New fish keep dying!!

AustinCase

New Member
Hi everyone,

I am new to the saltwaterfish.com community but have been on reef2reef before.

I have been keeping saltwater fish for just over a year now. My first tank was a 29g, then I got a 55g about 8 months later. Now I'm on a 120g and converted my 55g to a sump (overflow box drains to 2 filter socks then I have a protein skimmer and fuge). I have about 60lbs or LR and about 80lbs of LS all out of the 55g. The sand was never out of water and the rock sat out for less than 2 days. The transition took 2 days to get the 120 operation with HOB filters. It took another day to get the sump added and going. During the transition I lost a few fish, my clowns were the only fish to survive. Fish I lost were a Royal Gramma, Hippo Tang and Lawnmower Blenny as well as my clowns anemone.

The 120 has been running for 3 weeks now and my parameters have been reading the same since a couple days after it was set up an fully running. I tested today, PH is 8, Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are between 5 and 10, Phosphates were reading between 0 and .25

Over the past 2 weeks I've been trying to add a Tomini Tang, Hippo Tang and Flame Angel. The Hippo I purchased is doing great but the Flame and Tomine I can't seem to keep and they keep dying after a few days. Keeping in mind my clowns and hippo are doing great. The first go around the Flame didn't make it to the next morning and the Tomini didn't make it to the 3rd day. I didn't notice any signs of aggression from the clowns or hippo and my parameters have been the same as above. A week later I tried again and the same results. This time though the Flame lasted 2 days (lost it on Friday) and the Tomini 4 days (found it today). The Tomini seemed to be doing great, it was eating and swimming and getting along with the others and the Flame for the short time it was in the tank seemed to do good and was swimming with the others but did seem a little more shy than the rest but also ate when I fed. Now since they were in the tank longer I was able to observe them and no I didn't see any signs of aggression from anyone.

I will add that my acclimation procedure is to float for 15 to 20 minutes then drip until I have filled the bag twice. This usually take about an hour of time total.

I also notice this evening before lights out that my Hippo and one of the Clowns had white spots (I'm assuming it's ich). My first Hippo would get it occasionally but it would usually go away after a day or 2. So before I do crazy I wanted to see if this is just a short spell caused by the stress of introducing new fish and them dying.

So now I'm really not sure what the heck to do. Has anyone been through this? I'm obviously done trying to add fish until I have a solution.
 

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AustinCase

New Member
Just want to note that I found my Hippo stuck on my overflow box this morning. I removed it from the main tank and put it in my fuge because it was still swimming around just looked very weak then after about an hour or so it was gone. The Hippo was added on 2/29 and seemed to be doing great until last night when I noticed the ich.
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
You likely have ich in the tank although it could be velvet. At this point you need to remove any fish left in the tank and put them in a hospital tank and treat them for ich and velvet. copper is the treatment for both. A hospital tank will contain nothing but some pvc pipe elbows, a heater and a sponge filter. You can soak the sponge filter in bottled bacteria for a couple hours to kickstart the colonization. There are 2 kinds of copper cupramine and chelated copper(coppersafe). You need to also get a copper test kit compatible with the type copper you choose. The 120 display needs to be left fishless for 6 weeks for velvet or 72 days for ich. If you know which one you have, you can go by that if not I’d recommend the 72 days. After that you should quarantine all fish for a minimum of 30 days, longer if you see a problem. Before you add them to the display tank.
 

AustinCase

New Member
What size of tank you suggest for a hospital/QT tank? I'm fairly limited in the space I have since the 120 has such a large footprint (at least in the space I have available).
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
If it is just the clown 10 gal would be fine although a 20 would be better. Once the fish less period (also called the fallow period) is over you can use the hospital tank as your quarantine. You don’t need to keep the quarantine going all the time. I keep sponge filters in my sump so that when I want a new fish I already have a filter with a mature bacterial colony. I just pull out and fill the QT and hook up the filter and everything is good to go.
 

