Fish Dying - possibly Velvet

[Gordon42]

I have a very weird situation. My 75 gallon has been running for 4 months now and I have lost over 15 fish in that time. Not sure if I got over anxious and over stocked to quickly but I did let it cycle properly. I never had a problem with PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite or Salinity. I have well water that is filtered does anyone think something is wrong it the water from the well or is this bad luck?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Gweeds1980]

I have a very weird situation. My 75 gallon has been running for 4 months now and I have lost over 15 fish in that time. Not sure if I got over anxious and over stocked to quickly but I did let it cycle properly. I never had a problem with PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite or Salinity. I have well water that is filtered does anyone think something is wrong it the water from the well or is this bad luck?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

When you say filtered, do you mean via RO/DI unit?

 

[4FordFamily]

I have a very weird situation. My 75 gallon has been running for 4 months now and I have lost over 15 fish in that time. Not sure if I got over anxious and over stocked to quickly but I did let it cycle properly. I never had a problem with PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite or Salinity. I have well water that is filtered does anyone think something is wrong it the water from the well or is this bad luck?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you

This sounds like classic parasitic infestation— my guess is velvet. It’s of course possible that your tank wasn’t ready as well, but parasites are your likely primary culprit.

Do you quarantine?

Have your fish exhibited any of the following behaviors:
1) breathing heavily?
2) swimming in to power heads or high flow areas?
3) scratching?
4) flashing?
5) hiding from light?
6) going from seemingly fine to dead in as little as 2-5 days?
7) white stringy poop?
8) white spots like salt or sugar?
9) “dusting” coating towards the end?
10) twitching?
11) discoloration?

 

[Gordon42]

My yellow tang flashes on the sand bed every now and again. The fish that died never showed any of the above mentioned signs except they would not eat. I have them on a medicated food and have had a sterilizer running on the tank. No signs of breathing heavy or swimming into the powerhead. I do not have a quarantine tank but I am getting ready to upgrade to a 150 gallon and then I will set up a 20 long as a quarantine tank at that time.

 

[Gordon42]

No I just bought a RO/DI system. I have a sediment filter and a water softener attached to the well.

 

[Gordon42]

My TDS level that was tested at a local LFS was 400.

 

[Gweeds1980]

My TDS level that was tested at a local LFS was 400.

Ok, parasites are likely in there due to no QT... we'll come onto that. I'm not well versed in well water, being in the UK, but at that TDS, you've no idea what's in it... the water softener won't have helped at all either. Suggest you start by getting a QT set up and by doing a 100% WC, using RO water and getting params as close as possible to what you have currently. Once done, read the QT protocols on R2R and follow them as if you're introducing new fish. You'll need to run your DT fallow for 76 days to be sure it's clean.

 

[Forsaken77]

My TDS level that was tested at a local LFS was 400.

And that was after the filtration? If so, you either need to change out your sediment filter or you have terrible water with who knows what in it. That's extremely high TDS. And my guess is with an RODI, you're going to burn through filtration cartridges. You probably should have a 6-stage RODI with that high of TDS after your home filter. Well water is unpredictable.

But I would not stock your tank with any fish before quarantining them and treating. Because now you may have disease in the main tank. What would be best is to get your QT tank now. Velvet and Ich are very prevalent in the trade and being the fish keep dying, I would guess they're infecting each other with disease. This is a bad time to not be QT'ing fish because probably 70% have some sort of parasite. You're playing Russian Roulette.

 

[Gordon42]

I guess the sterilizer I am running is not going to do anything against these type of parasitic infections? I need to start a QT tank once I convert over to the 150 g.

Thank you everyone for your help.

 

[Humblefish]

You'll need to run your DT fallow for 76 days to be sure it's clean.

+1 All surviving fish will need QT: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/

I would treat with copper for external parasites: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/copper-treatment.193343/

 

[Humblefish]

I guess the sterilizer I am running is not going to do anything against these type of parasitic infections?

Might help with ich, but velvet is a much more aggressive parasite.