Water Parameters

[caspervtx]

I have a 55 gallon tank that has cycled. Coraline growing on base rock. Three purchased corals (Xenia, Green Star Polyps and what I think is Alevora) along with Zoos and a Mushroom - all surviving.
I have a cleanup crew - Emerald crab, hermits, snails (several types), 4 Peppermints, Fire and Skunk cleaner shrimp all living well.
However, I added two clownfish to the tank a week ago. One passed due to an aquascaping issue (got behind my rock wall - now resolved). The second I lost today. It was having problems swimming and was blown about in the current. Fed the tank (flakes and mysis) and it seemed to try to eat but was also appearing to just snap at the water surface. Finally succumed.
I tested my parameters and they are as flat (well bumped one bit) as they have been for the last 3 weeks:
1.022
ph 8.2 (up from 8.0 typically)
temp 81 (range 80-83)
Amm 0.5 (normally 0.25)
Nitrite - 0.2 (normally 0.1)
Nitrate - 20 (flat and consistent)
While I realize its hard to do a postmortem on a "random" death I am interested in whether anyone has had similar issues where their clownfish simply seemed to not thrive.
On a separate note I'm also interested in theories as to why I can not get my Ammonia to zero. It has been a flat stead 0.25 (except for this bump which I attribute to overzealous feeding by family making the cleaner shrimp "perform"). I simply can't get it down.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by CasperVTX
http:///forum/post/3134331
I have a 55 gallon tank that has cycled. Coraline growing on base rock. Three purchased corals (Xenia, Green Star Polyps and what I think is Alevora) along with Zoos and a Mushroom - all surviving.
I have a cleanup crew - Emerald crab, hermits, snails (several types), 4 Peppermints, Fire and Skunk cleaner shrimp all living well.
However, I added two clownfish to the tank a week ago. One passed due to an aquascaping issue (got behind my rock wall - now resolved). The second I lost today. It was having problems swimming and was blown about in the current. Fed the tank (flakes and mysis) and it seemed to try to eat but was also appearing to just snap at the water surface. Finally succumed.
I tested my parameters and they are as flat (well bumped one bit) as they have been for the last 3 weeks:
1.022
ph 8.2 (up from 8.0 typically)
temp 81 (range 80-83)
Amm 0.5 (normally 0.25)
Nitrite - 0.2 (normally 0.1)
Nitrate - 20 (flat and consistent)
While I realize its hard to do a postmortem on a "random" death I am interested in whether anyone has had similar issues where their clownfish simply seemed to not thrive.
On a separate note I'm also interested in theories as to why I can not get my Ammonia to zero. It has been a flat stead 0.25 (except for this bump which I attribute to overzealous feeding by family making the cleaner shrimp "perform"). I simply can't get it down.

Fish die. It is hard to determine if something is wrong in the tank with a single unexplained death. The rock wall incident does not count.
Get another fish, make sure it is healthy and eating. Keep an eye on it and test the water once a week to stay on top of things. Be careful with feeding.
Just a thought.
On the ammonia issue...It is possible the bacteria for some reason isn't cought up to the critters being kept...cleaning media with fresh water could be the cause. Only rinse media in saltwater, swish it around to losen any heavy soil and just repalce it back in the filter. Clean and new isn't good for fish tanks.

 

[trouble93]

You did give yourself time to build a sound bio filter. It would have been best to let your ammonia and nitrites reach 0 before you begain to add live stock. Still seeing ammonia and nitrites means your tank didn't fully cycle. As far as the clowns go even though they a hardy fish they will not survive ammonia and nitrite spikes. And with flake food even with a good CUC some can be missed and cause bad water levels. Give your tank some time to stabilize before you add anything else. Do about a 15% WC and check to see where you stand. I hope this helps.

 

[caspervtx]

Originally Posted by Flower
http:///forum/post/3134347

Fish die. It is hard to determine if something is wrong in the tank with a single unexplained death. The rock wall incident does not count.
Get another fish, make sure it is healthy and eating. Keep an eye on it and test the water once a week to stay on top of things. Be careful with feeding.
Just a thought.
On the ammonia issue...It is possible the bacteria for some reason isn't cought up to the critters being kept...cleaning media with fresh water could be the cause. Only rinse media in saltwater, swish it around to losen any heavy soil and just repalce it back in the filter. Clean and new isn't good for fish tanks.
Thank Flower. I clean my media and overall with the water from the water change. I pull about 10 gallons a week - 10 days and replace with the same (makes it even that way

).
I'd thought about the bacteria not being caught up. But somewhere I read that "pushing" the bio load would increase the bacteria - thus the slow add of the CUC. No matter what I've done won't drop below .25 (Ammonia) and 0.1 (Nitrite).

 

[caspervtx]

Originally Posted by trouble93
http:///forum/post/3134357
You did give yourself time to build a sound bio filter. It would have been best to let your ammonia and nitrites reach 0 before you begain to add live stock. Still seeing ammonia and nitrites means your tank didn't fully cycle. As far as the clowns go even though they a hardy fish they will not survive ammonia and nitrite spikes. And with flake food even with a good CUC some can be missed and cause bad water levels. Give your tank some time to stabilize before you add anything else. Do about a 15% WC and check to see where you stand. I hope this helps.
Thanks for the input. As I said in previous post I let it go for a couple weeks and it stabilized. Saw the spike (tiny) but it was there and then it dropped to 0.25 and held steady. The .5 I have now I am pretty positive where that came from and we are going to fix that issue PDQ.
I was reading somewhere else (book) that flake food isn't the best option (along with your comment about some being missed). I have frozen mysis as well. Any other recommendations for a food source that won't get dropped into cracks and not found?

 

[deejeff442]

you might want to have a lfs test the water .
ammonia doesnt hang around very long.
.25 reading is still yellow on the chart so you might not have any i would get another test.nitrites at that level wont harm the fish.nitrites are no where near as toxic as ammonia.
you are right about the adding bioload slowly to increase the good bacteria .
two small clowns and the cuc are really not going to over do it on a cycled tank.
i would take some water to the lfs and have them test it and get a couple more small fish if they test the water and it is good.
the food that thefish dont get to is for the cuc.
flake is high in phosphates .i make my own food ,its very easy and cheap.

 

[mkroher]

Try another test kit.