Help FSHHUB & Boomer5

[deblin2]

O.K. Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - low enough it doesn't register so almost 0. Test come out same at home and at lfs. Problem? Water got cloudy and all but one little clown and 6 blue legged hermits died. Water still test out perfectly. Is that weird or what. I did put the millenium 2000 filter back on after I lost all the fish. If air pumps are turned off these brown globs float around tank. I moved the clown to another tank and he is feeling good except the mate he has had for a very long time is now gone. My plan is to make a huge water change like as close to 100 percent as I can. I did stir things up a bit in there so maybe the filter would clean some of the problem out. No fish to hurt so I didn't think it would do too much harm. My little clown is safe where he is for right now. Should I give up and just raise guppies. I can do that pretty well. I love my saltwater tank and have invested quite a bit of money in it. I really don't want to give up, but my bad luck seems to be endless.

 

[broomer5]

What size tank ?
How long set up ?
How many fish died ?
Circulation ? Powerheads ?
Temp/pH/salinity ?
Why did you take off the Millenium 2000 ?
Why are you using an airstone ?
Describe brown globs ?
Just because the ammonia, trites and trates are reading zero - doesn't mean there are other reasons fish die.
More details needed .... please.

 

[deblin2]

38 gallons
1 power head & 1 pump for circulation
about 30 lbs of live rock
40 lbs of sand
1 protein skimmer
Temp. about 78
Salinity 1.023
I am not using an airstone
Set up for about 4 yrs
2 clowns
1 firefish
1 lemonpeel angel
6 blue legged crabs
1 clown and the crabs lived.
LFS tested my water and said salinity, ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were perfect. My test agreed with them.
I have always had a lot of problems with this tank. It kept going through cycles over and over again. I was advised from this board to take off all the filters so I did. I had two other filters on the tank at that time, so I had overdone it. Tank seemed to stabalize almost immediately.
The brown globs seem to be gone, but the tank is still cloudy for some reason. I really don't know how to describe them. I thought it was just diatoms on the sand, but when I turned the powerheads off they started floating in the water. This is a strange description, but to me it looked like what I think it would look like to put drops of oil in the water. I can't think of anything that could have polluted the water though. After the fish were dead and I move the one clown to safety I stirred up the very top of the sand to get rid of it. It seemed to work. The water is much clearer than it was but it is still a little cloudy.
Hope you can help. Thanks.

 

[marco333]

why did they tell you to take off your filter???

 

[deblin2]

They said that I had enough sand and rock to be the biological filter and that my filters were working against the rock and sand and causing my tank to cycle over and over again.
I did forget to tell you about one thing. My powerhead slipped down and blew my sand real hard. In one spot it blew almost down to the bottom. That problem is fixed now, but could that be my problem? If so, what do I do about my water?
I will put off getting the guppies for a little while anyway. Actually though I have a 10 gallon tank full of them. I told you I could do guppies.

 

[thomas712]

Sand? did I hear you say sand? How deep is the sandbead and how long ago did your powerhead bore into it?
Have you had any other type of algea blooms latley?
Thomas

 

[deblin2]

The problem with the powerhead just happened. I really thought that might be what caused the problem. It is probably about 2 inches. I have always had some algea. The diatoms were always there off and on and I had the red slime algea. The algea is almost gone, but I have not been turning on the lights very much at all since there are no fish.
So now what do I do?

 

[deblin2]

I never did get an answer to my original question. Do I do a large water change say as close to 100 percent as I can to get rid of anything that might be polluting my water?

 

[fshhub]

IMO, unless you are starting completely over, I would never do that muhch, maybe a 50% in extreme circumstances, but I have never reccommended that one to anyone. And that would only be extreme!!
Dont use an air pump.
the dust or cloudiness could be partly form the powerhead. or a couple of other things
to everybody else, I reccomended to remove some filters, this tank has way too many trap type filters, IMO and they were having a problem with water quality and loosing fishes
stirring things up can do a couple of things
cause cloudiness which cna be a problem for fish
cause an amonia or nitrinte spike which too can kill fishes

 

[deblin2]

You probably don't remember, but you helped me through the process of getting my tank stabalized. That is where taking off the filters came in. That and several other things did stabalize my tank and make it quit cycling over and over again. After that my readings for ammonia nitrite and nitrate have been 0. That is why I asked for your help is because you were able to help me through the first difficult problem. I just put the filter back on because I thought it might help clear up the water. There were no fish in the tank when I put it back on. After you helped me get my tank stabalized and I was sure it was not going to cycle again, I got rid of one fish that killed other fish and then about a week later I added one. Then later I added another. Then for some reason everything died. My water got cloudy, but still had perfect readings from my tests and the lfs test. What I have in there is not an air pump. It is a water pump to circulate the water. It basically does the same thing the powerhead does, but it is almost imposible for a fish to get trapped in it. The fish then started dying. The brown globs seem to have disappeared. I didn't stir up anything until after all the fish were out of the tank, so that can't be what killed the fish. The fish were in there when the powerhead slipped and blew into the sand. My test readings were still fine though.
What do I need to do to make my water where fish can live in it? I will unplug the powerheads and see if the water clears up. It is actually pretty clear right now. I just don't know if it is safe to put living creatures in it yet. How do I know since I can't go by testing the water? Thank you for your help.

 

[deblin2]

Water has cleared. Does that mean it is safe for fish?

 

[deblin2]

I guess noone knows huh. Oh well. Maybe I will luck out for once and do the right thing. It would probably be the first time though. Thanks anyway.

 

[foulbrew]

Deblin2, I am not sure anyone can know for sure. Your post reminded me of a friends tank that had mysterios issues all of a sudden. Turned out one of his kids had dropped a small metal car in the sump...
I would add an inexpensive fish as a test and wait... if there are still toxins in the tank they may take some time to have an affect. After a month I'd begin to feel more comfortable.

 

[karenjo]

Definitely wait a while and start with an inexpensive fish. Just be patient. Rome wasnt built in a day and neither will a beautiful aquarium.

 

[deblin2]

Thanks for the advice. That sounds like a good idea. I really needed to put my clown back in so I did that. He is so tough though that it may not bother him. It is strange. This aqarium has been doing strange things for four years now. It has to get straightened out some day. Thanks again.