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?
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?
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