Having some bad luck

[hagfish]

I have an 80 gallon tank that has been running for 3-4 months now. It has an oscellaris clown, purple psuedochromis, and an engineer goby that all seem happy. There is also a CB shrimp and a tube anemone that have had no problems. The problem is that I can't seem to get any other fish to live in the tank. We had an anthias in the tank that died within a week. We waited another week or two and then added a flame angel. He died in about 2 weeks. Again, we waited a week or two and added a bicolor angel and flame angel at the same time. The died in less than a week. Added a cleaner wrasse a little later and it died in a week.
Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are undetectable. PH is at 7.8, which is lower than I would like, but it seems to be stable.
I just can't figure out why all new additions are dying. This is getting pretty frustrating.

Each one of these fishes seemed OK at first and we were able to get them all to eat. They really seemed to go from good to bad pretty quick. They would be eating one day, then the next they won't eat, and are acting funny. Then within a day they are dying. I see no obvious signs of disease other than some fading of colors the day they are dying. And like I said, the original fish are doing great. Please help :help:

 

[fishieness]

my guess would be that these are acclimation problems. Fish will go into shock and appear fine for a while, and then quickly go belly up. how are you acclimating these fish?
and what is your ALK?

 

[hot883]

your acclimation proceedures as mentioned ^ are probably wrong and to fast. Please explain them to us. Also, whats your S.G.?

 

[hagfish]

I'm drip acclimating. Usually for 2 hours. Sometimes a little more.
Salinity is 35 ppm on a refractometer.
I haven't tested ALK yet. I do have a kit for it though so I'll check it out in a little while.

 

[hot883]

Stray Voltage?

 

[fishieness]

are all these fish from the same LFS? what is the salinity at the LFS? some use 1.009 to keep ick away. and going up that much while acclimating could be stressful on the fish.

 

[hagfish]

The dkh is 12.

 

[hagfish]

I was wondering about stray voltage. I can't feel any when I put my arm in the tank. But I'm sure that's not the best measurement of it. If you know how I can measure it, please let me know.
Not all of the fish are from the same place. Two of them were. I know the salinity of that place was lower (one of their tanks was running at 1.019 the other at 1.023).

 

[fishieness]

hmmm...... i would think it would be stray voltage because all your other fish seem to be doing fine right? they are not twitchy? They do not show signs of HLLE?
hmmm..... there are mechanisms to test stray voltage..... but they are expensive....heck. you oculd probably do it with a batery tester that you can get at any hardware store. are all your outlets and powerstrips grounded?

 

[hagfish]

The other fish are acting very normal.
That is why I had kept buying fish despite my bad luck so far. It seems like too many have died for this to be a coincidence though at this point. But maybe it is.

 

[mikeyjer]

That's quite strange. What type of feeds do you have them on? :happyfish

 

[hagfish]

I feed a wide variety including flake food, flake spirulina, emerald entree, frozen mysis, frozen brine, krill, marine cuisine, and nori.

 

[scubadoo]

Sounds like both stores could possibly be selling fish that are caught using cyanide. Fish usually die within a few weeks after exposure and death can come swiftly. They may eat but cannot "process" the nutrition. They can last for a few months but most will die within a few weeks. The timeline of one week to two weeks in your system would be about right. and within this timeframe. Just a possibility. It could be a combination of factors ...some dying for one reason and others from another.
Fish exposed to cyanide at first glance may look "okay" and even eat. I wouls ask all the stores where they purchse their animals...they may not tell you. Certain geographical areas still use cyanide to "catch" fish.
The other possibility not mentioned is that something is in your system that the current animals have acclimated to.

 

[hagfish]

This is going from bad to worse. I have of course stopped buying anything for this tank for fear it would die. Last week I had a oscellaris clown that has been alive in other tanks in my house for over a year, a purple psuedochromis that I've had for just under a year, and an engineer goby that I've had for a few months just in this tank. This week the clown and psuedo have both died.
This seems to only be affecting fish as I still have a coral banded shrimp, tube anemone, and many snails and hermits that appear to be doing fine.
I've been able to get each dead fish out pretty quickly and tested the water each time and I never saw any spikes in chemicals.
The clown just died today. He ate last night and acted perfectly normal. And he looked good.
Here's my guess as to what's wrong. I'm almost embarassed to admit this because I knew I shouldn't have done this. But anyway, the tank itself is ancient (at least from the 80's if not earier) and it had been my dad's for a long time and he had bought it used from a LFS in the late 80's. What I suspect is causing the problem is that someone had somehow glued a large piece of slate rock to the bottom of the aquarium and then somehow put three nails in the rock facing up. I think they were used to keep a fake plant down. Feel free to take a moment to fully take in my idiocy. So of course I'm assuming that some untested for chemical is leaking out of either the nails, the slate, or the silicone in the tank.
I was pretty worried about using the tank, buy I gave in largely because my dad gave it to me and he had it running as saltwater for a few years. Although he really never had great success either other than damsels and clowns and maybe some shrimp. Anyway, that is currently my best guess as to the horrors that are happening in my tank. PLEASE let me know if you agree/disagree.

 

[hagfish]

I am leaning toward taking a hammer to the tank at this point, which isn't too big of a deal because the tank isn't very good anyway. But I have about an 8" dsb in it and probably 50-60 lbs of rock. I'm wondering if it's safe to use the rock and sand in another tank. My dad (who had this tank before me) took his LR out of it and put it in a 55. I can't say that he hasn't had any problems. But I don't really think the problems he's had are related to the rock that came from this tank (more likely bad maintenance on his part).
So what I was thinking about doing was setting up a currently empty 20 gallon tank that I have and using some sand and LR from this 80 gallon and putting the remaining livestock in there for a couple months to see how they do. Then, if they seem to be ok, maybe buy another bigger tank and put everything in there.
Or, I have a 72 reef running as well and it is doing fine. I could use the LR in it, and the LS for the fuge. But at this point I'm too worried to just move it into a perfectly healthy reef tank.
Please advise...

 

[hagfish]

Also, would it be ok for me to take a little sand, LR, and water straight out of the 80 gallon and put it in the 20 gallon and put the fish and inverts in right away? Or would I have to wait for a cycle?

 

[hagfish]

Bump

 

[hot883]

I was going to ask next if you put anything in recently fake plants bleached coral etc. I guess we now know! I WOULD NOT USE ANYTHING from that tank IMO.

 

[hagfish]

I agree that it may be a little risky to continue using things from this tank. I really don't want to have to stop using EVERYTHING associated with the tank though. I think I'm going to move some of the LS and LR to a 20 gallon tank that I have and don't care about and see if I can get the remaining shrimp and engineer goby to do OK in there for a few months. Maybe I'll add something easy after a while like a clownfish. Does that seem like a good idea?
I would really like to use the LR and LS in another tank if nothing else. Is this possible, or is it too risky?
Also, what about the heater, HOB filter, powerheads and skimmer I'm using on the tank. I really don't want to just throw that stuff away. I could really use some help here... :help:

 

[aquapro_1]

Be careful moving to a new tank. You will go through a slight cycle. Wait a month after changing tanks. The trace chemical has been exposed to all in the tank. You LR may have some die-off. Then the fun will begin again.