Fish are dying

[McKendree]

He had two

But he took them out

I would put them back

And add a bottle of MicroBacter7 over a week or so

There's no green algae in the tank. I don't think it cycled properly(not enough nitrifying bacteria)

I had the brown algae that was growing crazy long so I added some turbo snails and they ate it all in a few days. Now they keep it pretty dialed back, but have not had any green algae at all.

What are you talking about adding back?

 

[twentyleagues]

I dont see anything on the bengii that looks like ammonia damage but they dont have a good track record.

 

[McKendree]

Why wouldn’t I be reading nitrates or ammonia if the cycle was the issue?

I’ve been feeding fish for 3 weeks now…

 

[Solo McReefer]

What are you talking about adding back?

Your dead fish

Your fish are totally covered in bacteria that break down dead fish and fish waste

 

[Rjukan]

Why wouldn’t I be reading nitrates or ammonia if the cycle was the issue?

I’ve been feeding fish for 3 weeks now…

You never said if you did at any point.. did you see a spike in ammonia, then nitrite, finally nitrate with the first two going to zero, *prior* to you putting fish in?

Usually when a tank is cycled there is a noticeable amount of nitrate that it ends up with, which will persist until the tank matures a bit. At 6 weeks you're not there yet, and there should be measurable nitrate if the tank cycled properly.

I don't know if this is your underlying issue with the deaths, or it's a disease that's now in your tank from the first fishes you put in. But it would definitely help if you could rule out the cycle by spiking the ammonia up to 2.0 and watch it be processed to 0 (unless there are fish in there, then of course that's not an option).

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If you have snails alive while the fish die then the tank should be cycled IMO. I think your tester is wrong or you are doing it incorrectly. But you should have nitrate in the water, you need a good quality nitrate tester, don't rely on a test strip for that.

This is pointing more to disease I think.

 

[McKendree]

If you have snails alive while the fish die then the tank should be cycled IMO. I think your tester is wrong or you are doing it incorrectly. But you should have nitrate in the water, you need a good quality nitrate tester, don't rely on a test strip for that.

This is pointing more to disease I think.

Yes, I’m buying a better nitrate tester kit, it’s coming in the mail.

Zero deaths from my CUC, including 4 turbos, 1 snail (don’t know the name of it, it has an antenna it sticks out of the sand while it’s buried), 1 hermit crab, and 1 urchin. All doing fine.

Also the watchman goby was added first day of adding fish and he looks great.

 

[McKendree]

Your dead fish

Your fish are totally covered in bacteria that break down dead fish and fish waste

Oh, I have the cardinals still in a ziplock. Should I add them back to the tank??

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes, I’m buying a better nitrate tester kit, it’s coming in the mail.

Zero deaths from my CUC, including 4 turbos, 1 snail (don’t know the name of it, it has an antenna it sticks out of the sand while it’s buried), 1 hermit crab, and 1 urchin. All doing fine.

Also the watchman goby was added first day of adding fish and he looks great.

Still have not seen pics and videos requested. I see you have what you said are better kits coming. Hopefully, hanna or salifert brrands. Test strips which also work for freshwater are not worth the $7 price wen trying to sustain and losing %200 in fish. When in doubt, take a water sample to a trusted store that does not use API kits and see what readings they come up with.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My tank video

Here I see video now and your tank is well UNDER-FILTERED as you have a basic mechanical filter best used for a freshwater tank. Your unit is a mechanical filter and you want to have mechanical , biological and chemical to manage proper water quality. The aquaclear will polish water and trap particles via the cartridge.
Chemical is what traps and breaks down chemical compounds such as feces and uneaten food often accomplished with use of carbon and GFO as examples
Biological is what utilizes the natural process of biological filtration such as use of ceramic nuggets, bio blocks, and microscopic bacteria surfaces as examples. Best it to add or use a hang on refugium such as Reef octopus or AquaMaxx unit and even add a hang on skimmer such as ice cap K1- or K2 100
Ammonia spike may have been very possible and often undetectable after the spike event.

 

[Lavey29]

Additionally you want your wave pumps about 3 inches below the surface so you get good surface ripple agitation for gas exchange. Not at the lower half pointing down.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Oh, I have the cardinals still in a ziplock. Should I add them back to the tank??

I have no idea what you should do

I wrote what I would do. I don't have a problem cycling fish or CUC

Others have moral issues with doing that

I saw some soft corals in the tank. I don't know what they are or how much they cost. They would probably die with my method

I don't think a tank has cycled until I get a healthy growth of green algae. Then the big CUC goes in, they either clean up the algae or die, then may die due to not enough algae

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My tank video

Thanks - the video helps rule some things out. This is clearly a fish disease issue with the first fish. Water quality issues are not in play because none of the invertebrates are affected. Your goby may be resistant to that particular disease, or it just hasn't gotten sick yet. The Banggai cardinals probably didn't die from the original disease issue, it doesn't sound like they were in the tank long enough to catch anything. These cardinals have their own issues - there is a serious virus that is decimating wild caught banggai. The mortality is upwards of 80% Tank raised ones used to be o.k., but now those are being raised in SE Asia and have the same issues as the wild caught ones.

