Beginner...ready to throw in the towel!

[LDJ]

Hi, first time on the discussion. I'm so frustrated after 5 months of trying to keep fish alive.
Anyone want to hear my sad story and offer me a lifeline?
I tried to build a top notch 32 gallon bio cube and have suffered nothing but set backs.
Not sure where to go from here.
Ready to sell everything.
Any assistance would be great!

 

[Woodyman]

Hi, first time on the discussion. I'm so frustrated after 5 months of trying to keep fish alive.
Anyone want to hear my sad story and offer me a lifeline?
I tried to build a top notch 32 gallon bio cube and have suffered nothing but set backs.
Not sure where to go from here.
Ready to sell everything.
Any assistance would be great!

Can't offer any advice without some background. What happened, what have you done to correct it, and where are you at now?

 

[Karen00]

Like @Woodyman said... We need more info in order to help. Your tank's parameters for one and the fish you lost. Have they died from disease? If not disease we need more info as to acclimation method, what you noticed with the fish, how long they lived. Please be as detailed as possible. Also a full tank shot of your tank under white lights will help and pics of deceased fish if you have them.

 

[shakacuz]

how did you start, what where the issues(other than fish dying), what did you do to correct them?

 

[dedragon]

Lets start with the basics;
what equipment are you running? What test kits do you have? Have you tested the TDS of rodi water? Are you using a refractometer and calibration solution? Did you change the stock lighting on the biocube?

 

[lucyretz]

Happy to help with more info don’t give up, this community out pours support and we’re here to help you!

 

[iMi]

Don't give up just yet. Something is off and needs to be corrected. This hobby is about patience and perserverence.

 

[LDJ]

I had a salt water aquarium through the 80's and decided to see what was new with growing coral, etc.

I bought a new Coralife 32 biocube with a in tank UV, Skimmer, upgraded pump, a wave maker, live coral rock, CaribSea sand, better heater, RedSea Test kits and Red Sea marine starter kit. It took about 6 weeks to go through cycling. I started adding clean jun crew invertebrates. Started out with a clown fish. Everything went fine for the first couple of weeks. I added a sand sifting goby who died with a week Didn't eat. Added second clown fish after a couple of weeks and a Zoa frag. Another Goby. Hair algae took over. I started using Vibrant for the algae, once a week. I pulled a bunch of that algae off, got more hermit crabs, a turbo snail, a conch and two emerald crabs over the space of several months.

One clown came down with I though Ich, but I thought my UV sterilizer would take care of it. I did a fresh water dip, he seemed to recover, I started PraziPro, turned off the UV, off the skimmer, took charcoal out. And ran the Prazi for several weeks. Within the two weeks the one clown got worst and finally succumbed, Within two days after the second clown was covered in white and died. At this point I had lost 5 or 6 fish and very frustrated. I tried to decide whether jut to give up or start over from scratch.

I contacted a new fish store and they suggested, I let the tank sit for two weeks, with no Prazi, turned back on the UV, and skimmer. I readded new charcoal and let the tank sit for two weeks. Then per the store reran Prazi with charcoal removed and turned off the UV and skimmer. At this time I had one firefish, a cleaner shrimp, an emerald crab and my clean up crew.
After two more weeks of Prazi, I went back to everything back on, new charcoal, and went to the new fish store after a month, who guaranteed that everything had been quarantined for a month and bought a new fire fish, a striped wrasse and lawn mower Blennie. Added a mushroom frag. In one week since adding that the emerald crab has died, , my conch has disappeared into the sand, the wrasse went yesterday after seven days, he had a white discoloration on his side like dead skin. And then part of one fin was gone. Today the Bennie is gasping on the bottom and then mid day the new fire fish, went into hiding and is now gasping.

I tried to buy the best equipment. Followed the cycling to a 'T'. Thought the first store was reliable from plenty of recommends. Switched to the new store and now I've killed about 10 fish, feeling very guilty and I am left with one original fire fish and a cleaner shrimp and a couple of frags.

Do I start all over or just say lesson learned and quite killing marine life?

 

[LDJ]

My Nitrates have been consistently below 20 and PH around 8.1.
Ph is now 8.3. I talked to the fish store and wondered if my PH is dropping at night. Does that sound plausible? I will start testing. They recommend I run FLUX RX to get my green algae back under control. Your thoughts?

