Help, im at a loss. 5 fish dead in less than 1 week

Hightower · #1 04-04-2005, 05:24 AM

Ok. I cant figure this out. (90gal)

In the past week I have lost my hippo tang, kole tang, 2 clowns, and a green chromis. A bangai cardinal has a massive eye on one side but not dead- yet.

Hippo tang got ick, and couldnt fight it off. ( no I dont have an extra aquarium for quarantine) Im sure he gave my kole tang ich even though he was healthy and eating lots including garlic, he didnt make it either.

Next my two clowns died within days of each other. LFS thinks it may have been clownfish disease. And in between all that, my blue green chomis who was eating voraciously, died. Go figure that one. the easiest fish to keep.

Parameters: Ammonia, Nitrite, =0 Nitrate= 2.5
Ph=8.0 temp 79, salinity=1.024 Phosphate= .1

History:
tank is 5weeks old, however, there is 100lbs of live rock cured and established from a 1.5yr old tank transported within 5 min. I monitored levels during those weeks, there was barely any detection. So not much of a cycle to go through.

I stocked the tank with 1, maybe 2 fish /week. still no rise in levels.

A 20% water change was done 1 week before they all died, with RO/DI water. TDS =0

With my T4 pump, im getting about 1000-1100 gph, along with my ASM G2 skimmer.

Still cant figure out what im doing wrong. Is this "beginners luck"?
This is not great for a wife who was skeptical, and now sees this, especially after sinking all this money into it.

The only thing I have noticed in the last few days, is a rise in brown "dusty" algae. But phosphates remain at .1

That maybe a tad high, but a rowaphos sleeve is in there.

Any help would be appreciated.

Willow · #2 04-04-2005, 05:31 AM

what test kit are you using to determine that your nitrates are 2.5?

my obvious guess is your tank is still cycling or was and you are adding stock way to fast. the dust your seeing is diatoms, they are one of the first stages of the algae cycle.

Hightower · #3 04-04-2005, 05:34 AM

All test kits are saliferts, and I did them twice to ensure they were correct.

The brown dusty algae is on the glass. the sand bed has some red, and green algae on it too.

Aquattro · #4 04-04-2005, 06:07 AM

PO4 and NO3 won't kill fish, within reason. It sounds like some sort of contamination. Maybe something like a cucumber was in the rock and died during transport? Cleaners get in the tank?
Was this used rock from someone else? Maybe there was a problem with it? Did it have fish in that tank?
Are you running carbon?

Hightower · #5 04-04-2005, 06:42 AM

no carbon. yes it was used rock from another healthy tank. He never had a problem with it to my knowledge.
Im not sure of die off during transport as it was less than 10min and remained wet.

If a cucumber was in the rock or something else and it died and caused that much poison, should there not have been an ammonia spike?

Beverly · #6 04-04-2005, 12:29 PM

Ich was introduced into your tank by one of your fish, that you know of. Could be they all caught it.

Did you buy all your fish from the same store? If so, they could all have had ich and you could not see it on some fish if the ich was in the gills.

muck · #7 04-04-2005, 02:33 PM

Ammonia = ??

mr_alberta · #8 04-04-2005, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

Parameters: Ammonia, Nitrite, =0 Nitrate= 2.5
Ph=8.0 temp 79, salinity=1.024 Phosphate= .1

Did your clowns show any symptoms before they died?

Hightower · #9 04-04-2005, 02:58 PM

Clowns were breathing shallow, but had a dusty white appearence rather than the ich spots that were on the tangs.

danny zubot · #10 04-04-2005, 03:41 PM

When fish have been transported they become stressed and their slime coat is thinned. This will make them vulnerable to ich and other marine ailments. On top of this they have been added to a new tank with conditions that could add to their existing stress. I think it was the ich that got them.

Sorry about your losses.