Cloudy Water And First Dead Fish

[spi488]

Hello All
This Weekend I Planned On Doing My First Water Change.
My Tank Was Doing Well All Fish Happy And Eating.
Then It Happened.
My Clown Trig Came Up Missing
Soon Found Dead With No Signs Of Fighting
This Is A Concern B/c He Has Ate Well Always Active.
And In The Open At All Times.
The Water Was Cloudy And I Made The Change.
The Water Is A Mess To Say The Least
My Fish Are All At The Bottom With Little Activity
The Water Is Cloudy With A Film Of Gunk Floating At The Top.
Time To Trouble Shoot
Figured Id Ask The Pros
Im Sure It Could Be A Bunch Of Things But How Can I Save The Tank?
Im Getting My Water Checked Today So Im Not Sure Of The Quality
But This Happened In One Day Tops No Probs. Then Wham
Im In Trouble Here And Need Help Bad
Ill Do Whatever It Takes Please Advise

 

[bang guy]

This is a symptom of adding too many fish too fast to your tank.
What size tank do you have and how many fish and what species? How often have you been adding fish? How long has the tank been running?
My advise is to take back all of your fish or find a new home for them so you can restart your tank and do it right.
Please list the following water parameters:
Salinity
Temperature
Ammonia
Alkalinity
Calcium.
How much waterflow do you have?
What type(s) of filtration are you using?

 

[craig7220]

I see that you stated you have a film on the top of the water.. Do you have any surface flow? If your surface is calm, might not have enough oxygen transfer in your water. I like to have a couple of powerheads moving the water at the surface..

 

[ghettotang]

I agree with Bang Guy statement about you might be adding too many fish very often. How big is your tank. How long have you been cycling your tank. Most of the time if you are starting new tank it take 6 weeks or months to get your tank in complte cycle. The key for to establish a healty tank is patience because most of the time when a new person trying to establish new tank once they have set-up their tank they go crazy about it. And you need to check your water parameter. What kinda of filter are you using and what do you have inside.
When you do your water change what kinda of water are you using is it a tap water that you took from you sink or is it a R/O water. My usggestion to you is don't you the tap water from you sink or outside because most tap water contain a lot of waste suck as nitrate, phos., and other chemical that the fish don't like it. One thing if you can get about 6 bucket that is empy then you can buy a R/O water at your LFS and you have additional stock when you need to top-off you tank. This way you don't have to worried about any unwanted waste when you do water change. How much waterflow(s) do you have in your tank. My suggestion is buy some powerhead. I used the maxjet 1200.
I hope this suggestion might help you recover your tank and good luck.

 

[spi488]

I Think Your Right.
My Dad Purchaced Three More Fish.
The Lfs Guy Wants To Make A Sale And He Cant Help Himself.
I Didnt Know How Much Was Too Much So I Was Ok With It
We Have A Total Of 6 Fish In A 125.
Not Sure What Kind Of Powerhead I Have
It Just Came With A Package I Bought With My Skimmer And Other Hang On Filter. Also I Have A Canister Filter So Im Above Normal On Protein Skimmers And Filtration.
The Tank Has Been Fine For Around Two Months.
I Ran It For About 6-8 Weeks Before Any Fish Came In.
The Fact Is Its A Disaster
So From What Im Gatering Is That These Fish Will Die
And There Is No Return.
Nothing Will Fix It

 

[spi488]

Also I Have A Sample Of This Water And Im Going Now To Get It Tested And Will Post Results If This Will Help I Know Bang Guy Wanted To Know
Ill Be Back Soon

 

[teresaq]

sounds like you dont have any pwerheads circulating water. get at least two and get the surface of your water really going.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
sounds like you dont have any pwerheads circulating water. get at least two and get the surface of your water really going.
I agree. Also, have you checked that your skimmer is working properly? With a film on the surface that could be a real concern. While you are at the lfs pick up a liquid master test kit so you can monitor your levels.

 

[spi488]

Ok Im Back From The Lfs
Its The Ammonia
No Shock There.
Thanks For The Imput From You Guys
My Powerhead Keeps The Water Going Pretty Good Id Say
It Was Sold In A Kit For A 125
And I Purchased Bio-spira
To Put In The Tank To Help The Water.
I Couldn't Get A # Figure At The Lfs
He Just Was Using Color Test Strips And They Were Kinda Busy.
With Looky Lous.
Should I Put In The Bio-spirathen Clean My Skimmer And Do A Water Change With Ro Water And Slow Feeding Down?
Any Other Suggestions Would Be Greatly Appreciated.
Once Again Thanks For All The Advice.
I Hope To Get Things In Order I Found A Great Hobby But Its Tough To Learn From The Start.sure You Would Agree.

