Fish keeps dying in ttm qt

[Lady Ninja]

I had an powder brown with itch.
Taking the whole tank down, and adding new sand and rocks. I wasn't happy with the setup. Its my first tank, this time I will do it better. I have had good help with my local store and some friends.

I wanted to start copper, but deiced to do a ttm. First day every one seemed fine. Actually surprised of the low stress. Second day, my bellus angel went down. Did a new transfer, I initially wanted to take the 4 transfers, but now it got to the 5, because I transferred them on the 48 hours mark.
The same day the tang did show heavy breathing. You could see at the eyes that the fish kinda was "gone" at this point. This fish has always been so full of personality and life. It was the ain reason I wanted to start fresh. I wanted to quit the hobby because of the difficult start.

Today, day 3, baby nemo is showing signs...

Note, that every fish has been 100% fine do the itch. Actually it would be a good candidate to just let them live with it. But of course I was conserne that it would be worse, and I would never have the heart to introduce a new fish.

Beside the baby nemo, I got a adult clownfish, the very first fish. It has always showed signs of maybe som kind of problems with either blader/or the other thing I dont remember the name, that whos hold the functions of swimming straight etc. Its not floating, but "heavy butt" like.

I have had all fish several weeks. Only the tang showed signs of ich. He was eating good!

My tought is ammonia posion. I got my ammonia 1 day to late... Im so so angry. I have tried so hard to get everything I needed for this qt. And several stores, not only local, but the onlines as well, did not have in store important stuff like this!! Did even have problem to get a hold of the copper.

As stated, I changed 100% water - new tank on day two. But still something is wrong.
What are more of the pitfalls I should consider?

What is the salifert test showing?? In my eyes it dosent match any of the colors. But the hang on is at OK.

 

[Lady Ninja]

Its not likely thats the cups is it??

 

[JoshH]

Lets see if we can get some reefers in here to help you with QT, I don't dabble in the TTM as it can be excessively stressful on the fish but that's just myself. It does look like you might have an ammonia issue but hard to know for sure.

#Reefsquad @Crabs Mcjones @4FordFamily @HotRocks @Humblefish

 

[stefanm]

I use amguard (or equivalent) during quarantine to keep ammonia at bay, no issues with chloroquine phosphate or praziquantel, it would definitely be helpful through ttm. Can't be used with copper I believe (not 100% sure though).

 

[Lady Ninja]

I dosed prime yesterday. The batch did not change after several hours, so I double it ad some more... Says it can be dosed 5x recommended dose. And I still get a reading of this ammonia! I have testet pure RO water, shows 0, I will now test the freshly mixed saltwater when its done. One more conserne also is that I did had to use the freshly mix right away. But I use 2 powerheads and making sure its fully dissolved. It stays some few hours in the mix bucket. I read also that ammonia dosent go away if let it sit??

Im thinking to trow them in a small bucket with freshly mixed salt after its fully dissolved, temperature and salinity match. But I have a conserne that the ammonia readings come from the mixing.... This reading from today is after just a tiny bit feeding, non yesterday when I took the water change.

 

[ScooterV]

The ammonia test wont be accurate with Prime in the water, but your alert badge looks ok in the picture. It's possible they had more than just ich as well. The regular experts I'm sure will come along shortly, but for one thing I'd add more airstones in there, or power heads.

 

[Big G]

The Salifert ammonia test kit has shown to be inaccurate lately. Might want to read through this thread. The last few posts mention the problems people have experienced with the Salifert kit. I've had good luck with the Red Sea and or Seachem ammonia tests:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacteria-in-a-bottle-myth-or-fact.403226/

 

[dankreef]

I ttm everyday mostly . Two cycles at once. The things that matter are matching temp and salinity close as possible when transferring . I use tank water for the new water (only do this if your tanks good) and then add freshly mixed salt to display. Bubbler and heater is all you need .

 

[Lady Ninja]

Ah yes I forgot about the ammonia test with the prime
They are again now in a bucket with fresh mixed salt. The litte nemo guy looks all fine. I dont know. I guess I had an high ammonia spike in just two days. I´ll see if the other 3 fishes makes it. Now I need to transfere them more than the planed 4 times, to get the whole 12 days time. If not I may be thinking of quiting. If not I will need to have to quartine everything. Inc snails etc. My tolerance is 0. I would need more than one QT set up for fishes and inverts/softies. But I can feel there is still burning some passion

 

[Lady Ninja]

I ttm everyday mostly . Two cycles at once. The things that matter are matching temp and salinity close as possible when transferring . I use tank water for the new water (only do this if your tanks good) and then add freshly mixed salt to display. Bubbler and heater is all you need .

What about the air born thingy? Should the QT bee farther apart?
I think I also would choose the ttm when adding new fish. 12 days tt and 30 for observation. Its that or 30 somewhat days in copper, then 30 days observation? But I see the 30 day copper treatment problematic. What if you then see ich on day 40-60. It would be a very long qt.
The worse thing of it all, its not the work involving. Its my stress of thinking of the fishyes stress. And poor thing living in a QT. But its all for the best, i know.

 

[4FordFamily]

I’ve always struggled with TTM ammonia always seems to take my fish. They can’t handle even minute amounts. I’m not a big fan of TTM, personally.

 

[Jahalu]

Also, I might add that if your main display is ich infected, ttm probably isn’t a great choice. Since they are going to have to be in quarantine for a couple months, might as well get a more permanent qt going and start with copper.

 

[dankreef]

Just cannot have too many fish in the QT. I keep them half full for any splashing and usually I only have one tank going at a time. I’ve never had a problem yet or had Ich in my system yet in 2 years of TTM and buying diver den fish. They say velvet and stuff can show in 30 days or something is the max. I think if a fish is being TTM they are stressed to the max so I believe they would show symptoms of something by 10 days . That’s my personal opinion do whatever you guys think is best. If fish are eating super well, and have been TTM 3 times and ran prazi I add them . My personal QT never had a problem yet

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like bacteria was a culprit amongst water quality issues. Im not a fan if API test kits and would encourage a second opinion on water quality by taking a sample from tank to pet store and see what results They get.
What type if filtration are you using? Water quality appears to be an issue for you. Amquel is an alterative, not a solution.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I had set my ttm tanks up with seachem matrix that was in my DT for a few months. Thanks to @Humblefish testing if matrix absorbs medications. Next go around i was going to use a seneye on a router instead of badges for monitoring nh3.

Helps to have the water mixed ahead of time.

Purigen can also be used to reduce overall organic load that the bacteria need to handle.

I bad used this whenever i need a hospital tank for my pondfish as keeping a 100g trough cycled is asking for mosquitos.

 

[jjflounder1]

No.

 

[jjflounder1]

No.

Disregard that... clumsy fingers [emoji852]️

 

[scott11106]

did you cycle the qt tank first?
i made that mistake when i first started and the ammonia spiked in 2 days and all things went bad...