Everything is dying

[Treas1976]

In need of help. I have have my aquarium set up for a year now and had placed coral and fish. Everything was fine and thriving for 4 months with coral and fish. Now I had lost 2 lions and a clam. The other fish are showing signs of white fuzz, and three corals are dying. The shrimp and crabs are doing well though. I have tested the water multiple times with 8.0 pH, 0.25ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrate, 0.25ppm Phosphate, KH is at 179. I have alot of pods in tank which is suppose to be a good sign. So what can I be doing wrong? salinity is 1.25 temp 76 F

 

[littlefoxx]

In need of help. I have have my aquarium set up for a year now and had placed coral and fish. Everything was fine and thriving for 4 months with coral and fish. Now I had lost 2 lions and a clam. The other fish are showing signs of white fuzz, and three corals are dying. The shrimp and crabs are doing well though. I have tested the water multiple times with 8.0 pH, 0.25ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrate, 0.25ppm Phosphate, KH is at 179. I have alot of pods in tank which is suppose to be a good sign. So what can I be doing wrong? salinity is 1.25 temp 76 F

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal @MnFish1

 

[Sharkbait19]

0.25 ppm ammonia is concerning - that should read zero. What test kit are you using?
Did any contaminants get in? For fish and corals to both be dying, it would first indicate some sort of water issue as opposed to disease.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

a tank pic in white lights will help a lot.

 

[Doctorgori]

clams can be touchy depending but Lionfish are pretty bulletproof …. usually IME those and Marine Bettas are the last fish to die…. hmmmm

 

[brandon429]

the first thing you do is lower your light intensity by 50% as you figure things out. too bright lights will kill via bleaching during stress events.

don't worry nor react to the ammonia reading, that's a common reading on that kit for tanks not in distress, so the ammonia doesn't factor for you. simply remove any dead fish and ignore the ammonia levels, they'll cause you to dump in a bunch of reactive chemicals that jack with your oxygen levels if you factor in the ammonia. you can control ammonia by simply removing any dead fish.


regarding fish disease-nothing you can do now but fallow out this tank and qt your next fish round see the disease forum

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

In need of help. I have have my aquarium set up for a year now and had placed coral and fish. Everything was fine and thriving for 4 months with coral and fish. Now I had lost 2 lions and a clam. The other fish are showing signs of white fuzz, and three corals are dying. The shrimp and crabs are doing well though. I have tested the water multiple times with 8.0 pH, 0.25ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrate, 0.25ppm Phosphate, KH is at 179. I have alot of pods in tank which is suppose to be a good sign. So what can I be doing wrong? salinity is 1.25 temp 76 F

Welcome to Reef2Reef.

Generally, if only fish are dying, the cause is some fish disease. If only invertebrates are dying, it is usually some environmental issue. Since both fish and invertebrates are dying, it is less clear what is going on, or maybe there are two issues at the same time.

Can you post a video of the tank?
Can you post pictures of the fish with "white fuzz"?
What test kit did you u8se for ammonia, 0.25 ppm should really be zero at this point.

Jay

 

[brandon429]

= api kit is the bet = an nh4 reading vs nh3

 

[Treas1976]

0.25 ppm ammonia is concerning - that should read zero. What test kit are you using?
Did any contaminants get in? For fish and corals to both be dying, it would first indicate some sort of water issue as opposed to disease.

Using both API Saltwater and Reef Master test kits. Nothing I would know of to get into the tank.

 

[brandon429]

you would ignore the ammonia and remove carcasses and solely focus on reading the disease forum for fallow and qt, there are no additives that you input into the system to stop this chain event. lower light levels and ramp them up slowly over two weeks after the problem is fixed, or during your display tank's fallow period. its not possible to skip fish disease preps in the hobby when we source from pet stores. only the .02% lucky can pull that off.

your cycle is not an issue for reasons stated, if you focus or react to ammonia you are way off course and a full coral crash is likely. remove any dead fish, if there are none, the reef has already fixed it's prior ammonia issues/reefs process ammonia loads in about 15 mins if the current is on. your tank does not have an ammonia issue, search out any .25 api ammonia reading you can see about 500,000 misreads online for that exact reading, on that kit. it's what normal reefs read on that kit. the rare ones are the ones that read zero.

