Cant keep my fish alive please help

[racin1126]

I have a 40 gal bdr with 60 lbs live sand and 35 lbs lr has been up and running for about 4 months now and no matter what i put in the tank dies within 3 days. The only ones to survive in a yt damsel and serpant star. I have lost a true perc, 2 coral banded shrimp, a coral beautie and my fox face is not looking too good right now. I have my water tested at the LFS and all is great. for a filter i have a mag 350 with bio wheel. When I put in the hew guys I always do a drip for at least 1 hour. I am at a loss and I am oing to give up if this keeps happening. Please help.

 

[hot883]

Originally Posted by racin1126
I have a 40 gal bdr with 60 lbs live sand and 35 lbs lr has been up and running for about 4 months now and no matter what i put in the tank dies within 3 days. The only ones to survive in a yt damsel and serpant star. I have lost a true perc, 2 coral banded shrimp, a coral beautie and my fox face is not looking too good right now. I have my water tested at the LFS and all is great. for a filter i have a mag 350 with bio wheel. When I put in the hew guys I always do a drip for at least 1 hour. I am at a loss and I am oing to give up if this keeps happening. Please help.
If your LFS can be trusted about the water parameters, maybe you have stray voltage. That will take a couple of days to kill most fish. Damsels are tough. Ha!

 

[mikeyjer]

Originally Posted by hot883
If your LFS can be trusted about the water parameters, maybe you have stray voltage. That will take a couple of days to kill most fish. Damsels are tough. Ha!
I'm gonna go with what he is saying too...Better check your tank...What other equipment do you have on your tank?? I would check the heater first...

 

[sly]

When you say that your water is "perfect", how is it perfect? Your ammonia and nitrite should be 0 ppm. Your Nitrate should be less than 20 with 0 being ideal. Your temp should be around 80F. Your salinity should be around 1.023. Your pH should be close to 8.3 and your ALK should be "normal".
Is there anything in your tank that changes quickly? Do you have sudden shifts in temperature or salinity? Your water should remain as stable as possible. Quick changes in anything will kill your fish.
Do you have excess sludge on your substrate (crushed coral or sand bed)? Are you rinsing out your mechanical filters such as filterfloss and are you changing any activated carbon you have in your filters? Is there anything old in the tank either in the filter or stuck behind a rock that could be decomposing, releasing hydrogen sulfide?
Are you using filtered water or just tap water? Even tap water with water conditioners is not good enough for salt water. You need a good filter.
Are you doing water changes? Do you have anything on your hands when you are messing with your tank like lotion or soap? These are poisonous. Do you have any medications in your tank like copper? Copper is very dangerous to inverts such as shrimp.
There are a lot of things that can cause your fish to die... List anything you can think of.

 

[fishmamma]

What type of symptoms if any are your fish showing before they die? Rapid breathing, lethargy, lack of appetite etc....and how long are they survivng in your adding after being introduced?

 

[fishmamma]

Though I consider myself new to this hobby this is what I would do.......purchase a ground probe, do a large water change using RO water, and start running a poly filter and keep a close eye on water parameters with daily testing and logging. Good luck!

 

[racin1126]

thanks to you all for the help my readings are
amonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate is at about 10
salinity is 1.023
I have a sand bed that is very clean and i check water chemisty once a night to try and figure this out. All seems to be great no fluctuations. I do 10% wc every friday and i have 40 gallons of premixed salt that is tap water that my LFS said would be great if I use a double Dose of Prime in it. I have no medications in the tank amd always wash my hands in hot water no soap befor i do anything with the tank. I searched the tank and nothing was dead i even checked all the hermit crab and snail shells all are present and accounted for. After i got home today my fox face if all brown and wont eat he just sticks to the in take tube of the filter. I have not changed the carbon in the filter for about 2 months or cleaned the filter sleve wich is just like a floss materal I was told to run these dirty beacuse it will help out with my biological or was that bad info. I just ordered a bac pac 2 skimmer today with the preskimmer thinking that may help out. About the stray voltage how do i check for that and is that something i can make for the tank? I only have a heater in the tank now. The fish look great and just when i am realy enjoying them i go to bed and get up to feed and they are belly up i feel horrible for these little guys and I dont want the few I still have to suffer in a tank. let me know if you have any other sugestions for me I m open to every thing.

