

Ok so the ammonia tests definitely came back positive. How ammonia spike I don't know. The only thing I can think of is maybe from a bacteria die off after treating the tank but I had way more rock in there the first time I treated it and everything did fine. Doing a 30% water change right now then we'll see how things respond.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Jaws

I had way more rock in there the first time I treated it and everything did fine.

Well ya, that's the point. You need a certain amount of rock to treat ammonia in that volume, less rock, less filtration. 30 pounds in 300g isn't enough to process waste from all the fish, therefore you get NH3 build up. You have too small a filter.

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

You have too small a filter.

Hmmm. What do you suggest I do to boost the filtration? I don't have any cycled live rock anymore. I would've figured that this would be similar to a fish only tank without live rock now but I guess even they have sump filters to boost bacteria.

[Aquattro]

Ya, you need something. No rock, you use other media. Hit J up for some foam blocks, he has some that he was cycling for me.