Getting Tired...

imclownfish

imclownfish

Member
I've had a saltwater fish tank running for about 6 months now. Ive just had problems after problems arise. I've ost all my fish 2 times because of ick and rooklynella. Im ready to do whatever it takes now to get it right. Ive been measuring the quality of my water frequently and consistly, my average parameters are 8.3 pH, 0 amm, 0.2 nitrites and 15 nitrates. I have a 30 gallon tank, in my tank currently are;
hammer coral
bubble coral
torch coral
gonipora(all corals are doing really well)
mushrooms
small kenya tree
blue damsel
benggai cardinal
2 tomato clowns (neweset additions and have ick already :S)
40lbs live rock
1.5 inch substrate bed all around
red sea protein skimmer(prizm)
fluval 204
2 marineland powerheads
heater
What am i doing wrong? Please help, im getting discouraged :S
 
wfd1008

wfd1008

Member
now everyone's is going to say, "did you quarantine your fish and treat them with hypo-salinity in a QT tank?". Get ready for the questions
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
Your nitrItes should be 0 and I would stop adding food until they drop down to unmeasureable levels.
What I do find amazing is your corals are doing well.
Perhaps all that you have to do is wait a little long for the tank to mature.
Hang in there
 
jaodissa

jaodissa

Member
If you take the fish out and put them in a QT the ick will die in the DT after 4-6 weeks I think. (Sorry I'm not as specific as these other guys will be) My tank is 6 months old also I I still have a lot of problems also. I've began testing each day recording whats going on in my tank and trying to learn. Theres always a reason for something. If your fish are dying because of Ick it wont stop until you treat it.
 
imclownfish

imclownfish

Member
i forgot to add, i just set up a QT tank which is just going through its cycle, it has really high ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, i never wanted a damsel. it is the only fish which has survived every wave of ick, ive had it since day one. Is a sump smomething i cshould consider, what about a UV sterilizer? (i am putting copper in QT)
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member

In my 90g I have allot of coral and few fish. All the other critters are CUC. I have 2 perc clowns, Fridmani dotty back, blue Hippo tang and a lemonpeel angelfish for their beauty. A lawnmower blenny, sleeper sand sifter goby and Kole tang are CUC. I don't count my crabs or snails.
Clowns, Fridmani and lemonpeel are small fish. The Hippo tang is med sized for now, I got it when it was tiny.
The bigger the tank the more wiggle room for error, a smaller tank is harder to keep balanced and things can go bad fast. Personally in a 30g, I would only have two small fish, some type of sand sifter and an algae eater.
With so much coral you are over stocked with just a few fish.
 
hunt

hunt

Active Member
i had tons of problems when my tank was that old, first i had alot of ick outbreaks and the worst was all of my fish except a clown died of a bactirial infection that once you saw a small red spot on the fish, within 24 hours all of the fish died. then i just waited a few months without getting anything new and the problems went away after a while. I now have a tank with a valentini puffer and the surviving clown and another black clown.
 
fibinotchi

fibinotchi

Member
fish are more succeptable to ick when stressed and are usually able to fight it off when healthy, either fluxuations in water temp or salinity or ph could cause this stress in them. That is what I would try to find out, what is causing the fish stress. Also the nitrite which shouldn't be registering after six months is strange, what caused the increased ammonia in the system that your bacteria couldn't handle, or what killed off some of your bacteria to cause this problem. Are you overcleaning?
 
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