my fish keep dying

[achilles tang]

I have a 55 gallon tank and every time a add fish they die they last about 3 weeks and then die. Some time they get ich and some time they just start swiming like crazy like if they are dizzy. I don't know what the problem is I have 50 pounds of live rock a Sump and protine skimmer power head and heater. My temperture is 76. I have tested my water and everything is ok. I had a tang in ther with a blue damsel and two clows and then every time I would add one other fish it would die every time. I thought it was maybe the tang picking on the new fish so I took the tang out and then try to put another fish and then again it would die. Dose anyone have any seggustion?

 

[bang guy]

OK, you listed the temperature. Seems a bit low for tropical fish but not low enough to kill.
Can you list your other water parameters? Nitrate, Phosphate, Salinity. Especially what these parameters were just before the fish died.
What size powerhead do you have? I'm thinking you may not have enough waterflow for a healthy tank.
Do you have all equipment plugged into a GFCI?

 

[achilles tang]

Ok so my ph is 8.1 I have zero nitrates and no ammonia my salinity is 1.022 I don't know about my power head but when I bought it the guy said it was enough. Every time when I see the fish to become week I test and my results are the same every time. Then the fish dies and test again and the same thing the results are identical. And what's a gfci?

 

[bang guy]

GFCI = Ground Fault Circuit Interupt. It will save your life if your heater shatters when you have your hand in the tank. I'm wondering if you have a piece of equipment that is malfunctioning and causing additional stress to new inhabitants.
In my opinion a 55 gallon tank needs at least 2000 gallons per hour of waterflow to remain healthy. There are powerheads that will do that for you. Having your LFS guy say it's enough does not give me great confidence that you have an adequately sized powerhead.
Do you always buy the fish from the same store? It very well could be disease and have nothing to do with your tank. However; Keep in mind that nearly all fish can survive an Ick infection when in a low stress healthy environment.

 

[bang guy]

Idea:
Go look in the photography section or the Tank of the Month competition for a similar sized tank that looks healthy. Ask that person for an inventory of their equipment and see if yours measures up.

 

[achilles tang]

Ok great I'm ganna try doing that and also getting a bigger powerhead. Thank you so much I really appreciate it

 

[reeferchief]

Bang Guy made valid points about faulty equipment. Possibly an excessive amount of stray voltage...Usually a heater that does this.
Other things to look at...
How often do you feed?
What do you feed?
Do you do water changes?
Where do you get your water from?
IS your water temp consistent?
As you can see many variables. More info will help others search in the right direction!

 

[juanro]

The damsel and the 2 clowns might stress out the fish as well, damsels are especially famous for being little devils, and clowns can be agresive if their paired up.
How long has the tank been set up and how are you acclimating the fish?
Also, check up on the PH of yours, the flow is the life of the tank. I have a total of 1500 GPH in my 55, and plan on adding 2 more PH later on.
For the ICH problem, Kordon's Ich Atack (the reef safe one) has worked for me in the past, some say it doesn't work and tell you to get a quarantine tank set up and dose it with CU or start to hypo, leaving the main tank without fish for at least 3 months so the ICH dies, and this is the best way to cure it, but the Ich Atack has worked for me, just make sure you take out the carbon from your tank while your dosing it.

 

[achilles tang]

I feed brine shrimp flakes and mysis shrimp. I feed once a day. My water changes consist of 10 gallons of water every week I was doing 5 gallons but then started to do 10. My water is ocean water I get from my dealer. I use to mix my own salt but now I have been adding ocean water. My set up has been up now for about 10 months. And what I do to acclimate my fish is when I buy the fish i leave him in the bag and set the bag in the tank for 15 minutes Then pour sum of the water from the bag into a Bucket and add sum of my tank water into the bag. I give it a few minutes and repeat the prosses.

 

[reeferchief]

That is a form of acclimating the fish. If I were you I would start to drip acclimate your fish. It is a longer acclimation process but it is supposed to slowly acclimate the fish to your tank conditions..

 

[achilles tang]

How do I do the drip acclimatting prosses?