 

[LDJ]

I have been doing 15% water changes every two weeks.

 

[AnotherReefHobbyist]

Ph does naturally drop overnight, mine has a huge swing, but it doesn't seem to affect anything.

I would say that you could just continue slowly. You still have a fish, some coral, and cleanup crew. That seems like a good basis to me. I would quarantine any new additions for a very long amount of time, and maybe work on stocking your tank with coral for now.

 

[LDJ]

Any ideas on why the 3 new fish seemed great the first 6-7 days, eating good and then within 24 hrs. are going down hill FAST? What could cause this?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I had a salt water aquarium through the 80's and decided to see what was new with growing coral, etc.

I bought a new Coralife 32 biocube with a in tank UV, Skimmer, upgraded pump, a wave maker, live coral rock, CaribSea sand, better heater, RedSea Test kits and Red Sea marine starter kit. It took about 6 weeks to go through cycling. I started adding clean jun crew invertebrates. Started out with a clown fish. Everything went fine for the first couple of weeks. I added a sand sifting goby who died with a week Didn't eat. Added second clown fish after a couple of weeks and a Zoa frag. Another Goby. Hair algae took over. I started using Vibrant for the algae, once a week. I pulled a bunch of that algae off, got more hermit crabs, a turbo snail, a conch and two emerald crabs over the space of several months.

One clown came down with I though Ich, but I thought my UV sterilizer would take care of it. I did a fresh water dip, he seemed to recover, I started PraziPro, turned off the UV, off the skimmer, took charcoal out. And ran the Prazi for several weeks. Within the two weeks the one clown got worst and finally succumbed, Within two days after the second clown was covered in white and died. At this point I had lost 5 or 6 fish and very frustrated. I tried to decide whether jut to give up or start over from scratch.

I contacted a new fish store and they suggested, I let the tank sit for two weeks, with no Prazi, turned back on the UV, and skimmer. I readded new charcoal and let the tank sit for two weeks. Then per the store reran Prazi with charcoal removed and turned off the UV and skimmer. At this time I had one firefish, a cleaner shrimp, an emerald crab and my clean up crew.
After two more weeks of Prazi, I went back to everything back on, new charcoal, and went to the new fish store after a month, who guaranteed that everything had been quarantined for a month and bought a new fire fish, a striped wrasse and lawn mower Blennie. Added a mushroom frag. In one week since adding that the emerald crab has died, , my conch has disappeared into the sand, the wrasse went yesterday after seven days, he had a white discoloration on his side like dead skin. And then part of one fin was gone. Today the Bennie is gasping on the bottom and then mid day the new fire fish, went into hiding and is now gasping.

I tried to buy the best equipment. Followed the cycling to a 'T'. Thought the first store was reliable from plenty of recommends. Switched to the new store and now I've killed about 10 fish, feeling very guilty and I am left with one original fire fish and a cleaner shrimp and a couple of frags.

Do I start all over or just say lesson learned and quite killing marine life?

Too many chemical s too soon, prazi other than flukes was not the correct treatment . With proper ich treatment (coppersafe or other copper based) 30 days minimum for treatment at a therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 monitored by a reliable copper kit.
Prazi reduces both oxygen and appetite and added aeration would have been of benefit. Clown covered in white suggests brooklynella disease in which formalin based treatment would have been the answer
With all this , the ammonia level is likely elevated hence the heavy breathing and if youre using API test kit for ammonia- they are notorious for false readings and your levels are higher than shown

 

[tharbin]

If you've had tanks in the past you know these things can happen and then they pass. First thing, stop dumping chemicals in the tank. If you think the first batch of fish succumbed to disease, two weeks is nowhere near long enough to fallow the tank and even quarantined fish will get disease if the disease is in the tank. I would add no other fish and get a good look at the ones you have to try to get a recommendation on what they have and how to treat them. If you can get a photo of them there are people on here that can help you with diagnosis and treatment. Your problem is almost certainly not pH.

Pluck the algae maybe lower the lights for a few days but your tank is becoming a chemical soup.

 

[flyfisher2]

How long has the tank been up?

