This is life or death im not joking this is serious please help me!!!!!!!!!!

james larocque

james larocque

Member
i just remembered i had 2 gallons of premxed water so i did a small change and the fish are calming down and ph is now at 8.4 the clownfish is gaining back color. tommorow i will do water change and replace filter cartridges with active carbon sorry about spelling im nervous and my hands arew shaky
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Your tank was not ready for fish, this is what is happening as a result.
Okay, what I'm about to say is in CAPS because I want everyone to read it, not that I'm particularly yelling at you:
PEOPLE PLEASE DO NOT PLACE FISH IN YOUR TANK IF IT'S LESS THAN 6 WEEKS OLD. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE FISH WITHOUT DOING AN RESEARCH ON HOW TO CARE FOR THEM AND WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY SUCH AS AN AMMONIA SPIKE. PLEASE BUY A PROPER CLEAN UP CREW.
Turbos will do nothing for left over food, they're algae eaters and filter feeders so IMO, they don't really belong in a new tank as they're not really that helpful. You would be better suited with Nassarius snails, especially since they eat left over fish food, and will therefore keep your levels down.
You have yet to mention what size tank this is and what you run for filtration. These things are key to helping you solve your tank problems. A Koralia is a powerhead, a pump is a pump, these are NOT filtration. Do you have a sump or a canister filter? If so, what size, how is it set up? Are you running a protein skimmer? If so, what type and size? Are you using any chemical filtration such as carbon media?
What exactly are you feeding (brand and type of food) and how much? Do you use vitamins? Do you rinse the food before feeding it to your fish? Let the experts determine whether you are overfeeding or not, do no decide for yourself. You'd be surprised how many people overfeed and don't think they are (Meowzer is even one of them!). Honestly, the sheer fact that you only have two clown fish and are feeding twice a day, every day tells me that you are feeding WAY TOO MUCH.
You also did not mention if you have sand in this tank or not. If you do, how much do you have?
Since you have an ammonia reading in your tank, you need to do a water change ASAP. If you do not have access to salt water at the moment, you can use bottled water. Do not lower the salinity before 1.018 or your rock and sand will start to die off as well as your snails and hermits. With the lower salinity, you many be able to actually help your fish "breathe" better in the water, especially if what you're seeing is ich, in which case it will help cure the ich as well.
For the future, you should always have salt and fresh water, even if it's bottled water on hand for emergency situations like this.
You might also want to invest in some sort of water conditioner that helps lower ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. I prefer SeaChem Prime, others do not, it's whatever you find works for you.
Also, what test kits are you using?
Since there are no corals in this tank, cut back on your lighting, this will help a little with the pH, at least for the short term.
AND AGAIN, CALM DOWN, do more research and CALM down
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by James Larocque
http:///forum/post/3297055
im using api test kits not the strips. and i feed my fish flake with garlic.
IMO, flake is garbage and a lot of it goes to waste, which may be the cause of your ammonia. Many CUC members will not touch flake food as well. Get a meaty food, like mysis or spirulina brine shrimp.
Try only feeding twice a week, three times max for right now. Anything more than 2-3x a week is too much.
 
