Problems with fish

generally speaking how long are the fish (that died) kept in the bag before you add them to your aquarium?

what type of inverts do you have?

have you tested the ammonia level in your tank? the reason I ask, the "sump" you have seems more like an ammonia factory- can you test for this? critters have a weird way of adapting to their environments- some do well, others not so well. test for ammonia- as it is usually the culprit.

 

Thanks for clearing that up

 

The fish stay in the bag for an avg of about 40 min, from the time they go in at the store to the time they are let out.

Cleaner shrimp, a few peppermint shrimp, an assortment of snails and small hermit crabs, a feather duster, a clam, coral, and any number of hitchhikers. In fact, all the coral seem to be opening up more then usual.

I've been testing everyday since the day I started the sump. My ammonia and nitrite levels increased, which must have hurt the blenny and mandarin. Then the levels dropped to normal. I brought my water to the LFS to have them verify my results before I bought any more fish. They told me everything looked good. The sump may be an 'ammonia factory' but it's too early to tell because it's only been going for about...well 1 hour now. (at least the second version)

 

might I ask how old the system is?

40 mins. is not very long, so I think we can count that out.

seems the addition of the sump may have caused your tank to go in to cycle mode. this might be why ammonia has risen, then again drops, however, this can be combated by live rock and macro to some degree- cycling has it's own time constraints sometimes.

you said that you have done water changes also? did you use ro/di water, or did you use a water treatment of some sort- have you added any chemicals at all? What type of salt mixture?

One other thing- what method is the LFS checking the water sample with?

 

And why are they only telling you "it looks good" instead of giving you numbers? This is why I have my own test kits!

 

test strips are great for quick testing but are not all that accurate all the time. many things can effect their readings- even the air quality.

 

I use the API marine liquid test kit.

 

They did give me actual numbers. "looks good" were only my words. The readings they gave me are the same reading I got so I just assumed there was no need to retype them. Ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm, Nitrate 10 ppm.

They even gave me readings for phosphate, magnesium, and calcium. I completely forget the actual numbers for these but they said all of the readings were within the preferred range.


Quick update: My six-line wrasse is as active as ever, not showing a single sign of any kind of disease or illness. My clown on the other hand seems to either have ich or fin rot or a combination of the two. I really don't want to add any chemicals to the display and I really don't want to stress the fish out more by doing a freshwater dip. The clown still eats pretty aggressively so my plan at this point is just to try and keep food in it's stomach and hopefully time will heal.

In terms of water quality there is really nothing more I can do. All my parameters look good and I only have about 2 inches of fish total in my entire 50g+ system so overstocking/over feeding isn't an issue.

Waiting for a UV sterilizer in the mail, if the clown shows improvement after I install the UV then there might be hope for me yet, but if the UV doesn't help the clown I'm pretty much ready to just have a coral/shrimp only tank. (have you ever seen one? ...might be kinda cool)

 

Try this stuff- It really works well, but you must follow the directions to the letter- it's called Kick Ick-it works for more then just Ick as well, (it really works well and is reef safe- I have used it with great sucess, I have 5 tangs in a 165 gallon mixed reef) give Premium Aquatics a call they can help you sort all this out.

Other wise- try the old method- raise water temps, cut lighting to nil, add aquarium salt (API is kosher), water changes and wait and see. Of this, please realize, water changes of quick and large amouts will cause your tank to cycle in very strage ways- keep this in mind.

 

Well if you could raise cleaner shrimp, put me down for several, as the lil' buggers are too damned expensive.