ericlilly5
New Member
It was recommended that I repost this here...
It seems that I cannot keep my fish alive for more than a few days. The tank is a few months old with the following characteristics: 75 gallons, cascade canister filter, two circulation pumps (1400 GPH total), live sand and live rock, SG of 1.023 and water temp of 78 using real ocean water. Using an API test kit, the pH is 8.0, ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite is 0 ppm and nitrate is 5 ppm. The tank does not receive direct sunlight and is located in a living room with moderate traffic but within sight of the front door.
I started the tank with damsels and had no problem with them at all. I moved the damsels to a tank for my son and added a naso tang, fairy wrasse and threadfin butterfly from my local fish store. The nano tang died after two days and the other two died after one week. The naso tang was most likely too small for the tang but appeared to have spots meeting the characteristics ick. The other two seemed great until one morning the threadfin had died and the wrasse was losing color and lethargic until it died later that day. Neither had spots when they died. I was unaware of the drip method for acclimation and was worried that perhaps I did not acclimate them properly.
I cleaned my canister filter and did a 50% water change with real ocean water and made sure that the SG, pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were ok which they were. I ordered fish online this time and got two clownfish, a yellow tang, a blue hippo tang and another threadfin butterfly. I acclimated the fish for 2-3 hours using the drip method. The threadfin appeared DOA but after acclimation and some time in the tank seems to have snapped out of it. It died two days later. I checked the water quality and everything was standard. The two tangs looked lethargic and had some color fading before dying on the third day. The blue hippo appeared to have been trying to gasp for air from the top of the tank toward the end. While the blue hippo was gasping for air, one of the clownfish just suddenly died. It had been swimming in front of the circulation pump for most of the day. The remaining clownfish seems perfectly fine, for now.
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated! I have been reading everything I can find on this forum but I am running out of ideas and growing increasingly frustrated. Am I overstressing the fish somehow?
It seems that I cannot keep my fish alive for more than a few days. The tank is a few months old with the following characteristics: 75 gallons, cascade canister filter, two circulation pumps (1400 GPH total), live sand and live rock, SG of 1.023 and water temp of 78 using real ocean water. Using an API test kit, the pH is 8.0, ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite is 0 ppm and nitrate is 5 ppm. The tank does not receive direct sunlight and is located in a living room with moderate traffic but within sight of the front door.
I started the tank with damsels and had no problem with them at all. I moved the damsels to a tank for my son and added a naso tang, fairy wrasse and threadfin butterfly from my local fish store. The nano tang died after two days and the other two died after one week. The naso tang was most likely too small for the tang but appeared to have spots meeting the characteristics ick. The other two seemed great until one morning the threadfin had died and the wrasse was losing color and lethargic until it died later that day. Neither had spots when they died. I was unaware of the drip method for acclimation and was worried that perhaps I did not acclimate them properly.
I cleaned my canister filter and did a 50% water change with real ocean water and made sure that the SG, pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were ok which they were. I ordered fish online this time and got two clownfish, a yellow tang, a blue hippo tang and another threadfin butterfly. I acclimated the fish for 2-3 hours using the drip method. The threadfin appeared DOA but after acclimation and some time in the tank seems to have snapped out of it. It died two days later. I checked the water quality and everything was standard. The two tangs looked lethargic and had some color fading before dying on the third day. The blue hippo appeared to have been trying to gasp for air from the top of the tank toward the end. While the blue hippo was gasping for air, one of the clownfish just suddenly died. It had been swimming in front of the circulation pump for most of the day. The remaining clownfish seems perfectly fine, for now.
Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated! I have been reading everything I can find on this forum but I am running out of ideas and growing increasingly frustrated. Am I overstressing the fish somehow?
