New to forum - sick fish?

[raffiki420]

Hello,
We recently (about 5 months ago) set up a saltwater aquarium. Waited 3 months for it to cycle and then began adding fish. Our fish two clownfish died after a spike in ammonia. We fixed that issue, got better lighting and more flow in our tank, and began growing frags of corals. All of which has worked out beautifully. The corals are doing well, the levels in our tank are at 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites, 20ppm nitrate, 8.2ph and calcium at 475mg/l. With our corals doing so well we decided to try fish again. We got a bicolor dwarf angel from our LFS (before realizing how difficult she was going to be) and a maroon clownfish. The clownfish seems to be doing fine with no issues whatsoever. Last night the angel looked as though she may have been flashing on the rocks, so we took out the carbon filtration and treated the tank with Voogle. When we woke up this morning the angel was stuck to the powerhead. We turned the powerhead off, she floated to the bottom and began to attempt to swim. She is now just laying on the bottom, seems to be having trouble breathing but I can't tell. There is nothing on her which would make me think she had a parasite. I know that they are fish which can get stressed out easily so we made every attempt to cure that by giving her plenty of caves. The first couple days she seemed good, hiding and coming out to eat anything and everything on the live rock and such. Now this.
On a side note - we have a blenny that disappeared...There were no other fish at the tank in the time. Only hermit crabs, snails and a peppermint shrimp. All of which are still fine. We looked throughout the rocks and sandbed to see if we could find it (this was at the time we got the angel+clownfish and realized he was missing), but to no avail.

Wanted to mention that the salinity in the tank is 1.024 .. I tested everything again (the last reading was from last night) and it seems as though the ammonia is now at .25ppm and the nitrate is at 5ppm. The angel is now just resting at the bottom of the tank between a rock and a shell. It's frustrating to have what seems like a healthy tank cause fish to die. I also should add we've had a purple feather duster for about a month and a half now, which seems to be thriving in the water. It's feeding crown is big and beautiful, we occasionally add Kent Chromaplex supplement for it to filter through. Anyways, thought maybe all that was an additional key to the situation. Help?

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

Since you can't find the blenny, it probably died and made your ammonia spike. You should do a 10% to 20% water change, but it doesn't sound promising for the bi-color. The flashing on the rocks sounds like it may be developing ich or have some other parasite irritating it. It's hard to say without a picture. Also, your tank may be healthy for corals, but it takes a while before a tank is cycled well enough to stock fish. You need to take it very slowly so the system can keep up with the bioload. Start with the water change and good luck with the bi-color. Let us know what happens.

 

[Duff485]

Hi there and welcome to BRS! Sorry to hear about the problems with the tank, but hopefully we can help you out. First are a couple of questions. How big is your tank? Do you have a sump with it? Skimmer? (If so, how big). Live rock?

Like Goby was saying above, you have to take it slow on the stocking of the tank, especially if it’s a small tank. 1 fish at a time with 6+ weeks in between each fish worked great for me (unless you have a monster tank or monster skimmer). Frequent water changes are your friend in the beginning to keep the levels low enough while the beneficial bacteria start to flourish.

Regarding the first time you cycled the tank, I’m guessing you may have waited TOO long for the cycle, so that it may have cycled and then all the bacteria died out if no bioload was present to sustain them. I had great luck setting up the tank (live rock and sand, but no corals or fish), then feeding the tank with fish food, letting it decay in the tank (No skimmers during this cycle time). Took me 5 weeks for my tank to cycle, but YMMV. If you wait too long with no additional bioload, the bacteria that formed will just die.

That leads me to the next question! When you said you fixed the problem after the two clowns died, what did you do? Did you use chemicals to lock up the ammonia? If so, then the tank probably still hasn’t cycled properly (I don’t think the bacteria can “eat” the ammonia after it’s been locked up in the chemical, so the bacteria won’t grow). Let us know how things work out and if you can answer those questions. Hope things start going better for you.

 

[raffiki420]

Thanks for the reply guys. The tank is a 55 gallon with a bio wheel emperor for a 50 gallon, a whisper 60 and a power head that moves 750gph. As for protein skimmer or sump we have neither. We began the cycle with about 25 pounds of live rock and occasionally fed the tank with food. After the cycle we added about 10 more lbs of live rock and about 30 pounds of dry base rock (which is now slightly purple due to coraline algae growth). After the levels were good (no ammonia, nitrite, ~5ppm nitrate and ph 8.2)we added the clown fish. They became "sick" and about a week after one died. The ammonia spiked and our LFS gave us nite-out 2, which was only added once.. along with an instant cycle called Colony - that did NOTHING. As for the ammonia, I realized we weren't doing large enough water changes so we started doing larger ones and that seemed to help it better than the treatments (haven't had a problem since then with ammonia). A small dose (one treatment at 50g -about a month ago) of ammo-lock was used after the initial spike of ammonia, but we have done a few water changes since then. The bi color didn't make it long, and the maroon clown is still alive but acting strange (not a mark on him) swimming vertically at times but still eating. We figured the blenny was dead, but as we did turn over a lot of rock and sand looking for him - can't seem to figure out where. What do we do now, if we can't even find it? Ammonia is still at .25ppm, hasn't really raised much since yesterday and if anything looks a little less.

The corals are spreading out and growing nicely.. so what additional things do we need to do to make the tank cycle appropriate for fish? We really appreciate all your help! Thanks again.

 

[GobyWanKenobie]

I'm guessing the clown is swimming vertically because of the ammonia. Do another 10-20% water change or try using Amquel or Prime to slowly lower the ammonia. Even though ammonia is bad for your fish, it needs to be adjusted slowly or the clown will get even worse. This is just a temporary fix. There is still something causing a spike in your ammonia. It could be the dead fish or the new rock you added. Every time you add dry rock or sand, your tank begins a new cycle. Even live rock has to be added with caution. Plus, just moving the existing rock around can release toxins that were trapped in the sand. Always monitor your ammonia and other parameters when you disturb something in your tank or add something new to the environment. I think your best bet is another water change and something to help reduce the ammonia, but keep in mind that you will have to monitor it everyday because the ammonia will continue to rise until the problem is solved. Time and patience is the best way to cycle your tank now since it's already been running for a couple of months. Don't add anything new until it stabilizes. Good luck with the clown.

 

[raffiki420]

Just wanted to give an update on how the tank is doing. All the levels in the tank have since returned to normal. We are going to switch to using RO water for our water changes from now on. While our tap water has worked so far, the phosphates/nitrates still remain a little bit higher than we would like. The clown is doing much better and spends less time swimming vertical and more time just hanging out by the power head waiting for any food to be pushed through. Our LFS recommended we add a damsel (they gave it to us for nothing) to see if the bioload could handle two fish and if the system would continue to stabilize. She's going back to the store as soon as we're confident the water is better. We also added two electric blue hermit crabs and four nassarius snails to the clean-up crew. They seem to be keeping the tank clean and algae-free, a nice addition to the hermits and snails we had before.
We had one of our kenya tree coral which was not doing well for a week or so, then this morning we woke up and it's starting to expand again. I'm hoping this is a sign that the water is on it's way to being in top condition! Thanks again for all your help.