NEED HELP!!!!

[jlhill]

I have a 36 gallon saltwater aquarium. I'm running a Fluval 90 hang on the back filter and seaclone 100 protein skimmer. I'm also running two Hydor powerheads. I have about 22 pounds of LR and 40 pounds of LS. I let the aquarium run and cycle for approximately a month before adding livestock. I started my livestock with 2 chromis. I lost one of these fish within 24 hours. I then began adding fish once every two weeks. I ended up with a coral beauty angel, 2 clown fish, and a neon dotty back. Everything at this point was running perfectly. I then added a yellow tang and kole eye tang. One of the tangs developed ich and died within 24 hours. Over the next week I lost all my fish except for the original chromis. Over the past three weeks I have added another coral beauty angel. The coral beauty angel seemed fine for about three days and then lost all color and died. This past week is when I added the two clown fish which lasted approximately nine days before I lost both. The original chromis that I purchased is still alive and seems to be doing fine. Also in my tank I have three crabs, chocolate chip starfish, and sand sifter starfish. All the inverts seem to be doing great. My levels are as follows pH 8.2, ammonia zero, nitrite zero, and nitrate 30. I am currently mixing my own water using tap water. I'm to the point of deciding this hobby is not for me. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[trigger40]

it sounds to me like your tank was WAY over stocked. the first thing i would do is get the cromis out and into a hospital tank. the reason i say this is because your tank has ick. you need to give it time so that all the ick dies. leave it fishless for about a month and a half so that ick dies. then add it back give it a week to make shur he is fine then add the next fish. those tang fish get way to big for your tank and produce a lot of wast. for your size tank i would recomend a small angel and 3 or 4 way small fish like fairy wrass and a pair of clowns, coral beauty and the cromis. and even then your tank will be over stocked. but with your filtration if you add fish slow you can do it. the crashes sound to me like a mixtur of parisite and poor water quality. fi you take your time and do it right you will have succes. and when you are at your lfs make shur you pick the healthest fish you can. good luck!

 

[hawkfish203]

I'm going to guess it could be your tap water. Tap water tends to have metals in the water like lead and copper. Also you get high phospates from tap water. I have also heard of people finding ammonia in there water. I personally would leave no fish in for 6 weeks to let the ick run it's life cycle and think about using ro/di water here on out.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jlhill http:///t/397552/need-help#post_3543448
I have a 36 gallon saltwater aquarium. I'm running a Fluval 90 hang on the back filter and seaclone 100 protein skimmer. I'm also running two Hydor powerheads. I have about 22 pounds of LR and 40 pounds of LS. I let the aquarium run and cycle for approximately a month before adding livestock. I started my livestock with 2 chromis. I lost one of these fish within 24 hours. I then began adding fish once every two weeks. I ended up with a coral beauty angel, 2 clown fish, and a neon dotty back. Everything at this point was running perfectly. I then added a yellow tang and kole eye tang. One of the tangs developed ich and died within 24 hours. Over the next week I lost all my fish except for the original chromis. Over the past three weeks I have added another coral beauty angel. The coral beauty angel seemed fine for about three days and then lost all color and died. This past week is when I added the two clown fish which lasted approximately nine days before I lost both. The original chromis that I purchased is still alive and seems to be doing fine. Also in my tank I have three crabs, chocolate chip starfish, and sand sifter starfish. All the inverts seem to be doing great. My levels are as follows pH 8.2, ammonia zero, nitrite zero, and nitrate 30. I am currently mixing my own water using tap water. I'm to the point of deciding this hobby is not for me. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, welcome to the site...so sorry for all of your losses.

Hawkfish is correct....The kole tang needs a 75g tank...the yellow tang needs a 6 foot tank (125g or larger). You were adding fish that belong in a much larger tank then your 36g.

The Chromis are still alive because they were well established, and ich attacked the stressed new fish. Trigger is correct, ich is a parasite, and the display tank needs to be fish free for 8 weeks so it will die off without a host. The so called ich medicines do not work.

Ich does not affect the inverts. However every time you add a new fish, it is immediately attacked because it's stressed. All of this could have been avoided with a quarantine tank. You also need to be more careful to make sure the fish you get are able to thrive in such a small tank.

Seek out Beth in the disease section of the forum, to find out how to do hypo or decide on your next move. Until you get this under control...save your money and stop adding any fish. All new fish are stressed....once the parasite gets a leg up on the stressed fish, by sheer numbers they can overcome the chromis that were surviving.

 

[jlhill]

The only fish I have left is the chromis. So I can leave my inverts in the tank and remove the chromis and let it run for 8 weeks and I should be good to go? Thanks to everyone for the advice.

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jlhill http:///t/397552/need-help#post_3543515
The only fish I have left is the chromis. So I can leave my inverts in the tank and remove the chromis and let it run for 8 weeks and I should be good to go? Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Hi,

When you remove the chromis, you have to treat them to be rid of the parasite...hypo or copper. Then after 8 weeks (not before or they will get re-infected) return them to the display that should now be 100% free of the parasite.