 

[reeferchief]

Get yourself a long hose similar in style to a the water line on the back of a refridgerator. I believe it's around 1/8th inch inner diameter.
Then when once you bring the fish/invert home you dump them into a small bucket or bowl that will allow the double the capacity of the water in the fish bag. (i.e fish bag water = 4 cups... use a bowl or bucket that will allow for 8cups) Also be sure the bucket is not so wide, that when the water is poured in, it gives enough depth for the fish to swim.
Once the fish is in the acclimation bowl take the hose and insert one end into your fish tank. Allow the other end to hang over the acclimation bowl. Siphon the one end so that water is flowing from your tank into the accliamtion bowl.
The flow should not be strong, just enough so that it is dripping at a constant pace. Sometimes, a knot or 2 will need to be made in the hose so it slows the water flow down to a drip.
Allow it to drip until the water has doubled in volume, then drain to half way again. Repeat this step several times. It will depend on the fish or invert. Inverts usually need a longer time. Sometimes this will take anywhere from 30min to 2+ hours.
After I acclimate I pour back into bag with some marine dip for fish. I then float that bag in my display tank for about 10 minutes. This will allow the fish to be in a cleaning dip and adjust to water temp before introducing into display tank. It is very important that you DO NOT dump the bag with the dip solution into the display tank. Remove only the fish and enter into DT.
Hope this helps. It sounds like more work than it really is. I just wanted to be thorough in the details of this.

 

[slice]

The home page of SWF.com has a flash player tutorial here: (pretty much what reefer just said, but this has pretty pictures)
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/Acclimation_ep_48-1.html

 

[reeferchief]

to get a visual do a youtube search. Plenty of videos!
edit: didn't see Slice got you a link...that will work!

 

[novahobbies]

I don't think acclimation is your problem here....and to be honest unless you're looking at very difficult animals such as sea stars, snails, and shrimps, I don't usually advocate the drip method. IMO it's MORE of a stressor on most animals than the bag method. Furthermore, if acclimation was your problem, the fish would be belly-up much sooner than the three week period you're telling us about. Bag acclimation should last a little less than an hour, depending on the animal and your water swapping schedule.
I strongly think you should be considering QT, especially if you've had ich issues in the past. A 55g tank isn't going to take a particularly huge bioload, and as has been stated before....two damnsels and two clowns (well-dressed damsels) in an established tank WILL provide some aggression.

 

[achilles tang]

Ok all this new info has really helped me out I'm ganna get to work and try all these driffrent methods out. Another thing I wanted to share is, on Sunday I picked up a rock from my tank and a worm looking thing fell out. I left it ther I didn't know what it was. So then I did sum research and came to find out it was a brissel worm. I read the big ones are no good and for every one u see ther is 10. so I went digging and pulled like 5 out but that's all I could find. What do u guys suggest I do about this?

 

[reeferchief]

Hi I agree with Nova! Acclimation probably isn't your problem but at least you have the drip method for future!
Also the 2 pairs of mated fish can cause aggression but once again, this would be happening sooner than 3 weeks.
I was going to ask you if you had any predators like those worms. Indeed some people like them but many are also not big fans of them. They are poisonous and the lady at my LFS was taking some out and touched one which swelled her hand up.
Personally I would remove them if they were in my tank..
If you found one there is several methods to rid them before they multiply. One is you can take the rock out and let it sit to dry. As it dries they will crawl out looking for water. The other option is to set a trap in your tank..
You can do this by taking a small water bottle cutting the top cone off and inverting it so the cap is inside the bottle. Place some pellets in there and let is sit in the sand at night. Basically it makes it easy to enter and very hard to get out. This is when they come out. They are night hunters and will find the food.
Good luck!

 

[achilles tang]

Thanks everyone I really hope I find the problem soon and I can start enjoying it. Don't get me wrong I love this hobby but I just want to have the fish I want in there all ready. When I started this every one told me its ganna take a while I just didn't know it was ganna take this long. But I know what to do now and hopefully this dose da trick. Thanks to everyone

 

[achilles tang]

Well guys I have some bad news. I'll start by saying that I found out the power head I had was a 1,250 gph so what I did is saturday I took all my fish I had and took them back. Then I got a 1,400 gph power head and added that onto my tank. Sunday I got a yellow tang that I had seen there for about two weeks. So I brought him home and he was doing well until Wednesday. I picked up a rock and he was dead he had no eyes and my little crab was still going at him. I did a test and everything was reading good. I did a 10 gallon water change and I think I'm ganna go tomorrow to get another fish. But I just don't know what the problem is now.

 

[nightfox]

Do you have any algae problems?
Did you already tell us all your testing results?
.. The swimming around like crazy part makes me think nitrites are high or oxygen deficient.. Were you ever able to notice a change in breathing patterns?