 

[TaylorP78]

My best advice is to go slow, I know it sucks. But start off with one simple fish, get the basics down, make sure no other possible toxins are entering your tank from your hands or equpitment. Get your RODI from a good source, you can’t just trust that the fish store changes their cartridges. Making your own is the best. Feeding small amounts multiple times a day helps fish recover from illnesses better by themselves. But do not overfeed, don’t let any food touch the sand. If it does, just scoop it or suck it out. Get on a regular water change schedule of at least 10-15% a week, more if you can. Keep the salinity stable, wether than means buying an ato or setting an alarm everyday to top off your tank manually. If I were you I would just start from scratch and either set up a quarantine tank or watch fish closely before you buy them and maybe even hold them for a couple days to see if they eat. Most of the time, if you buy a healthy fish and you have good water quality and are feeding well. The fish can overcome the disease on its own, you just have to help it so that. That’s more the case with minor disease, but if you get something more serious it’s definitely better to try a medication of some sort. @Humblefish has just about the best quarantine and treatment protocols out there, so I would follow his lead for treating and quarantining. Also in my opinion, it’s not always worth it to buy fish that are “quarantined” because any fish store that says that is pulling one over on you. Yes, the fish are generally a bit hardier and more tank conditioned. But that doesn’t mean they did a true quarantine. A true quarantine would be were the fish are alone for at least 4 weeks. But any fish store gets fish at least once a week if not more. And every time you add new fish to the same system the quarantine resets. So theoretically if you got a shipment of fish once a week, (which isn’t a lot for fish stores, mine gets 2-3 of just saltwater fish) you would need 4-5 different systems to quarantine all these fish. And I’m telling you right now, none of these fish stores have that. But just get the basics down, watch some BRS YouTube videos, and let that tank do it’s thing with minimal fish in there to start.

 

[bnord]

seems you have some brethren here to help you through the next phase... vetteguy, tharbin, others have sage advice... go slow now, ask for advice first before adding more treatments to the tank. stabilize your system and no more new inhabitants till balance returns.. at least 30 days. Water change and carbon/purit will cover a multitude of sins - help a lot. UV is a fine tuner, not a panacea.
Best of luck and stay close...

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Too many chemical s too soon, prazi other than flukes was not the correct treatment . With proper ich treatment (coppersafe or other copper based) 30 days minimum for treatment at a therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 monitored by a reliable copper kit.
Prazi reduces both oxygen and appetite and added aeration would have been of benefit. Clown covered in white suggests brooklynella disease in which formalin based treatment would have been the answer
With all this , the ammonia level is likely elevated hence the heavy breathing and if youre using API test kit for ammonia- they are notorious for false readings and your levels are higher than shown

Please follow this advice! This is exactly what I would suggest. Stop dumping things in the tank, pull ALL the fish into a hospital tank (a 10 gallon kit with heater and filter would work fine, just swap carbon filter pad with filter floss). Do a 90 minute bath with Ruby Reef Rally Pro, then move to the quarantine for 30 days in a copper product (I like cupramine, some prefer copper power), followed by 3 treatments of Prazi Pro roughly 7 days apart. This method hasn't failed me yet for eradicating disease. While the fish are treated, the tank can sit with the inverts present and leave your UV running, just feeding some food to keep it cycled and the inverts fed. Any new fish added goes through the same protocol before being added to the display, and I run UV for about a week before a new fish is added and through about 3 weeks after, just as a precaution.

 

[MrGisonni]

I agree with the other posters. Go slow and go easy on the chemical quick fixes. Keep up with your water changes and test often.

 

[Rmckoy]

Reminds me of the first rule instilled in my mind years ago when I started .

do not dose anything unless you can test a need for it .
Too many chemicals and additives .
one is only competing with the other not giving the first enough time to be effective .

I would increase the frequency of water changes while manually removing as much as the gfa as you can

run the tank fallow for the suggested time . There are a few members on here or even search quarantine protocol in r2r search .
Nothing happens fast in this hobby . And one mistake can cost years of success .

i lost a 15 year old mixed reef filled with montipora , acropora , and huge lps colonies . All from one avoidable mistake .
Not thinking and rushing ….,,

Take
Your time !