 

[brandon429]

this is why updated cycling science works better for fish retention: chases no red herrings. functioning reef tanks with no dead fish carcasses can't have ammonia issues unless someone dumps in antibiotics for days without telling us, but that's abnormal. as written above, this reef tank can't have an ammonia issue it has a skipping disease preps issue. any rotting carcasses don't need to be tested for, simply remove them, and in 15 mins the reef fixes any prior ammonia issues. it would take more than one dead fish in tandem to even present an ammonia issue anyway, all reefs can digest a fish or two without ammonia issues. the cycle is not an issue here, it's a skipping disease preps issue and likely way too bright lighting.

 

[Treas1976]

clams can be touchy depending but Lionfish are pretty bulletproof …. usually IME those and Marine Bettas are the last fish to die…. hmmmm

I know clams can be sensitive. First was my 2 dwarf zebra lions and one coral was turning white.

Welcome to Reef2Reef.

Generally, if only fish are dying, the cause is some fish disease. If only invertebrates are dying, it is usually some environmental issue. Since both fish and invertebrates are dying, it is less clear what is going on, or maybe there are two issues at the same time.

Can you post a video of the tank?
Can you post pictures of the fish with "white fuzz"?
What test kit did you u8se for ammonia, 0.25 ppm should really be zero at this point.

Jay

 

[bluemon]

Any pictures of the lion before their deaths? Did you see any visible symptoms?

Breathing hard, white spots, etc?

 

[brandon429]

your best chance at curbing that coral loss is the light reduction stated, and target feeding cpr+ partial water changes every 2 days for a long time (to reduce nutrient build up from the targeted extra feeding)

you can also just take the common daily fare you offer fish and instead of casting into the tank, get up early before lights are on / when feeders are out on the corals/ and grind up + shoot the food across the corals directly using a tool to make sure corals are fed first then the bleed off feed runs to the rest of the tank, either way you need sustained repeated efforts opposite of the current stasis that is stripping them of tissue. You need to sustain the activity like exercise, on your part on behalf of the tank, for eight weeks if you want to save them. If you leave them untouched, no change, they’re likely to strip out all flesh in a week.

at minimum, the light reduction is required if you want a chance to stop it.

 

[Treas1976]

Any pictures of the lion before their deaths? Did you see any visible symptoms?

Breathing hard, white spots, etc?

was a couple white spots, but then one lion withing 3 days fins rotted. Sorry no pics of them.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

was a couple white spots, but then one lion withing 3 days fins rotted. Sorry no pics of them.

The coral issues aren’t related to the fish problem - the one clownfish has Brooklynella, and the other fish have been exposed, so I’d say that is the issue with the fish.
So what to do? Brook is difficult to deal with, you cannot treat the fish in the tank with the corals. Formalin dips and baths are the best treatment, but it is toxic to people and difficult to source. Ruby Reef is often suggested, but may not work. Chloroquine is something else you could try. Copper doesn’t seem to work on it.
Leaving your DT fishless for 60+ days will eliminate the Brook there.
Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

The coral issue as stated is isolated from the fish issue and likely caused by any of the following:
Elevated phosphate
elevated salinity
alk low
High CA
insufficient water flow
high white intensity

A few things to check on

 

[Lavey29]

0.25 ppm ammonia is concerning - that should read zero. What test kit are you using?
Did any contaminants get in? For fish and corals to both be dying, it would first indicate some sort of water issue as opposed to disease.

Probably from the dead fish and coral he is seeing ammonia numbers now

 

[Treas1976]

The coral issue as stated is isolated from the fish issue and likely caused by any of the following:
Elevated phosphate
elevated salinity
alk low
High CA
insufficient water flow
high white intensity

A few things to check on

It may be the waterflow or light. So far I'm checking them daily and it just seems to be only the 2 of my corals. The other one perked back up. Been doing a weekly 10% water change. After being told that I should be doing them weekly. Correction my salinity is 1.025 I had typed that wrong in post. That is something I check daily.

 

[Rmckoy]

In need of help. I have have my aquarium set up for a year now and had placed coral and fish. Everything was fine and thriving for 4 months with coral and fish. Now I had lost 2 lions and a clam. The other fish are showing signs of white fuzz, and three corals are dying. The shrimp and crabs are doing well though. I have tested the water multiple times with 8.0 pH, 0.25ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 0ppm Nitrate, 0.25ppm Phosphate, KH is at 179. I have alot of pods in tank which is suppose to be a good sign. So what can I be doing wrong? salinity is 1.25 temp 76 F

Salinity 1.025 ?