 

[bang guy]

There are no saltwater kits on the market that I'm aware of that provide enough circulation or provide a good enough skimmer.
First, let us know how much waterflow you have. Be specific in terms of Gallons per hour.
What skimmer came with the kit?

 

[spi488]

When I Get Home Tonight I Will Get All That Info And Post It In The Morning

 

[spi488]

From What I Gather I Have A Jebo 150 Skimmer
And A Skilter 250 Combo Filter And Skimmer
Im Looking To Upgrade Real Soon These Were To Get Started.
Just To Add A Little Info I Put In The Bio Spira And Turned Off My Skimmer Like The Directions Said
Cleaned The Gunk Off The Top And
Im Going To Replace All Filters And Hope For The Best.
Also I Kinda Need To Know If Im Still Overloaded With Fish
Two Volitan Lions About 5" Each
One Skunk Grouper 4"
One Yellow Tang 3-1/2"
Porc Puffer 3-1/2"
And One Haw. Trigger 5"
Im Sure I Am
Also Im Going To Skim The Top Layer Of Sand
If My Tank Takes A Turn For The Better
What If Any Is A Positive Sign To Look For?
When Should I Try To Feed?
And As Always Im Up For Suggestions

 

[ol'salty]

I am sure the other guys will agree with me here. If all you have is a skilter 250, then you are just circulating 2 times an hour. There is no way that that is enough water movement or filtration imo. Do you have any live rock? You need to , at a minimum, put a couple of power heads in for circulation. A couple of power heads and a large canister would probably be better off. As far as the ammonia, change as much water as you can and don't feed until you get through this. Uneaten food just makes more ammonia. I don't know if the skilter has enough surface area for the biological for your bio load. Bang Guy could answer that a little better. Either way you go you need to act fast because these fish are basically in poisoned water and without quick help, they won't make it imo.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by SPI488
Also I Kinda Need To Know If Im Still Overloaded With Fish
Two Volitan Lions About 5" Each
One Skunk Grouper 4"
One Yellow Tang 3-1/2"
Porc Puffer 3-1/2"
And One Haw. Trigger 5"
Im Sure I Am
I agree with you.
First on the circulation - water circulation is your primary filtration, not the filter pads. I'm mostly familiar with reef systems but I'd guess you need at least 1000 gph more waterflow than what you currently have. If you had a reef tank I'd recommend 2000 gph more flow. I believe fish can get by with less but it's best not to force your animals to just get by.
For beginning hobbiest I strongly recommend no more than 1" of the adult size of your fish for each 5 gallons of the display tank. This isn't for bioload reasons, the tank can handle a lot of bioload, it's for stress reasons. Crowded saltwater fish are stressed. Stressed fish behave oddly and are not vigerous against disease and any other problem that shows up. As a result, stressed fish tend to die early and often.
In a 125 gallon tank that's only 25 inches of fish (taking the adult size, not the current size of the fish).
Let's run down what you currently have:
2 X Voltarian Lionfish at 15 inches apiece is 30 inches. You're already overloaded.
Skunk Grouper at 12 inches
Yellow Tang at 8 inches
Purcupine Puffer at 18 inches
Hawaiian Triggerfish at 14 inches
Total allowed = 25 inches, current livestock = 82 inches.

 

[spi488]

Ok Its Making More Sense To Me Now.
Im Going To Get Rid Of Some Fish.
I Was In A Hurry This Morning
I Do Have A Canister Filter Hooked Up Already Just Didnt List It
Im Thinking I Do Need More Powerhead Though
I Do Have A Little Over 100lbs. Of Rock So That Is Not A Issue.
Thanks Again For The Help
I Will Take Action And See What Happens

 

[garnet13aj]

Sounds like you know now what you need to do to fix the problems in your tank, but in the future can you not make the fist letter of every word a capital, it's hard to read.

 

[spi488]

good news
i took a few fish out and took them to the lfs
took a hit in the wallet with the whole store credit rip off
but ill make it
the water is clear now and my fish are in my qt tank
they are looking much better.
i took apart all filters and skimmer and cleaned them well.
took off the top layer of sand and added the proper chemicals to reduce ammonia
i think with the fish i have now i can handle the cleaning.
two volitan
and the grouper
since they eat whole fish its less mess.
another question i need two ask
my cleaning crew is 12 blue leg crabs and a large sea hair
what else would be good for me?
again i say thanks for your help on all of this.
it saved my tank and i owe you one.
oh ya before i forget what kind and brand of power head would anyone reccomend.
its upgrade time