*****please Read****

danf1973

danf1973

New Member
Ok guys I'm having a very ruff time with both my 75g tanks and need some help before just tearing them down for good. I have lost every fish with 24-48hrs. Here is my story... I started with a 55gal and transported live rock from a tank that had been up for yrs as well as some live sand and and reg crushed coral/mixed. It had been up and running for about 2mos and all the fish were happy.(Clown, yellow tang, gobies). My gf wanted her Blue Hippo tang that her daughter had in her tank which wasn't doing good at all. The fish against my better judgement would have been flushed but she wanted it. You could tell it was sick maybe hole in the head and so on. The Hippo lasted about 1wk before belly up. All my fish started dieing afterwards 1 at a time=( It started with the gobies,clown fish. I though maybe it was there time then bought 2 firefish and one at a time days apart they went everything bedsides the yellow tang. The 75gal now had been up and running with 150lbs of sand with 5lbs of live sand thrown in. It had around 60lbs of live rock and i was going to use this tank more for a few fish. So the yellow tang went in (all levels normal) and looked better for about 5days before the color started looking bad. I then tested the levels at a marine place against mine and everything looked great??? I added the tang back in and with in days the tang was dead! I tested the 75gal against the marines test kit and again all levels were fine??? So I waited a few weeks and decided to try again... Bought a soliderfish(popeye) and 2 saddle back mated clowns. The next morning woke up to one of the clowns on the floor=( The next day the other one dead in the tank??? That dead I had traded for a nice light set plus 2 tangs for my 75 gal and the fish seemed good in the 75 swimming eating etc. I figured the 75gal was safe??? So i started to notice the popeye solider fish was getting popeye the bacteria infection on his eye? Come on man!!!! I treated it and thought the fish looked better after 4 days then belly up! 4 days later the Sailfin Tang had red ucler like around the mouth spreading up to the top area of it's head? Treated it and day4 dead along with the scorpin tang! The guy at the marine place told me it had to be a bacteria infection that had spread throughout being transported from one tank to the other from the tang. So as far as the tank set ups all are fine plenty of live rock good filtration and so on. I posted this on another board and my replies said that the tank was not cycled which i saw my spikes then dips and respikes of ammonia and nitrates./nitrites and so on. I was told to wait 6mos before fish and a yr for coral? I agree somewhat but how many marine places set up saltwater tanks all the time brand new? I'm not to new to saltwater either. Also was directed towards adding Floramin to the tanks to kill whatever? I'm very losted and confused please help.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
 
