My tank went buzzerk!

rsxgirly

rsxgirly

New Member
Hey guys. I'm new to this whole salt water tank thingy, but so far everything was going good. Until now. Let me describe my setup for you and then tell you the problem. I set up a 55gal tank in mid Feb. With 40 lbs of live sand, about 20 lbs of live rock (so far), and a wet dry filter. I have a nemo (clownfish) and a yellow tang, a gubbie, and some crabs. I had also bought a flame angel. The clown and the tang got a bacterial infection so I went to pet supermarket and got drops to put in the tank. I proceeded with the instructions and the infection got cured. I decided to check my water levels because I noticed the fish were swimming funny as if they were stressed. 2 days later i found my flame angel to have white spots ALL over him.. and a day later he died
Here are the water levels!
pH-- went from about 8.4 to 8
Ammonia- went from 0 to 1ppm
Nitrites-- went from 0 to 2 (maybe even higher!!)
Nitrates went from around 5 to about 15 (almost 20)
Water temp-- about 82
So I figured that maybe the drops killed all the good bacteria living in the tank. I went ahead and removed 20 gallons of water and put in new water and i bought a protein skimmer, Kent ammonia Detox and Stability. I added both for 4 days...the water levels stayed the same with the ammonia fluctuating to .5ppm and the nitrites to about 1. And everything's back up again today (day 5)!!! I dont know what else to do?! can anyone please help me before any more fish die?!! :help:
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
It sounds like your tank is recycling. What is the product that you originally added to your tank? What probably happened was this product killed most of your biological filtration, the fish's infection cured, but as the levels rose from a lack of bio-filtration, the oxygen level decreased, the fish became stressed because they could not breathe and swim properly (lack of oxygen to the brain), and the immune systems decreased and ich attached to their body.
My first thing to recommend is slow down! Is there anything still living in the tank? If so, you need to get the levels down, and quickly! I would get some Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start to add an abundance of live biological bacteria to the tank to get those levels down.
 
rsxgirly

rsxgirly

New Member
I don't really remember the name of the antibiotics but it was made by Merdel labs.
There's a gubbie, a yellow tang, a nemo, a slug, 3 emerald crabs and a pom pom crab all still living in the tank....
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
I would definitely get some Fritz-Zyme Turbo Start to add an abundance of live biological bacteria to the tank to get those levels down then. If your tank is going through a recycle, your animals will probably die if any of those levels spike drastically.
 
rsxgirly

rsxgirly

New Member
Originally Posted by Fishman830
when did you add the first fish??
I cycled the tank with damsels for about a month, then took them out, and put in the nemo. He's still alive. Then i put in the gubbie, the tang and later the flame angel. The flame angel is the only one that has died.
 
rsxgirly

rsxgirly

New Member
Originally Posted by lion_crazz
What are you current levels?

Pretty much the same. I've got ammonia at 1, nitrites at .5 and nitrates at about 15 ppm.... I figured out something else I did wrong, i removed one of the filters inside the wet dry when i put in the skimmer. The guy at the aquarium store had given me incorrect directions as to how to put it in. :mad: So I put that filter back in and hopefully now it can hold up a little more bacteria for the tank! I also did another 20 gal water change and added 10 more lbs of rock. We'll see now what happens. I'm still adding on massive amounts of bacteria! Thanks for all your help!
 
rsxgirly

rsxgirly

New Member
Originally Posted by Fishman830
i hope it's cured rock!!!!
yes it's cured rock.. i went to a couple of aquariums looking for the rock... these people have a good reputation for rock. i also put coral lights in today and found my two remaining fish to have ich... i put them in the quarantine tank... i dont know what i'm supposed to do next! I'm trying to look up on old forums to see what advice there is.
 
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