clown fish not doing well

[fishyrob]

my set up is a 125 with homemade bioballs sump, back pak,pro 60. my ammonia is.25,nitrite.5,nitrate20,ph7.8. tank has been set up for 2 months used cycle and have 4 damals doing fine for a month my clown lies on bottom and is not eating and my brittle star is falling apart like a horror movie what should i do is there a test i am missing

 

[col]

Ideally:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Ph - 8.2 / 8.3
Try some water changes

 

[simm]

Your water parameters are are not good. You need to get amm/Nitrite/Nitrate to 0 and ph up to about 8.3. Whats your salinity level like? Needs to be around 1.021-1.022. Your brittal star is falling apart because they are extremly sensitive to poor water conditions. I would do a few water changes. It would be best to set up a QT tank until you can get your tank up a little beller to keep from loosing him. HTH

 

[cwfish]

Having any ammonia like you do is VERY bad. Also as far as salinity goes, you want it to be 1.024-1.025, keeping it lower than that would be bad for your starfish. Good LUCK!

 

[surfnturf]

Cut way back on your feedings until you can get amm nitrite low. You may want to put a prefilter on the sump before the water goes through the bioballs and clean it often, it almost sounds like uneaten food is accumulating in the bio balls, could be wrong though.

 

[magic]

I heard that water changes are a bad thing for the first 6 months?
will it slow down the cycleing of the tank, and keep the water parameters in the red?

 

[surfnturf]

Actually, as soon as the cycle is complete, you can start doing 10 percent water changes weekly or every other week, whatever you need to do to keep the nitrate at or below 20 ppm. With a DSB, you will be able to go longer between water changes, it's still a good idea to change 10 percent at least once a month to help prevent pH swings. If I were you fishyrob, I would start water changes 10 percent and use Instant Ocean salt. The nitrates are probably kinda high for the star and the pH is pretty low. The ammonia and nitrite are definitely high and tell me that either something died in the tank, or you are overfeeding.