To be honest, you may will continue running into issues unless you begin quarantining your fish, or buying only pre quarantined fish.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

 

[McKendree]

Thanks - the video helps rule some things out. This is clearly a fish disease issue with the first fish. Water quality issues are not in play because none of the invertebrates are affected. Your goby may be resistant to that particular disease, or it just hasn't gotten sick yet. The Banggai cardinals probably didn't die from the original disease issue, it doesn't sound like they were in the tank long enough to catch anything. These cardinals have their own issues - there is a serious virus that is decimating wild caught banggai. The mortality is upwards of 80% Tank raised ones used to be o.k., but now those are being raised in SE Asia and have the same issues as the wild caught ones.

To be honest, you may will continue running into issues unless you begin quarantining your fish, or buying only pre quarantined fish.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

Yes, I appreciate the response. I bought a 10 gallon today which will be my dedicated QT tank. Going to try the BRS 80/20 method that doesn’t require a cycled tank.

I agree with you. None of the comments about tank cycling make any sense to me with 100% of my invertebrates doing just fine while all except 1 fish have died. This has to be a disease issue. But none of the bodies of the fish showed any signs of anything. Even the Bangaii died fat and eating and swimming around 12 hours before.

 

[McKendree]

Here I see video now and your tank is well UNDER-FILTERED as you have a basic mechanical filter best used for a freshwater tank. Your unit is a mechanical filter and you want to have mechanical , biological and chemical to manage proper water quality. The aquaclear will polish water and trap particles via the cartridge.
Chemical is what traps and breaks down chemical compounds such as feces and uneaten food often accomplished with use of carbon and GFO as examples
Biological is what utilizes the natural process of biological filtration such as use of ceramic nuggets, bio blocks, and microscopic bacteria surfaces as examples. Best it to add or use a hang on refugium such as Reef octopus or AquaMaxx unit and even add a hang on skimmer such as ice cap K1- or K2 100
Ammonia spike may have been very possible and often undetectable after the spike event.

Well the AC HOB has mechanical with the sponge, biological with the ceramic, and chemical with the carbon bag. Plus 50+ lbs of rock and live sand.

Also the reactor is going to run chemipure once that is needed.

I have thought about a refugium too.

I did add a bottle of tigger and apex copepods as well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Well the AC HOB has mechanical with the sponge, biological with the ceramic, and chemical with the carbon bag. Plus 50+ lbs of rock and live sand.

Also the reactor is going to run chemipure once that is needed.

I have thought about a refugium too.

I did add a bottle of tigger and apex copepods as well.

This has to do with filtration based on tank age but I dont see it as cause of death. Just reading back, i see Jay made mention of disease which seems more probable

 

[blecki]

Honestly I don't think all those hangers-on and reactors are going to do anything that just adding more rock and letting the tank age a little won't do. Live rock and good flow are all the filter you need. I would get a skimmer before any of those other gadgets, though there won't be much to skim just yet. You'd think 50lbs would be enough for 46 gallons but that does not look like 50lbs in your video. And for that matter you don't appear to have a water quality issue anyway, so there's no reason to add more filtration.

QT won't do any good if the surviving goby is infected. If it was disease it's possible the goby is now carrying it and would just infect any new fish. You have to catch and treat it to be sure.

 

[blecki]

But none of the bodies of the fish showed any signs of anything.

As Jay discussed that's kind of normal now for the cardinals. I really like them and wanted to replace the ones I lost a year and a half ago but after losing the first batch and reading about it I'm holding off. May never be able to get them at this rate.

For the others - it's not too unusual. Velvet can kill with no visible symptoms. Ich and flukes can kill a fish without appearing on the body. So can internal uronema. A year and a half ago in the same event where I lost my cardinals I lost a coral beauty, Hawaiian yellow, sailfin, and a ten year old clown to what I've assumed since was probably velvet. Only the clown ever showed visible symptoms. Meanwhile the engineer gobies in the same tank never so much as flinched. Gobies are pretty resilient - probably has to do with spending so much time down in the muck.

QT is an absolute must. I've seen two cases of ich and one probable case of velvet in fish I've bought and quarantined myself since.

 

[Lavey29]

Tank needs to fallow 45 to 76 days now.

 

[McKendree]

Honestly I don't think all those hangers-on and reactors are going to do anything that just adding more rock and letting the tank age a little won't do. Live rock and good flow are all the filter you need. I would get a skimmer before any of those other gadgets, though there won't be much to skim just yet. You'd think 50lbs would be enough for 46 gallons but that does not look like 50lbs in your video. And for that matter you don't appear to have a water quality issue anyway, so there's no reason to add more filtration.

QT won't do any good if the surviving goby is infected. If it was disease it's possible the goby is now carrying it and would just infect any new fish. You have to catch and treat it to be sure.

Thank you for the replies. Helpful info. I weighed the rock by placing all of it (dry) in buckets and weighing the buckets with a fish scale. Both buckets were about 28-30 lbs each. Maybe it looks like less because they are just piled ontop of each other? Also, I added them first and then the sand so the bottom 2 inches or so is buried.