Help!!

awall

awall

New Member
I'm having problems. I recently spent about $200 on marine fish and inverts, now they're starting to die. My tank has been set up for well over a year and even had a period recently where there was nothing but the live rock in it (filters going of course). I've tested my water....ALL the tests. Everything looks good there, so what's causing the discoloration and then death of my fish?
 
awall

awall

New Member
nitrate 20 nitrite 0 ph 8.4 ammonia 0 alkalinity was normal and 1.022 is where my salt is sitting. According to the tests, everything is fine, and yes I did add all the fish at the same time, got them all from the same pet store, brought them home, let them acclimate, then turned them loose. They were doing fine until yesterday.
 
viet-tin

viet-tin

Active Member
Too many fish at 1 time. Your bio load was too much for your tank to handle. When adding fish to your tank always do this slowly. Allow your tank to grow the bacteria needed to take such a high bio load.
 
awall

awall

New Member
Aah ok...that helps. Refresh my memory, how many fish can you have per gallon? Someone told me once, but I blocked it out. The marine tank is actually my husband's hobby. He just comes to me when the fish start dying. And if I added too many at the same time, how many should I have added? Honestly since we turned it into saltwater my history with this tank hasn't been good...
 
viet-tin

viet-tin

Active Member
Well not the 1"/gal thing but depending on what inverts your talking about dont cram pack your tank with them so fast.
 
awall

awall

New Member
I have a cleaner shrimp and 2 peppermint shrimp that are MIA. Haven't seen them for days though so I don't know what to think (the peppermint shrimp). I don't want to rearrange the tank trying to find them...stress everything out that much more. Geez saltwater tanks are kinda life consuming aren't they?
 
cathy joe

cathy joe

Member
my peppermints disappear for days sometimes, then when i give up on them they reappear. i would think you would see the cleaner shrimp
 
salty cheese

salty cheese

Active Member
I agree too much all at once. How did you acclimate the livestock?
Also that 1" per gal is just a guideline. 1" of lionfish is probably equal to 6" of royal gramma.(an approximation but you get the point)
 
awall

awall

New Member
I can see the cleaner shrimp...he's all over the place, and what most people look at and comment on first. Neat little thing....
 
awall

awall

New Member
I acclimated them all at once, and I've actually been thinking about this all day. If my bio load was too much at once and the natural eco system couldn't keep up with all the critters at the same time, wouldn't it have affected my water? Anyway, fish are fine now, of course they were 2 days ago too. I am really curious on the discoloration though...still haven't found anything that could cause that kind.
 
salty cheese

salty cheese

Active Member
When I asked about the acclimation I was inquiring as to what method did you use i.e. the drip method.
Did you test the water right after you added all the fish or after the deaths? What where the ammonia results?
 
awall

awall

New Member
I tested the the water everyday for ammonia for about a week after I put the fish in the tank. I also did the complete test today when the second fish died. It died in about 2 hours. I noticed the discoloration on the mandarin dragonet (the second fish to die), tested the water, it was fine. Then 2 hours later, it was dead. I tested the water again, thinking maybe I messed the tests up (it was really early when I did the first test), and as you can see the results were fine. I posted all my water test results on an earlier post. Everything was fine. And although there are some ich spots on a couple other fish, they're still doing fine. My lawnmower blenny didn't look very good after the second fish died, but he seems to have recovered.
 
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