:( dead in less than 24 hrs...

[SplishsplashME]

I got a six line wrasse yesterday and woke up to it flat on the glass in my qt tank, I can't understand what happened.

PH 8.2
NO2 - 0 ppm
NO3 - 0 ppm
NH3/NH4 - 0 ppm
Salinity 1.023
Temp 79

Tank was set up a few days ago, I put a small dry base rock in it, and a mini in tank filter. Where did I go wrong?

I temperature acclimated for 15 min. Then slowly introduced the qt water to the bag.

Was it the base rock, should I have cycled the qt tank, bad fish from the get go? I also have a dehumidifier in the same room as the tank would noise stress it out?

 

[thekikster]

My guess is you should have cycled the tank

 

[SplishsplashME]

I have seen that it isn't necessary because of the frequent water changes?

 

[TighTT]

"Tank was set up a few days ago"

*DING*

 

[SplishsplashME]

All readings were at 0 so why is it important? What actually kills it?

 

[MandarinGirl]

uh well the cycle may not have started yet. In example my cycle on my tank didn't start till I got my LED reef lights plus my skimmer.

 

[TighTT]

Im not there to test your water myself but it is never advisable to add fish to a new, un-cycled tank.

 

[Bjohn]

Since the tank is so young, could it be possible that during the night you had an ammonia spike that was just too much for the already stressed fish?

 

[.Marshall]

The ammonia levels produced by the fish in <24 hours just sits there in the water with no bacteria to complete the Nitrogen cycle and kills the fish, you need to cycle the QT before the fish gets there if you're starting with base rock. In quick situations I have had success using multiple live rocks straight from my display with 50% display tank water (+ 50% freshly mixed saltwater) to set up my QT. But I only suggest this method to the experienced reefer so you can troubleshoot if something goes wrong.

 

[NanaReefer]

I think it was the fish. Your tests show .0 ammonia


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[evolved]

You can set up a QT without cycling... just simply forces you to handle parameters by virtue of water changes. Things aren't going to go south in 24 hours time, assuming you didn't add the water from the bag to the QT.

So let's look past the newly setup QT; that's a red herring. It's either a stress issue (possibly acclimation induced) or a parasite issue.

 

[afamousjohnson]

Where did you get the water from for the qt tank? Did it come from your established display? (Which is always a good idea) I've had 2 six lines do that on me with everyone else doing fine.

 

[SplishsplashME]

So where did the ammonia go? I used API ammonia test kit and it read 0. I do understand that there wasn't any nitrifying bacteria but I was going to do frequent water changes. I just feel like I should have seen a spike.

 

[SplishsplashME]

I have flatworms in my display (reason for the six line) so I didn't want to put that water in the qt tank. I have done that before though with a fire fish goby and it worked great.

 

[raven67]

Have you bought fish from the LFS before? I've found that if I buy a fish from Pertco it's a 50% chance it will be dead in the morning. If it doesn't die the first night, it will be fine.

I'm not sure the fishes ammonia he produced caused it. Especially in such a volume if water. Fish ship overnight all the time, my six line shipped from live aquaria in like a cup of water. You could see the ammonia in the water when I pulled him out of the box and he was fine. Drip acclimated him for two hours and he's been healthy two months now.

Problem with rock in QT is that if you use copper to treat anything, you can never put that rock back in your tank.

TL;DR: I'd say fish was already sick and/or super stressed and died from that. Unless you didn't acclimate before QT.

 

[SplishsplashME]

It was new water, that was made a few days ago as well. Thanks for the insight guys/girls I don't want to sound like I am defensive I am just annoyed that it died, i thought i had done everything right, and I have seen instant qt tanks. Would bad mysis shrimp do it? Or the dry base rock?

 

[PaulKreider]

Do you have any form of circulation? Maybe no oxygen in water? You didn't mention if their were power heads or a filter running.

 

[SplishsplashME]

Yea an in tank filter with the aerator crack

 

[seamonkey84]

I've always kept some bio media or filter sponge in the main tank, so when I need to set up the qt/hospital tank, I just add the seeded media to it and has never failed me.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I think it may have just been the fish. If there was an ammonia spike, I would expect to see an increase in nitrite or nitrate as well. How is the flow in the tank? Do you have good movement of water at the top of the tank?