james larocque

james larocque

Member
ok everything you need to know about my tank.
30 gallon
10,000k dayloight bulb
1 chromis
2 clowns
5 turbos
4blue leg hermits
30 lbs liverock
penguin 350 power filter with two activatated carbon filter inserts and two bio wheels
two koralia 600gph powerheads one aiming at surface for oxygenation
100watt heater
crushed coral substrate
peppermint shrimp
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
Check the expiration on the test kit. You must be extremely precise with the drops to get an accurate reading. Do your clowns a favor take the flake food and throw it in the trash. Flake food is like junk food for fish. It is best to feed frozen, live and enriched foods. Do your fish another favor and take a sample of water to the LFS tomorrow when you go to get them new food. If you do these things, your fish will thank you! I would recommend upgrading to a fluval canister filter and converting the penguin to a refugium, just my opinion.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by James Larocque
http:///forum/post/3297058
ok everything you need to know about my tank.
30 gallon
10,000k dayloight bulb
1 chromis
2 clowns
5 turbos
4blue leg hermits
30 lbs liverock
penguin 350 power filter with two activatated carbon filter inserts and two bio wheels
two koralia 600gph powerheads one aiming at surface for oxygenation
100watt heater
crushed coral substrate
peppermint shrimp
So you have three fish in a tank that's only 4.5 weeks old? This is WAY TOO MUCH, WAY TOO FAST.
My gut feeling is that your tank was not done cycling.
Are you positive that all your rock was cured? If you purchased it already cured, are you certain there was no die off before it ended up in your tank?
How often do you do water changes? How often to you clean the filter and change out the filter inserts? Do you since the carbon inserts during water changes?
Get rid of the chromis. If you can, get rid of the clowns as well, as I do not believe that your tank is in any way ready for fish.
Get a cleaner shrimp of some sort. Since you already have the peppermint (which I do NOT consider a "cleaner"), stay away from the Coral Banded Shrimp, because it will probably kill the Peppermint shrimp. Try two Skunk Cleaner Shrimp. Get some Nassarius snails, some more hermits, and some Trochus snails. Cut back on feeding. Do more water changes, you may even need to do this daily to get things under control. If you can, get a sump set up , I'm not really a fan of the Pengiun filters. A 10G - 20G tank really doesn't cost that much and will really help this tank if used as a sump.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by Gemmy
http:///forum/post/3297061
Check the expiration on the test kit. You must be extremely precise with the drops to get an accurate reading. Do your clowns a favor take the flake food and throw it in the trash. Flake food is like junk food for fish. It is best to feed frozen, live and enriched foods. Do your fish another favor and take a sample of water to the LFS tomorrow when you go to get them new food. If you do these things, your fish will thank you! I would recommend upgrading to a fluval canister filter and converting the penguin to a refugium, just my opinion.
I could not agree more!
 
james larocque

james larocque

Member
All live rock was from a tank that had been running 15 years (yeah it was cured). And should i buy something that will remove ammonia nitrite and nitrate?
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by James Larocque
http:///forum/post/3297068
All live rock was from a tank that had been running 15 years (yeah it was cured). And should i buy something that will remove ammonia nitrite and nitrate?
How long was it out of water before it went in your tank? Was the 15 year old tank maintained or were they in the middle of tearing it down? (just trying to rule out all possibilities here).
Yes, I prefer SeaChem Prime, but there are other things available. Use chemicals ONLY if absolutely needed, water changes are always better, but it's a good thing to have on hand for emergencies.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
YUP....You are getting some good advice...except the filter...LOL...I have something similar on my 29G W/O the bio wheels...BUT I let my tank cycle and did not load it with fish right away
you should get a protein skimmer soon too....they are not cheap
go to your lfs...if they will not take the fish back, buy some frozen mysis...and feed a tiny piece of the cube....
do your water changes.....keep some made up...just in case
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by James Larocque
http:///forum/post/3297068
All live rock was from a tank that had been running 15 years (yeah it was cured). And should i buy something that will remove ammonia nitrite and nitrate?
amquel+ is also good at that....BUT remember it takes the toxins out of the ammonia.....not the ammonia out of the water
and I believe it messes with your test results
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
your set up looks good to me.over feeding like most people said is the problem.especially flakes.go buy a frozen veriety pack.
i feed once a day myself.i wouldnt want to only eat twice a week.flakes just dont have the nutrition like the krill,clams,shrimp ect.do . i started saltwater when i was 14 and boy did i learn the hard way .especially listining to the lfs.the worst place for advice.trust me everyone including myself here has lost thier share of fish learning this hobby.
good luck to ya kid hang in there .
 
james larocque

james larocque

Member
it was a very nice tank. The liverock is rally nice. ill post a pic of my tank
ok sorry that a old pic i have more LR than that and i have another PH
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Originally Posted by meowzer
http:///forum/post/3297072
amquel+ is also good at that....BUT remember it takes the toxins out of the ammonia.....not the ammonia out of the water
and I believe it messes with your test results

almost all mess with test results. Prime can do terrible things to test results! I actually use prime in new water before it goes in the tank and when acclimating fish, but I know many people that use it in emergency situations.
 
gemmy

gemmy

Active Member
I would not recommend it. Frequent water changes and following the advice you have been given will do the trick. Those chemicals mask the problem and I have seen them do more damage than good. If you decide to, you could go with SeaChem Prime or Amquel plus. I would also suggest that you look up the nitrogen cycle so you can understand the biological process that is occurring in our tanks (I would explain but I feel you need to do more research).
 
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