Dead fish and high ammonia

[Hud]

2 weeks ago I got a hob protein skimmer for my 20 gallon the livestock was 2 clowns a tailspot blenny, six line wrasse, and a royal gramma. The tank has been set up for 7 months and everything in my tank was doing great. About a week after I got the skimmer one of my clowns died and I checked my levels and I had high ammonia. I put my royal gramma in a different tank because I wanted a different fish for my 20 gallon. Today I woke up and another clown died so I put my other clown and wrasse in a qt and the clown died. All my corals are doing great and so is the tailspot blenny and my cleaner shrimp. What has happened? Is the skimmer taking out to much waste/nutrients

 

[ScottyD36]

Did you take something out of your tank to put the skimmer in? I would do water change to try and remove some ammonia out of your tank.

 

[FishyFishFish]

Whilst waiting for the experts to come and help, it might be worth posting more details as I'm sure they are going to ask. What are your water parameters? Any changes other than the skimmer? Have the fish all been in there for the full 7 months?

 

[Hud]

Did you take something out of your tank to put the skimmer in? I would do water change to try and remove some ammonia out of your tank.

 

[Hud]

Did you take something out of your tank to put the skimmer in? I would do water change to try and remove some ammonia out of your tank.

I didn’t take anything out of my tank and I did a water change already thanks

 

[Hud]

Whilst waiting for the experts to come and help, it might be worth posting more details as I'm sure they are going to ask. What are your water parameters? Any changes other than the skimmer? Have the fish all been in there for the full 7 months?

Ok thank you I will do that

 

[brandon429]

Fish disease from skipping disease preps in new tank and no ammonia spike is the bet

post pics of the tank

a tank that old can’t have an ammonia issue before the fish death, ammonia readings need TAN conversion per instructions or people react to nh4 levels which look high but aren’t when converted to nh3. a tank pic will solve the ammonia issue, the losses in a new tank are nearly always common disease by adding unprepped fish. The timing with skimmer is merely coincidental


my cycling posts mention deaths at the eight month mark in skip prep tanks. It’s a pattern we find in follow up cycle inspections

ammonia cannot rise before fish loss, there’s no mechanism for that. Mis testing is the bet, or no tan conversion

 

[DrZoidburg]

If you think its a disease throw it in the fish disease forum with pictures you might get better advice. @Jay Hemdal what do you think?

 

[Lyss]

2 weeks ago I got a hob protein skimmer for my 20 gallon the livestock was 2 clowns a tailspot blenny, six line wrasse, and a royal gramma. The tank has been set up for 7 months and everything in my tank was doing great. About a week after I got the skimmer one of my clowns died and I checked my levels and I had high ammonia. I put my royal gramma in a different tank because I wanted a different fish for my 20 gallon. Today I woke up and another clown died so I put my other clown and wrasse in a qt and the clown died. All my corals are doing great and so is the tailspot blenny and my cleaner shrimp. What has happened? Is the skimmer taking out to much waste/nutrients

2 weeks ago I got a hob protein skimmer for my 20 gallon the livestock was 2 clowns a tailspot blenny, six line wrasse, and a royal gramma. The tank has been set up for 7 months and everything in my tank was doing great. About a week after I got the skimmer one of my clowns died and I checked my levels and I had high ammonia. I put my royal gramma in a different tank because I wanted a different fish for my 20 gallon. Today I woke up and another clown died so I put my other clown and wrasse in a qt and the clown died. All my corals are doing great and so is the tailspot blenny and my cleaner shrimp. What has happened? Is the skimmer taking out to much waste/nutrients

Are you able to post what your parameters are and were? You say ammonia was high, but what was the # and what kit did you use to test?

You also say 2 clowns were in there and 1 died. Then another clown died, but you moved another clown. How many total clowns did/do you have in the tank at once? I’m confused about the stocking, and either way those first 5 fish you mentioned seem like a lot for a 20g IMO. Did you add some fish recently? How long have the first 5 you mentioned been in the tank together?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

2 weeks ago I got a hob protein skimmer for my 20 gallon the livestock was 2 clowns a tailspot blenny, six line wrasse, and a royal gramma. The tank has been set up for 7 months and everything in my tank was doing great. About a week after I got the skimmer one of my clowns died and I checked my levels and I had high ammonia. I put my royal gramma in a different tank because I wanted a different fish for my 20 gallon. Today I woke up and another clown died so I put my other clown and wrasse in a qt and the clown died. All my corals are doing great and so is the tailspot blenny and my cleaner shrimp. What has happened? Is the skimmer taking out to much waste/nutrients

The timeline for all this is critical in trying to determine what has happened. As mentioned, we would need to know what ammonia kit you are using and what level you tested at - I'm not sure how a 7 month old tank would show an ammonia spike.

When corals are doing fine and the fish are dying, the first suspicion is some sort of disease. However, that is where the timeline comes in - it is also unusual for disease to just pop up 7 months in. However, if you added a new fish more recently, that could be the culprit.

Any rapid breathing seen in the affected fish?

