Loosing Fish and Corals

Ruben Doering · Jan 3, 2019

I have been dealing with death of fish. One day everything looks fine and the next morning a dead fish in bottom of aquarium. Also my corals that I have added started out thrieving and know they are going the other way. I also have two anemone and the one has lost all its tentacles and the other seems like they are burnt on the tips. The one anemone is coming back very slowly. The one fish store says it could be the light that was burning them and to raise it. I did, and that is when my corals started to go south. My light is a 250w blue Metal Halide running about 8 hours a day, its about 14 to 15 inch from the water.
The aquarium was cycled for about 2 months.
I also just put in a Neptune fusion in hopes I can see and monitor the water closer. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up.
I do have a ground for stray voltage in sump.
I do run Carbon when needed.
I have tried to raise cato in a refugium but it will not grow and dies off.
I am using a BRS RO/DI system for my water. The RO water is stored in a Brute garbage can and the saltwater in a 110 Gallon NFS tank.
I have had the water tested at two different local fish stores and they come back normal.
Parameters are Alkalinity 9.7, Ammonia .1, Calcium 522, Nitrate 5, Nitrite .3, PH 7.94, Phosphate 200, Salinity 1.023, Temp 79.3, Cooper 0.
I also sent in for a water test with a company in Colorado and everything came back normal.
Also I posted some pictures.
Help would be greatly appreciated.

Evan28395950 · Jan 3, 2019

Correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t any ammount of anomie considered bad?

EmdeReef · Jan 3, 2019

Could be that the tank is not fully cycled. You should be getting 0 ammonia, although 0.1 can be a testing error.

Any spots, wounds or anything on the dead fish? Any rusting equipment?

Your tank could be too young for corals and the nems but since both corals and fish are having issues I would suspect a toxin. While figuring this out I would keep running carbon non stop and do some water changes to be safe.

tankstudy · Jan 3, 2019

Ruben Doering said:
Parameters are Alkalinity 9.7, Ammonia .1, Calcium 522, Nitrate 5, Nitrite .3, PH 7.94, Phosphate 200, Salinity 1.023, Temp 79.3, Cooper 0.

If your ammonia is .1, that's your problem. Also your nitrite is .3. Your tank doesn't have a strong enough bacteria load yet. I would stop adding fish & coral at the current time. I would recommend buying some bottled bacteria. Pull out some tank water and mix the bottle with it. Dump that back in to your system. This will help drop your ammonia over night. Your nitrites are going to stick around for a bit but you need to drop ammonia asap cause it's burning everything in your system.

Ruben Doering · Jan 3, 2019

Evan28395950 said:
Correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t any ammount of anomie considered bad?

Going with the local fish store. Said as long as they stay apart no probem.

Ruben Doering · Jan 3, 2019

According to a local fish store should be ok as long as they stay apart.

jabberwock · Jan 3, 2019

Ruben Doering said:
According to a local fish store should be ok as long as they stay apart.

I would NOT go with the LFS. They do not always know what they are talking about. Ammonia and Nitrite should both be at 0.

JClarizio · Jan 3, 2019

He's thinking you "said" anemone. That's why he said LFS said to keep them apart. They meant to say "Isn't any amount of ammonia considered bad?"

BestMomEver · Jan 3, 2019

Phosphate is 200? Wow! Check that for accuracy. What test kits do your LFSs use?

Ruben Doering · Jan 3, 2019

tankstudy said:
If your ammonia is .1, that's your problem. Also your nitrite is .3. Your tank doesn't have a strong enough bacteria load yet. I would stop adding fish & coral at the current time. I would recommend buying some bottled bacteria. Pull out some tank water and mix the bottle with it. Dump that back in to your system. This will help drop your ammonia over night. Your nitrites are going to stick around for a bit but you need to drop ammonia asap cause it's burning everything in your system.

Thanks I will try it.

Ruben Doering · Jan 4, 2019

EmdeReef said:
Could be that the tank is not fully cycled. You should be getting 0 ammonia, although 0.1 can be a testing error.

Any spots, wounds or anything on the dead fish? Any rusting equipment?

Your tank could be too young for corals and the nems but since both corals and fish are having issues I would suspect a toxin. While figuring this out I would keep running carbon non stop and do some water changes to be safe.

I have noticed some rust on my return line in the pipe, but not much. No wounds on the fish that I have noticed. I been doing 30% water changes weekly or every 4 days.
Thanks

Frtdrmrose7 · Jan 4, 2019

Ruben Doering said:
I have noticed some rust on my return line in the pipe, but not much. No wounds on the fish that I have noticed. I been doing 30% water changes weekly or every 4 days.
Thanks

Rust in the return? What pump are you using? I would pull it out and open it up and look inside of it. You don’t want rust in your system.

MnFish1 · Jan 4, 2019

You say tank cycled for 2 months - how old is it now? The rust could be a problem but Im not sure its clear where it is exactly. The ammonia and nitrite at those levels might not 'be a problem' - but the could be indicative of something dying, creating an ammonia spike -which caused death - now the ammonia is 'coming down' and nitrite is higher (nitrite in a marine aquarium is not as dangerous - but it is a symptom of a problem). There is either too much bio load for that tank (i.e. it wasn't cycled enough - or something is dead or was dead and caused a spike.

Captain Quint · Jan 4, 2019

Not much I can add with the info already given.

On a positive note welcome to R2R @Ruben Doering and your tank certainly is looking really nice and your live rock looks pretty mature and clean.

However, the tank is not stable nor mature enough yet for an anemone. Please keep us advised of how things go for you.

Ruben Doering · Jan 5, 2019

Frtdrmrose7 said:
Rust in the return? What pump are you using? I would pull it out and open it up and look inside of it. You don’t want rust in your system.

Pump is a cor20

Ruben Doering · Jan 5, 2019

MnFish1 said:
You say tank cycled for 2 months - how old is it now? The rust could be a problem but Im not sure its clear where it is exactly. The ammonia and nitrite at those levels might not 'be a problem' - but the could be indicative of something dying, creating an ammonia spike -which caused death - now the ammonia is 'coming down' and nitrite is higher (nitrite in a marine aquarium is not as dangerous - but it is a symptom of a problem). There is either too much bio load for that tank (i.e. it wasn't cycled enough - or something is dead or was dead and caused a spike.

The tank was cycled for 3 months.

Ruben Doering · Jan 5, 2019

Captain Quint said:
Not much I can add with the info already given.

On a positive note welcome to R2R @Ruben Doering and your tank certainly is looking really nice and your live rock looks pretty mature and clean.

However, the tank is not stable nor mature enough yet for an anemone. Please keep us advised of how things go for you.

Thanks