Help!!!

[sharlagnew]

my 1 and only fish is dying i just got him 3 days ago, nitrates are kinda high (30), nitrites are .3, no ammonia, kh is good, and ph is 8.3 no signs of ich or any other disease, i just came home and he was upside down at the bottom of the tank, i'm sure its due to my nitrates and nitrites... any advice??

 

[sharlagnew]

oh yea, he is a firefish

 

[puffer32]

Oh boy, I would do a good water change, you need to get rid of the nitrites, those are are the bad ones. Suprised your ammonia isn't alittle high also.

 

[sharlagnew]

i just did a water change, because my levels were so high, didn't help (i did it about a week before i got the fish)

 

[sharlagnew]

is there any way to save the fish??

 

[sharlagnew]

ahh after looking closer he has little read patches on his tail

 

[sharlagnew]

he died, he swam around like crazy fast and then died

 

[dskidmore]

Were the nitrites 0 before you put him in?
Keep doing as many water changes as you can to drop those nitrites. Even if they are not the problem, they will aggrivate the true problem.

 

[puffer32]

I am so sorry........

 

[sharlagnew]

so should i do like a million little water changes or 2or3 larger ones?

 

[dskidmore]

 

[sharlagnew]

and how do i keep the nitrates down after i get them to 0?

 

[ophiura]

We REALLY need to know FAR more info about the history of your tank, filtration, etc. If your levels were this bad before you got the fish...why? Is this a brand new tank? How much LR do you have? What sort of test kits are you using?

 

[sharlagnew]

its a 20g with a 15- 30 g whisper filter (outside the tank kind) it has about 15 lbs of LR (planning to get more) i have1 peppermint shrimp, 1 fire shrimp 1 CC starfish, 1 emerald crab, 5 or 6 astrea snails 1 blue legged crab (the starfish ate the other 4) at first i was using the little walmart dip strip kit for testing but now i use seachem for kh, nitrates and nitrites, i have one of those seachem ammonia alert things and i get my water tested at my LFS every time i go which is like once a week i think they use a mixture of seachem and kent marine

 

[sharlagnew]

oh i also have some pulsing xenias and i have a 50/50 VHO i think its like 18,000k maybe? the people at the LFS recommended it

 

[sharlagnew]

i know the light isn't the best u can get cause i'm kinda poorish right now.... oh yeah they tank has been set up for 6 months or so maybe 7

 

[ophiura]

In those 6 months, have you had fish?

 

[sharlagnew]

yeah, i had 3 damsels they did awsome, but i took them back to go with some less agressive, i got 1 clown and it died a week later so i waited a month and tried to get my water in check at the time my nitrates were about 20 and every thing else was good so i thought it was the nitrates that killed the clown, he didn't have any signs of disease either

 

[puffer32]

nitrates at 20 wouldn't kill fish. Do you have a skimmer and power heads? I would do a large water change, wait afew days and do small ones every few weeks till your nitrites are gone. Corals won't tolerate poor water conditions. What is your ph and salinity? Do you have PH for water movement? What is your substate and temp?

 

[sharlagnew]

yeah i have a powerhead, it is a rio 600, no protein skimmer, didn't think i needed one on a 20g and they are a tad out of my price range.... are they needed on a 20g? i have a mixure of 10 or 15lbs of LS and 20lbs of regular sand they are both a mixture of fine and medium, my temp is usually between 74 and 76, i know thats kind of a large difference but i don't really know how to keep it from varrying like that... how large of a water change would you do for the first one?