Help! Help! Help! Everything dying!

[ktwheet]

Everything is dying! Here is what I know:
Sunday Aug. 20th I bought a coral beauty. He didn't eat for 6 days but then started eating.
Sunday Aug. 28th I bought a yellow tang and a Kole tang that were together in a display tank.
Wednesday Aug. 30 the Kole tang dies after breathing heavily on the bottom for only a few hours. Ammonia is high, so I do a large water change (20 gal of 75 tank). Everyone else seems fine.
Thurs Aug 31 Morning. everyone is fine, but my pink damsel is acting a little funny. She doesn't beat everyone else to the food as usual.
At 2:00 my hubby goes home for lunch and the yellow tang is dead and the coral beauty and damsels aren't looking good. Breathing heavily. No signs of ick or anything, fish just suddenly start breathing heavily and die shortly thereafter.
What have I done wrong? What is killing my fish? I have a coral beauty and two damsels left. 75 gal tank with live rock and three fish. I don't know what to do!
Another thing, the water temperature is a little hot (81 degrees). It is 106 outside (record breaking temps) and I can't get my tank to cool off.
Help!

 

[bobsingh1]

As you mentioned yourself that ammonia was high. Even after a water change, if the tank isn't cycled properly, ammonia will rise again. Is this a new setup or old ? Please post other readings for Nitrites, nitrates and PH as well.

 

[gavin]

81 water temp. is ok. I wouldn't worry about that. Need other readings. Hig ammonia is a killer. Especially for new fish.

 

[thebatcave]

You added those fish all too soon. You should spread it out so that the biological filter can adjust to the new load. How long have you had this tank?

 

[jimi]

How much live rock is in your tank? How long has the tank been running problem free? If your filter is well established and you have enough live rock you should not have had a large ammonia spike from 2 fish in a 75gal but it does sound like the ammonia did it. Is it possible they were poisoned by an outside the tank source like any kind of sprays?

 

[ktwheet]

My tank has been up for a year. I think I made the classic mistake of adding too much too fast. The coral beauty is dead, but I may have managed to save the two damsels and the starfish by doing another major water change yesterday. I don't think any outside chemicals could have gotten in the tank. My ph is fine..nitrates and nitrites are fine. The ammonia is just high (it has come down considerably since the water change). I guess my next question is what to change so that this doesn't happen again. Besides only adding one fish at a time and spacing out new additions over longer periods of time, what else should I do? Do most people do daily water changes after purchasing new fish in order to keep ammonia spikes from killing new additions? How long will it take for my tank to compensate for the change in bioload? I am discouraged. I killed three beautiful fish because of my stupidity. I cried for an hour yesterday over a fish.

 

[ktwheet]

Oh, and also, I have 35 lbs of live rock and 30-35 lbs of base rock.

 

[thebatcave]

I think you said it yourself: To much to fast.
If you add your fish one at a time and space it out, you won't have an ammonia spike like that. If you do your regular water changes, you won't need to do anything else to prevent it.
I also recomend a quarintine tank. I use a 10 gal. just to be sure you don't add any sick fish to a healthy tank.

 

[tjswanson]

You did add to much too fast. Next time when you buy a fish like a coral beauty in a 75, wait at least 4 weeks before adding another fish. Don't feel to bad. I know it feels sick that you killed beautiful fish, I have done the same learning about different things. Don't get me wrong here. I care about my fish extremely.

 

[jimi]

It is upsetting to lose fish but learn from your mistakes and others. Do not buy on impulse. If your not sure about a certain fish like what they eat or amount of space they require dont buy it. Learn as much as you can about any certain fish you want before you buy it. A few tips you can use in the future are now wait until you have 0 ammonia and everything else checks out ok. Pick a fish learn about it if you decide to buy it make sure the lfs feeds it in front of you or dont buy it. When you get the fish home and acclimate it feed it sparingly for two weeks. You should be able to add 1 to 3 small to med size fish to a tank with that much rock without a problem but for now stick with one or two small ones spaced out over a month. I think you said those tangs were huge so it probably was the ammonia because tangs do produce a ton of waste.