Thinking about hanggging it all up

[blue00si]

Well I've had my tank going on 5 months and at the first few months all was well. Well in the last month plus things have tokken a turn for the worst. My water levels have been perfect or near perfect. A little over a month ago i lost 4 fish in 2 days and now today I checked in my tank prior to going to work and I noticed my Coral Beauty was on its last leg. I hope he makes it. I plan to do a big water change/filter change when I go home but at this point I am getting very fustrated. All my problems started when I upgraded my lighting to PC's. I have no Idea what to do next. I currently have a 40g with 30# of LR and 40# of LS. I have a emporere 280 filter, powerhead, skimmer, Pc lighting with moonlight, of course a heater and keep the temp about 78. I get premixed water from my LFS and do topoffs with RO water. Last time I test sal it was 1.025 +/- .001. All other levels as in nitrite, nitrate, Amm, ALk have been withing nor limits. The upgrading of the light s shouldn't kill my livestock should it. At this point I have no idea what else to do and my fiance is getting tired of my wasting $ on fish that die. The only fish that have survived since put in the tank (once cycle was complete) are my sixline wrasse, firefish goby and a green chromis plus my cleanup crew. What should I do.

 

[jokerj]

what are your perameters? be specific. amonia , nitrite, nitrate. also when you updated your lighting keep close tabs on your temp. I have noticed some lighting may be heating up the tank durring the day and at night the temp will drop. more than just a few deg can stress out the fish. If that is the case use a fan on/arround the tank. I had that problem when I upgraded my lighting a while back. luckily I did not loose any fish but temp got really hot about 85 deg durring the day and would drop to 79 at night. If you can give more input on perameters ect we can look at other angles. hope this is a help and sorry to hear of your loss!

 

[blue00si]

I'm not home so I don't know all my levels. Temp=78, Sal=1.026, Alk= Nor, Amm=.25, nitrite=0, nitrate=10, Ph=8.2. I think that is what they where. My Temp at first varied with the new light but I fixed the problem by raising the light off the glass cover. Everything has been stable but will check levels when I get home. Any help is welcomed.

 

[psusocr1]

this may sound crazy, but small fishare just harder to keep! i never lost a big fish in my tank before, HOWEVER i have lost about 4-5 fish in my fuge, little fish like damsel, royal gamma, angel etc. i gave up on little fish along time ago! dont feel bad i cant keep them alive either!

 

[hawke12]

It's hard to give opinions with the diversity of systems. But I had a Large fish loss after about 5 months in my tank. Problem was too many Fish at one time on a Fairly new eco system. I had the same problem, All parameters were perfect and so on...problem is If The system was perfect for what was in it. When you add to that it puts a LOAD on the bio filter, and in new systems, The bio filter isnt adequate to adjust quickly enough to support the number of fish. I waited about 2 months after that experience before i added anything else, and since have had 0 loss. in my case time was a factor, saltwater i learned takes Time

maybe this will help u figure this out, Hope it helps u.

 

[hawke12]

and just for the record, my damsels were the only fish that servived that experience.

 

[sly]

I too added too many fish at a time once. I put in about 6 fish I got from Hawaii and in a month, they all died except the fish I already had. The whole time my paremeters remained "perfect". My ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite all remained at 0ppm and they still died.
I'm attributing it to possibly something that I can't/don't test for or a possible disease outbreak that the other fish were immune to. Either case, the problem is that I added too many fish at a time and I didn't quaranteen them. Now I have a UV light and I only add one or two fish at a time and I have not had any problems since.
Your tank is undergoing changes since you added the new light. It is possible that the light may simply be stressing them. Try cutting you light down to a few hours per day and then slowly increasing it. Let them and your system adjust to it...

 

[fishzen]

Originally Posted by blue00si
I'm not home so I don't know all my levels. Temp=78, Sal=1.026, Alk= Nor, Amm=.25, nitrite=0, nitrate=10, Ph=8.2. I think that is what they where. My Temp at first varied with the new light but I fixed the problem by raising the light off the glass cover. Everything has been stable but will check levels when I get home. Any help is welcomed.
Your Amm should be 0. Did you add anything else to your tank? more rocks that could have been uncured?
A light change by itself should not be a cause for Amm spike.

 

[ophiura]

IMO - too many fish, in too young a tank.
I believe that a maximum stocking level should not be reached until the tank is about a year old.
In addition, it sounds like the tank may have been somewhat overstocked.
JMO tho

 

[blue00si]

4 fish in a 40g overstocked??? How is that possible when 3 are an 1 or less?

 

[sly]

Generally most tanks can support about 1 inch of fish per every 5 gallons of water. This is a very generic figure that can vary a lot depending on tank maturity, system configuration and how messy the particular fish is. On a 40g tank, you can hold about 8inches of fish total. This is assuming that your biological filter is matured and that your tank is properly maintained. It sounds like your tank has not matured yet. You are adding too much too fast. It can take about 6 months or more for a tank to mature. This is different than just plain cycling. Your parameters may be fine, but your system is still stabilizing itself.

 

[ophiura]

Originally Posted by blue00si
4 fish in a 40g overstocked??? How is that possible when 3 are an 1 or less?
I figured you lost 4 fish plus had these survivors: Coral Beauty, sixline wrasse, firefish goby and a green chromis? Perhaps that is wrong...but still seems like a lot of fish livestock moving around. Personally, I would hold off on the fish for awhile, let things stabilize....

 

[blue00si]

No, I should have explained it more clearly. I had 7 fish and lost 2 then 2 the next day. Roal Gramma, Pygmy angel, percula and black/white clown. So I wait a month and ghet a Coral Beauty. had him almost a month then he just died today. As of right now I still have my sixline, firefish and green chromis. I starting to think I'm cursed with Angels and plad to exclude them from future plans until I get my 200g (once I buy my house)

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by blue00si
No, I should have explained it more clearly. I had 7 fish and lost 2 then 2 the next day. Roal Gramma, Pygmy angel, percula and black/white clown. So I wait a month and ghet a Coral Beauty. had him almost a month then he just died today. As of right now I still have my sixline, firefish and green chromis. I starting to think I'm cursed with Angels and plad to exclude them from future plans until I get my 200g (once I buy my house)

I have heard that angels are delicate (especially in new systems) but I personally haven't had a problem with them.

 

[blue00si]

Well I'm just gonna hold tight for a few more weeks and see what happens. I came home and changed filters and did a 10% water change. I am curious about the 10 eggs I have attached to my LR. I went to the LFS where I bought my counchs and they confirmed that they are conch eggs but don't know how long it takes hatch. I'll keep you posted. :happyfish

 

[mikeyjer]

I had a problem just like this when I updated my lighting to MH's. It was heating up the tank while I wasn't home. When I first set it up, I was home all day checking on the temp and it was just fine. The outside temp went up pretty high one day and I had my tank sitting in a nuke where it doesn't get much air circulation. I came home early one day and caught the temp going from 78 to 85. It goes down to 78 at night when I get home from work. I started running fans beside my tank to keep it cool. That did the trick, but was too late to save my poor fish. You should check on that temp!!! :happyfish