 

[drea]

weird... you sure you cycled it right and all?

 

[lennon]

I heard tap water is no good nomatter what. Just a thought and that is why I am getting a ro/di system for wchanges. But I am totally new so I don't know if this is true or not.
I wish you the best and hopefully you figure out what is going on.
I am getting into this hobby shortly and when I read these..I get so nervous about it.
I hope it works out for me. we'll see

 

[racin1126]

yeah the tank cycled great do you think that the lack af a protein skimmer could be part of the problem. My fox face has not ate all night but the cleaning crew, star and damsel are doing good.

 

[drea]

idk, i kept a clown alive and hes still going for 3 yrs.. i just added the skimmer, it def helps a lot,, you can get a prism on ---- brand new for like 75 bux.. its well worth it

 

[scubadoo]

Are you purchasing all the fish from the same lfs? perhaps they are purchasing animals that have been caught using cyanide. Most fish caught this way will die within two weeks.

 

[racin1126]

Originally Posted by ScubaDoo
Are you purchasing all the fish from the same lfs? perhaps they are purchasing animals that have been caught using cyanide. Most fish caught this way will die within two weeks.
Yes I do buy from the same store I never herd of people using cyanide to catch fish. I guess that is why I read all this I learn something new on every visit. I did order a bac pak 2 skimmer we will see how things go. I just got done replacing carbon and filter floss any other sugestions and how long till I try some new fish.

 

[scubadoo]

Aquarium trade certifying cyanide caught fish
IMA testing of 48,000 fish in the Philippines shows that 25% of aquarium fish destined for the US and Europe, and 44% of live groupers and humphead wrasse going to Hong Kong were caught using cyanide. Too much emphasis is being placed on certification as the silver bullet. Cyanide use is still rampant and certification does not address the problem. Certification can only work if backed up by IMA’s comprehensive cyanide detection testing (CDT) and monitoring, inspection and surveillance (MIS) programs.
Data safeguards have disappeared and only 10% of the samples are now collected in the Philippines from three CDT facilities since IMA turned over the CDT laboratory network of six functional labs and three monitoring stations to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in September 2001. Who wants “certified” cyanide caught fish? Not IMA.

 

[scubadoo]

I would try another lfs...more on cyanide.....
Salt-water, aquarium-destined fish are indeed caught with cyanide. The fisherperson descends to the reef and squirts cyanide into nooks and crannies, stunning the fish, which naturally become easy catches. The cyanide tends, as you might imagine, to have a deleterious effect on the uncaught marine life, including coral, with implications for human subsistence and reef life. Captured fish may be sickly or near death. Not all marine fish are cyanide-caught, but the incentive to use nets is very low, since it's far quicker and cheaper to use cyanide. (Dynamite fishing is another tactic but I gather that it generally results in dead fish for eating purposes. Egad.) Cyanide fishing is a big problem in the Philippines and Indonesia, and an increasing issue in other poor Pacific Rim countries.

 

[ophiura]

Just out of curiosity, what is your alkalinity and pH? What sort of circulation do you have? Do you have good surface aggitation?

 

[jdragunas]

I've heard that leaving carbon in the tank for too long will eventually cause the carbon to start breaking down, and depositing in the tank water, which is harmful for the fish. I was told to change my carbon at least every 2 weeks. I am still new at this though, so if i'm wrong, please let me know.

 

[sly]

You are right about the carbon. It absorbs practically everything and once it is saturated, it will release hydrogen sulfide into the water as the materials in it start to break down. Although you really could leave it in there for a month with no problem.

 

[greggti]

I take no chances. I run carbon for 4 days, throw it out and do it again in two weeks.

 

[fishmamma]

I am sorry if I missed this earlier, but how long are the fish living in your tank before you find them belly up in the morning? As far as the stary voltage goes is just may be easier to go out and a buy a ground probe rather than try to test your water for voltage. That can be tricky.