Someone Help, I think my babies are dying...

we have a 125 gallon up & running since May of 2008. NOTHING has EVER died. All water tests have been perfect. Now all of the sudden the have a white-ish flaky coating on them, one day good, one day bad. We purchased med's from the LFS, things were looking better, they were clearing up. Now at lunch I found the Purple Goobis dead & the baby Clown is swimming at the bottom of the tank way in back. I've tested, but the only thing that comes back abnormal is the Nitrate. Any suggestions? p.s., we added live rock about two weeks ago, would that do anything?

 

was it cured live rock? If you just added live rock most likely it needs to cycle and this could be the reason for the nitrate spike and hence the fish loss. I would either remove the fish or the live rock. If you remove the fish you should put them in a quarantine tank, if you remove the live rock then you should research the forum on how to cycle your live rock.

 

Yes, it's likely the liverock you added had some die-off, which caused your tank to cycle (rotting dead stuff -> ammonia-> nitrite -> nitrate) again. The fish are probably poisoned by the ammonia and nitrites, but may live through it, depending upon how hardy they are and the levels of nitrite and ammonia.

 

+1. Whenever you add LR, you're going to start somewhat of a cycle again. And it sounds like this probably led to enough stress to get them to contract ich.
The best thing to do now IMO is to keep them on a healthy and nutritious diet, and hope for the best. Medicines can be OK, but are more of a patch, as they wont fix what is causing the fish enough stress in the first place to get the disease.

 

I just called the LFS they said it (LR) was absolutly cured, but they also just told me that one of the 3 clowns would probably die anyway because they end up in pairs...so why sell me 3! I don't know who to trust anymore. I NEVER thought I would get so attached to little fishies! I just called the Local FS (sorry) they'll have someone come right to my house, but not for 24 hours...

 

OMG! I love you people, so many answer's so fast! I don't feel alone anymore...keep the advice coming, I'm feeling better already! I just wish my fish did.

 

It doesn't matter if it's cured, not cured, live, dead, etc. It will have die off and it will cause at least some form of cycle.
I wouldn't do to much else at this point. The nitrates are OK at 20. Not ideal, but thats not whats killing your fish. You probably went through a mini-cycle and the ammonia level rose. Once that happens, if the ammonia caused any burns to the fish (common in the gills), the damage is done, and there's nothing you can do. It can take a while for that to crop up though, so you've most likely finished the ammonia part but the fish are just now showing the ill effects. Just make sure they are eating well, and add a little garlic to their food.

 

Remember to not over feed. It's so tempting, but you will just add to the problem. Best of luck to ya.
AND props to the fish store. I never get that kind of in-house service from our LFS =(

 

what medicine did you use? Might want to add another powerhead to the tank or two as many meds are oxidizers (SP???) and pull out oxygen

I treated one time with Lifeguard and I had been warned to keep O2 levels up...so I placed an extra powerhead and this massive pump they had at the store with 8 different airstones on it. My fish literally went to the airstones and did not move from there until they died! They had their mouths and gills gasping for air. I felt so bad for them.

Never hurts to put extra air into the system ever!

 

+1. I get knocked for it, but I run an airstone 24/7 in my reef tank. It brings only benefits