Need Help Real Bad!!!!!!!!

[lawnguy]

I have a 90 gal,its been running for 2 months. I made a mistake before and put in too many fish at one time, they all died except for the snowflake eel, cc starfish 2 aneomes and several snail and crabs. I run a marineland 400 and a ehiem pro, also a seaclone skimmer.I have 50lbs of live rock also live sand. I just bought a damsel over the weekend and he died tonight, the eel is doing fine along with the snail, crabs and starfish and aneomes. I am getting to the point that I wanna take down the tank!!!!! Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong.. I thought that the fish had ick, but the eel dont have any white spots on him.
PH-8.2-8.4
Ammonia-0.50
Nitrie-0
Nitrate-40
The ammonia is a little high, but why are the eel and others doing fine??? :help: :help: :help: :help: :help: :help:

 

[kdfrosty]

Take things a bit slower with your tank. You have to add livestock slowly, so that you can increase your capability to provide biological filtration.
Your nitrates and and ammonia levels are a bit high. I would expect to see this form a tank that cannot keep up with the bioload. Do regular water changes (Maybe 10% twice a week) until you see your parameters (ammonia and nitrates) drop down to 0 and <20 resepectively.
Be careful how much food you are giving the tank. Overfeeding might also be supplementing your root problem. I feed every other day, only as much as the fish eat in a couple of minutes.
HTH

 

[lawnguy]

Thanks for the reply. I have dne many water changes. I feed the eel frozen krill, maybe I feed him every other day, maybe I give too much at a time

 

[monalisa]

Just a suggestion, but could your eel be making lunch of your other inhabitants? I don't have anything like that, but that's what occurred to me in reading your post.
Good luck, I hope things work out for you.
Lisa :happyfish

 

[lawnguy]

Thanks Lisa
I wish that was the case, then I would know what to do. I think if was ick, the eel would have it too????

 

[toughguy80]

Eels don't get ick.

 

[lawnguy]

I didnt know that

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by lawnguy
Thanks Lisa
I wish that was the case, then I would know what to do. I think if was ick, the eel would have it too????
You did go too fast. I am actually surprised that your anemones are living in that high of nitrate. You are not at a point of closing down your salt tank. Just don't add anything else for at least a month. When your ammonia and nitrite are at a steady zero for a few weeks then you can think about your next purchase. What kind of eel did you buy? Most of them get large and will eat any small tankmates. Eels are very resiliant animals and that's why he is still alive. Get your water quality under control before you start considering new fish.

 

[lawnguy]

I have a snowflake eel, yes he has gotten bigger already, thanks for the advice. The guys at the pet shop told me that my tank was all set for fish, and like a dummie i jumped in

 

[el bob]

u destroyed the delicate balance of bacteria that you have in your tank necessary for biological filtration. Basically what you did was re-cycle your tank. The ammount of waste produced by the sudden increase in fish in your tank spiked your ammonia and restarted your cycle. You now need to let your tank sit for about 2 weeks before adding any more fish. Once your paramaters stabalize you can add one more fish. Only add fish one at a time and you can continue to add one at a time evey other two weeks. This will allow sufficient time for your biological filters(bacteria) to build up. Dont ever add a bunch of fish at once. Just be more cautious in the future

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by El Bob
u destroyed the delicate balance of bacteria that you have in your tank necessary for biological filtration. Basically what you did was re-cycle your tank. The ammount of waste produced by the sudden increase in fish in your tank spiked your ammonia and restarted your cycle. You now need to let your tank sit for about 2 weeks before adding any more fish. Once your paramaters stabalize you can add one more fish. Only add fish one at a time and you can continue to add one at a time evey other two weeks. This will allow sufficient time for your biological filters(bacteria) to build up. Dont ever add a bunch of fish at once. Just be more cautious in the future
He didn't destroy anything. He added too many fish at once, something alot of people do. An ammonia spike doesn't destroy biological filtration, it is just more food than the nitrifying bacteria can consume all at once.

 

[lawnguy]

Yes. That was a hard lesson learned!!!!! Should I do any water changes now??

 

[lawnguy]

So I have to cycle my tank all over then??

 

[el bob]

my bad, no u dont need to cycle it, you just need to wait for your ammonia to go down, wait for your paramaters to all be normal and you will b ok, dont add fish too quickly

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by lawnguy
Yes. That was a hard lesson learned!!!!! Should I do any water changes now??
What are your current water parameters?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by El Bob
my bad, no u dont need to cycle it, you just need to wait for your ammonia to go down, wait for your paramaters to all be normal and you will b ok, dont add fish too quickly
Correct. Sorry if I misunderstood you!

 

[lawnguy]

I will keep checking my water.. I just dont wanna make the same mistake over again!!!!! Been there!!! I have to ask why did it look like my fish had ick??? I do have some feather dusters growing on the rock.. Maybe I should get rid off the snowflake eel then I can get some shrimp..

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by lawnguy
I will keep checking my water.. I just dont wanna make the same mistake over again!!!!! Been there!!! I have to ask why did it look like my fish had ick??? I do have some feather dusters growing on the rock.. Maybe I should get rid off the snowflake eel then I can get some shrimp..
Did it look like ich? Then ich is in your system. The only fish you have left is the eel? I am not completely certain on eels, but USUALLY once ich is in the system it remains as long as a host fish is there. Eels are a scaleless fish. but a fish none the less. I would think (and people can correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty certain) that ich can host off of an eel. You will not see him covered in ich, but he is a potential host. I have never heard of a fish that can't be hosted. Even anemones and crabs can be carriers of ich even though they can't host them.

 

[lawnguy]

OK if I do have ich in my tank.. What do I do now??

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by lawnguy
OK if I do have ich in my tank.. What do I do now??
Well the only way to get rid of ich is Hyposalinity treatment or copper. Copper is not safe for scaleless fish such as eels. If I were a mod I would move this to the disease and treatment thread for you, but unfortunately I am not. Please post this over there and we will walk you through it.