mantisman51

mantisman51

Active Member
Dang, sorry to hear, Dude. I've been there. If your setups have been assembled and stable for several weeks, it's not cycling. Three things I've experienced: 1) I had catastrophic fish loss (90%) before I started using ro/di filtered water. I bought a $50 coutertop unit on the "bay" and haven't had anymore unexplained fish losses. 2) I have been QTing for over a year (except once and got ******-ich) and have tested the water the fish are shipped in. The two shipments I recieved that were at 62-65F, all the new fish died-some made it almost 2 weeks but the stress from shipping cold was too much. 3) When I left my LR in a tub with just circulating water for a week and then put it in the DT tank, under lights, there was alot of die-off of the coraline and algae and other live stuff. The die-off sent my ammonia and nitrites through the roof. It was a short-term cycle, but if I would've had fish in there, they would have died. Thankfully, I read here about QT'ing LR and the subsequent die-off when LR is transported.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Please post, perhaps in a bulleted style, the medication you used in your display tank.
Also please post all of your filtration and tank set up, as well as your specific parameters, including alkalinity and pH.
Also post if you noticed the fish dying at certain times of the day (eg dead in morning but fine night before).
Any painting, cleaning, etc near the tank, including carpet cleaning, etc.
It is just a bit hard to follow the history of what happened in the original post, sorry :(
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by danf1973
http:///forum/post/3072926
Ok guys I'm having a very ruff time with both my 75g tanks and need some help before just tearing them down for good. I have lost every fish with 24-48hrs. Here is my story... I started with a 55gal and transported live rock from a tank that had been up for yrs as well as some live sand and and reg crushed coral/mixed. It had been up and running for about 2mos and all the fish were happy.(Clown, yellow tang, gobies). My gf wanted her Blue Hippo tang that her daughter had in her tank which wasn't doing good at all. The fish against my better judgement would have been flushed but she wanted it. You could tell it was sick maybe hole in the head and so on. The Hippo lasted about 1wk before belly up. All my fish started dieing afterwards 1 at a time=( It started with the gobies,clown fish. I though maybe it was there time then bought 2 firefish and one at a time days apart they went everything bedsides the yellow tang. The 75gal now had been up and running with 150lbs of sand with 5lbs of live sand thrown in. It had around 60lbs of live rock and i was going to use this tank more for a few fish. So the yellow tang went in (all levels normal) and looked better for about 5days before the color started looking bad. I then tested the levels at a marine place against mine and everything looked great??? I added the tang back in and with in days the tang was dead! I tested the 75gal against the marines test kit and again all levels were fine??? So I waited a few weeks and decided to try again... Bought a soliderfish(popeye) and 2 saddle back mated clowns. The next morning woke up to one of the clowns on the floor=( The next day the other one dead in the tank??? That dead I had traded for a nice light set plus 2 tangs for my 75 gal and the fish seemed good in the 75 swimming eating etc. I figured the 75gal was safe??? So i started to notice the popeye solider fish was getting popeye the bacteria infection on his eye? Come on man!!!! I treated it and thought the fish looked better after 4 days then belly up! 4 days later the Sailfin Tang had red ucler like around the mouth spreading up to the top area of it's head? Treated it and day4 dead along with the scorpin tang! The guy at the marine place told me it had to be a bacteria infection that had spread throughout being transported from one tank to the other from the tang. So as far as the tank set ups all are fine plenty of live rock good filtration and so on. I posted this on another board and my replies said that the tank was not cycled which i saw my spikes then dips and respikes of ammonia and nitrates./nitrites and so on. I was told to wait 6mos before fish and a yr for coral? I agree somewhat but how many marine places set up saltwater tanks all the time brand new? I'm not to new to saltwater either. Also was directed towards adding Floramin to the tanks to kill whatever? I'm very losted and confused please help.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Hi there,
I do not want to be a downer or be negative in anyway.
When that happened to me (once way back) I decided to just break it up and clean it really good. I did not want to keep putting fish and have them die to something I did not know what it was. I re-started the tank and now seems to be back to normal. I will be QT'g the new fish and make sure the tank stays as clean as i can make it.
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
Originally Posted by fishstick4sale
http:///forum/post/3073046
"You could tell it was sick maybe hole in the head and so on"
jesus thats where u went wrong.
You could have phrased that a little less judgmental. People on these forums really fly off the handle and it makes me mad. If it was not for the good information I do read I would quit this forum because of some of the rudeness. But there are those that have awesome advice and have helped very many people with there knowledge and experience.
With that being said welcome to the boards.
Like ophiura said we need more info on your system. Adding visually sick fish should never be done even if you do not have any other fish in your tank. Most medications should never be add to your DT. Quarantining fish is your only safe method on adding fish to avoid these catastrophes and gives you a safe place to medicate. Make sure you have the room for the fish you want. A huge bio load can crash tanks or cause a host of problems that will make you pull your hair out. I do more research than posting on this forum and I find a ton of useful information in past post. Don't give up yet! I hope we can help.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
FWIW, adding a fish with HLLE in and of itself will not do this. HLLE is often caused by stress, diet and water quality.
There is more to this story...but we need more info.
 