SALTWAT3RFISH

Administrator
Staff member
I didn't notice any water temps in your original text. What is average for your system and are there any fluctuations between lights on and off periods? Another thing to consider is PH shift during day/night periods. I have experienced new fish loss that I ultimately attributed to these factors. A 4700k light source on the refugium 24/7 seemed to help with the Ph shift. New additions can be more sensitive to slight environmental and chemical changes than their established tank mates. No silver bullets here, just some food for thought.
 

AustinCase

New Member
I didn't have anything to keep track of water temp but after I lost all the new fish I got one it was 75 degrees. I have since added 2 300w heaters and raised the temp to 80 where it has been keeping steady at that for going on 2 days now. The heaters are I'm my DT so I think it should keep to that temp. My refugium also has a heater in it and it looks like the temp is keeping between 78 and 82 so I'm going to guess it's 80 as well.
My refugium light is only 2700k and I usually have it on from about 5pm to whenever I go to bed (usually between 10pm and midnight).
I've checked my Ph in the morning once and it was 8.0. My lights have been off for 45 minutes now and I just checked and Ph was 8.0.
 

SALTWAT3RFISH

Administrator
Staff member
May want to test your PH an hour after you turn off the refugium light. Cant hurt. Process of elimination is a mainstay of marine aquariums imo.
 

AustinCase

New Member
I have the API Saltwater and Reef kit. I've been using the Saltwater kit since I started in January of 2019 and the Reef kit for probably 12 months now.
 

SALTWAT3RFISH

Administrator
Staff member
May not hurt to take a sample to a decent LFS and make sure everything matches your results. Redundancy is not a bad thing.
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
I didn't have anything to keep track of water temp but after I lost all the new fish I got one it was 75 degrees. I have since added 2 300w heaters and raised the temp to 80 where it has been keeping steady at that for going on 2 days now. The heaters are I'm my DT so I think it should keep to that temp. My refugium also has a heater in it and it looks like the temp is keeping between 78 and 82 so I'm going to guess it's 80 as well.
My refugium light is only 2700k and I usually have it on from about 5pm to whenever I go to bed (usually between 10pm and midnight).
I've checked my Ph in the morning once and it was 8.0. My lights have been off for 45 minutes now and I just checked and Ph was 8.0.
80 is really too high. Shoot for 76-78. I’d recommend against 2 300 watt heaters. heaters can and often do fail. They either fail on or off. If a 300 watt heater fails on, you can cook your fish pretty quickly Even in a 120. The frequent on off cycles you get with a too big heater contribute to their failure. I use 2, 100 watt heaters in my 120. I live in a cold climate and keep my house around 65 On the winter. Those two heaters do fine. They aren’t on all the time, maybe 30% of the time.
 

AustinCase

New Member
May want to test your PH an hour after you turn off the refugium light. Cant hurt. Process of elimination is a mainstay of marine aquariums imo.
Check Ph after the refugium light had been off for about an hour and it checked in at around 7.8.
80 is really too high. Shoot for 76-78. I’d recommend against 2 300 watt heaters. heaters can and often do fail. They either fail on or off. If a 300 watt heater fails on, you can cook your fish pretty quickly Even in a 120. The frequent on off cycles you get with a too big heater contribute to their failure. I use 2, 100 watt heaters in my 120. I live in a cold climate and keep my house around 65 On the winter. Those two heaters do fine. They aren’t on all the time, maybe 30% of the time.
Have the heaters turned down and in the process of getting the tank under 80. Just need to figure out the difference the heaters can be set at and actual tank temp.
Keep in mind there is icy in the tank and the fish aren’t being quarantined.
I really don't think ich was the reason I was losing the fish. The ich on my clown disappeared overnight once I raised the tank temp, so maybe even though ich is/was present in the tank, since it was a little colder than what they were used to it could have made it worse. I also think my larger clown was bullying these fish but I also have no hard evidence of this other than the fish hiding more than out in the open.
 

lmforbis

Well-Known Member
Ich comes and goes in a cyclic fashion. Once it is in the tank it won’t leave unless all the fish are removed and the tank is left fallow for the recommended time frame.
 
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