Jay Hemdal

 

[Hud]

Fish disease from skipping disease preps in new tank and no ammonia spike is the bet

post pics of the tank

a tank that old can’t have an ammonia issue before the fish death, ammonia readings need TAN conversion per instructions or people react to nh4 levels which look high but aren’t when converted to nh3. a tank pic will solve the ammonia issue, the losses in a new tank are nearly always common disease by adding unprepped fish. The timing with skimmer is merely coincidental


my cycling posts mention deaths at the eight month mark in skip prep tanks. It’s a pattern we find in follow up cycle inspections

ammonia cannot rise before fish loss, there’s no mechanism for that. Mis testing is the bet, or no tan conversion

Well one day one of my clownfish was sucked up in the filter intake I’m not sure why I’m thinking it’s because he was quite small and after that another clown died so I put my clownfish and wrasse in a qt with copper because they had ich and they died this morning my corals are fine my cleaner shrimp and blenny are still in the tank doing fine the clown that got sucked up in the filter had no ich and neither did the one that died In out of nowhere in my tank

 

[Hud]

The timeline for all this is critical in trying to determine what has happened. As mentioned, we would need to know what ammonia kit you are using and what level you tested at - I'm not sure how a 7 month old tank would show an ammonia spike.

When corals are doing fine and the fish are dying, the first suspicion is some sort of disease. However, that is where the timeline comes in - it is also unusual for disease to just pop up 7 months in. However, if you added a new fish more recently, that could be the culprit.

Any rapid breathing seen in the affected fish?

Jay Hemdal

I’m using an api test kit. I think my blenny is breathing fast

 

[brandon429]

post a pic of your reef pls if you can, if not from this morning then the most recent shot w the lights on

that picture helps us eliminate ammonia as the cause, then we work down from there

API= how does your reading look after TAN conversion to nh3 per instructions, does that make it look better/ its 10x lower levels than what you were initially reacting to

the way disease is factored in my cycling threads is this: if you added fish from a pet store to a non prepped system, its disease not params not ammonia not electrical current etc

that's said going off the ratios we can see in the disease forum for non preps. for sure there are 1% causes that aren't disease, but they're of much lower likelihood.

 

[FishyFishFish]

You need to provide the information that people are asking for otherwise they can't help.

Just asking 'why did my fish die' is not going to provide any useful answers. This is the first time that you've mentioned the filter and the QT.

You will need to give a full timeline (when and what order were the fish introduced etc). What were the ammonia levels before and after? Did they spike before the deaths started or after?

How did you QT the fish you removed? How did you add the copper (and what copper)? How did you test the copper levels?

 

[Hud]

I u

Are you able to post what your parameters are and were? You say ammonia was high, but what was the # and what kit did you use to test?

You also say 2 clowns were in there and 1 died. Then another clown died, but you moved another clown. How many total clowns did/do you have in the tank at once? I’m confused about the stocking, and either way those first 5 fish you mentioned seem like a lot for a 20g IMO. Did you add some fish recently? How long have the first 5 you mentioned been in the tank together?

I used an api test kit the ammonia is between 4 and 8 ppm. The clown died and I checked my parameters and there was ammonia but I did a wc and they went down so I got another clown and he died. All the fish in my tank are quite small but when the first clown died there was only 4 fish I had all those fish for around a month and a half

 

[Hud]

post a pic of your reef pls if you can, if not from this morning then the most recent shot w the lights on

that picture helps us eliminate ammonia as the cause, then we work down from there

API= how does your reading look after TAN conversion to nh3 per instructions, does that make it look better/ its 10x lower levels than what you were initially reacting to

the way disease is factored in my cycling threads is this: if you added fish from a pet store to a non prepped system, its disease not params not ammonia not electrical current etc

that's said going off the ratios we can see in the disease forum for non preps. for sure there are 1% causes that aren't disease, but they're of much lower likelihood.

Just so you know a lot of corals are on the sand bed or fell over beacause of my hermits I’m about to pick them up

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m using an api test kit. I think my blenny is breathing fast

API is notorious for false readings and you may be getting higher levels than the kit is showing. One way to confirm is simply taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use API tests and see what reading they come up with.
Not sure how a pic notates if tank has high levels but I question age of tank, and how it was cycled.
It is typical of Brandon to touch on cycling.
If youre adding fish at a steady pace and tank is barely cycled, it can be low oxygen, ammonia or as stated by Jay parasitical which would be from the store from where you made your purchase.
A lot of possibilities and it needs to be pinpointed before proceeding with stocking from this point on

 

[Hud]

API is notorious for false readings and you may be getting higher levels than the kit is showing. One way to confirm is simply taking a water sample to a trusted LFS that does not use API tests and see what reading they come up with.
Not sure how a pic notates if tank has high levels but I question age of tank, and how it was cycled.
It is typical of Brandon to touch on cycling.
If youre adding fish at a steady pace and tank is barely cycled, it can be low oxygen, ammonia or as stated by Jay parasitical which would be from the store from where you made your purchase.
A lot of possibilities and it needs to be pinpointed before proceeding with stocking from this point on

The tank was cycled with Bacteria and ammonia it cycled in 25 days and I added fish slowly

 

[Lyss]

I u

I used an api test kit the ammonia is between 4 and 8 ppm. The clown died and I checked my parameters and there was ammonia but I did a wc and they went down so I got another clown and he died. All the fish in my tank are quite small but when the first clown died there was only 4 fish I had all those fish for around a month and a half

Those fish may be small now but I still think the tank is overstocked — when that are mature it will be an issue.

you also just mentioned ich for the first time. Are you certain it was ich? Did you quarantine your fish, or add them direct from the fish store?

it would appear to me there is a disease problem, potentially ich. And high ammonia could be from the other fish dying. Did you remove them right away?

 

[FishyFishFish]

Between 4 an 8 is pretty high. How did you cycle the tank?

You say that the ammonia dropped and then you added another clown. What was the ammonia level when you did this?

Had the clown that got sucked into the intake also been in the tank for 6 weeks, or was it a new addition?