jordan3548

jordan3548

Member
In 3 days I lost a foxface, clark clown, pearlscale butterfly, and a Koran angel. It happend out of no where I think sometimes something unexplained can happend. Because I tested my water the night before all that started and my water was perfect 0 0 0 next day ammonia was through the roof as well as nitrates and a little nitrie. How? only thing i did that night was turn the MH off and turn the Moon lights on. Moral of the story somethings happen and are left unexplained
My local fish store told me theres no possible way for my water to jump that high in 8 hrs I said well your looking at it I have the same kit you do lol (Hagan master kit). So I did not add anything for 2 months did twice a week water changes and now everything is great.
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by ophiura
http:///forum/post/3073114
FWIW, adding a fish with HLLE in and of itself will not do this. HLLE is often caused by stress, diet and water quality.
There is more to this story...but we need more info.
I think that sometimes when unexplained things happen, they can be explained we just don't know or have enough information. One theory of mine if hydrogen sulfide in small doses, specially in aged tanks.
 
danf1973

danf1973

New Member
Well the 55 has around 70lbs of sand/crushed coral and about the same for live rock which had been in a tank for 2yrs or so before mine. It has a hang on back wet/dry with a marine land 400 for filtering needs and so on with 3 powerheads as well. Yes carpet on the floor no chemicals that i could think of and the fish all die at night bc i find them in the morning. The 75 has a marine land 280 and a wet/dry hang on as well with 150lbs of live sand and around 60-70 live rock. both on the carpet.
 
danf1973

danf1973

New Member
alkalinity and pH are all normal ranges, medications that I have used are the herbal ones for bacterica as well as anit-fungus. After all the fish died i was told to try and use the Florimen to kill any spores in the tank. I put a few damsel in this week its been about 1wk since putting any meds in the tank. But what I have noticed is a different looking what I believe is a algae in my tank? Not dark brown or green or red. Yes some green/brown around the bottom but the whole tank in this cream colored all over everything? algae i beleive bt never have seen anything like this?
 
danf1973

danf1973

New Member
Well I didn't take anything rude but thanks for all the advice given, yes it has been hair pulling to say the least. I will from now on set up a QT tank before adding any more fish or do a salt dip? Anyway i've never ran into this problem before and yes I haven't dumps thousands of dollars into my tank but have set all my tanks up this way just never had to many fish and n problems. I figure I will give it a nice cleaning this weekend and give it a few more weeks with a few Damsel and see what happens. Thanks again anymore info is welcomed=)
 
gypsana

gypsana

Active Member
As for the cream colored coating it may be sponge but a picture would be needed for an ID. The damsels may cause more problems when you want other fish. Is there a possibility who have a predatory hitchhiker, are you having major temperature swings at night, and what is your salinity, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings?
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
How are you measuring alkalinity? Deaths at night are fairly classic low pH/alkalinity issues.
 
danf1973

danf1973

New Member
First guys thanks again for all the input as far as alk/sal issues just the basic hydrometer. After all the great comments I checked the PH which was the only thing I had not checked and the levels were off the chart=( I did several water changes which brought it down. The 75 was low so I brought it up. I'm now thinking this is what caused the issues in the tank? Can this lead to bacteria infections?
 
danf1973

danf1973

New Member
ok guys here we go.... One clown died the other on the way out again all levels fine! The fish get this dry looking scales then in 24hrs are dead=(
 
locoyo386

locoyo386

Member
Originally Posted by danf1973
http:///forum/post/3081980
ok guys here we go.... One clown died the other on the way out again all levels fine! The fish get this dry looking scales then in 24hrs are dead=(
Is it valvet, or maybe the "supposedly" new strand of Ich that kills fish in 48 hours.
 
danf1973

danf1973

New Member
i'm pretty sure it was ick, there were no classic signs of salt looking specs but like shedding that starts and kills in 48hrs, ever fish dies that goes in my tank. I have treated all fish/tank as well with bacteria and fungial. None have been able to keep the fish alive or treat the tank? The corals inverts all are fine it targets fish only?
 
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