Dying Fish

dwilliams87 · May 16, 2012

Hey guys, I need a little help for a friend of mine and I don't know how to help. To start here is his set-up. 75g system with canister filter. He keeps poly filter, bioballs, and carbon in his filter. About 100 lbs live rock. 60 lbs sand. 2 700gph powerheads. He's got shop lights with 1 6500K and 1 actinic. 40 Blue leg hermits, 4 turbo snails, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 peppermint, 4 cerith snails, 1 emerald crab. He has or had 1 scopus tang, 1 blue regal tang - very small, 2 clowns, 1 purple pseudo,1 diamond goby, 1 damsel, 1 starry blenny. 4 green chromis. 1 clown goby. He had a naso but traded it for the scopus becuase of aggression issues about a week ago. His water levels are Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates - 30, Salinity - 1.025-6, Ph - 8.2. He has an open brain, a maze brain, mushroom, and palys in there as well. No coral affected. He has added all these fish over a period of 2 months. He added a peice of plastic inside his tank to store some chaeto about 3 days ago, unwashed. It was a thing you would have used in the shower to hold shampoo,etc. Brand New. He Cut new poly pads about 2 days ago and he said when he started up the canister, fines went everywhere and the fish started eating them. He had the cover off the back of his tank fall in night before last and he found 1 of the clowns sucked to his skimmer the following morning, by the way it's a coral life 220 skimmer. The next day the starry blenny was dead. All fish are real spotted up. Any help with this would be great.

andywe · May 16, 2012

Immediately remove the new poly addition..it could have casting or extrusion residue poisoning the water. Second, make and do several large water changes a few days apart...try and cleanse the water. It is obvious the fish are stressed. Change and run fresh carbon.Use a media reactor and not just the consider filter for this. You want some volume and canister size is more than likely too small for his tank and load. I am not a fan at all of canister filters on salt tanks..not very good compared to today's technologies, but thats my opinion. 30 years ago we ran canister and it's all we had, and with the animals he is running my opinion is not effective or efficient enough.

If he has a QT tank, perhaps move the fish to it until he can do the water changes .
Again just my opinion and mileage varies. Good luck.

Dowtish · May 16, 2012

So if he added all these fish in a 2 month period, I am a guessing the tank is fairly new as well? Because that is a lot of fish to adding in a such a short time. I would just pull the canister filter off the tank completely. He has a good amount of rock for biological filtration and a skimmer. the canister is probably why he has 30 nitrates as well. those bio balls are terrible in a canister.

So yeah, how old is the tank?

dwilliams87 · May 16, 2012

The tank is 3 months old. If the Nitrates aren't but 30, that isn't enough to kill the fish. So, the canister wouldn't be the problem then, correct? So do you think this is because of overly stressing the fish with too many inhabitants too quickly?

gmoney243 · May 16, 2012

Any of those unwashed items could easily had something on them as well. Nitrates are way high for a coral tank and I'm guessing po4 is gona b very high as well. While ok for fish these will effect corals. As said get rid of canister and bio balls its only causing problems. Do WCs and run new carbon. Look into a sump , a hob refugium, algae scrubber or bio-pellets for nutrient export.

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

dwilliams87 · May 16, 2012

I agree the canister is not the best method, but is that the reason for the problem? I told him what you guys said and his response was ''aquatic critter runs canisters in their stand alone units, I don't think the canister is what killed the fish, that's been the same since the beginning." The only things that have changed are the new plastic refugium, adding fish, and the plastic peice falling in the tank. The nitrates are always between 20-30. I think it either has to do with the fish eating the poly fines or just the quickness of all these fish being added. But if it's the fish being added so quickly that's not going to change now. Also, he does not have a QT.

Connie · May 16, 2012

I would also remove the plastic shower caddy. Is it plastic coated wire? Is it solid plastic? If it is wire, metals are killing the fish. Also, since the plastic isn't used to hold water for consumption, it probably isn't BPA free.

gmoney243 · May 16, 2012

No the canister isn't causing death.. yet... but its not helping or doing anything but causing nitrates and phos. Why not try have the best tank possible. Why does he have it on there? Just curious what's its purpose is suppose to be?

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

dwilliams87 · May 16, 2012

Ok, I agree with you guys, but the canister was a cheap way for him to have a filter running. He got it for a really good deal and it is sized for a 180g tank. I'm trying to tell you what he is going to tell me. He's not going to quit running the canister until he has the money for a sump/refugium. He is on a budget and rather than spending the money on equipment like he should have, he bought livestock too early. But the canister does not explain why his fish are dying. If the coral is fine, and the fish are dying = it has to be a fish only problem. So while the canister should be removed and something better is available, it doesn't solve the problem. Why are his fish dying? Is it too many livestock too quickly? Could it be the unwashed shower caddy? Or could it be the Poly fines that the fish ate? I don't think it would be the shower caddy because that should affect the coral as well. To me, I think it's either the poly fines or the overstocking of fish?

Dowtish · May 16, 2012

It could be that they ate the fines, but also, the tank has way too many fish too quickly. Your tank can go through many multiple mini cycles within the first year. Nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

I added a fish or 2 only after 4-6 weeks of the last addition when my tank was under 6 months. this also can depend on their size as well.

dwilliams87 · May 16, 2012

Yeah, that's what I thought. I've told him to slow down, and he agrees with that. Hopefully he can save the fish he has now with no more problems. I told him I'd wait a minimum of 2 months before adding anything else to the tank, which he thought was a good idea. I made the same mistake the first time around and lost alot of fish and coral because of it. I told him it's a hard lesson to learn but at least he hasn't lost everything. Thank ya'll for the help.