My tank is dying!

polancoeddie · Apr 15, 2015

I have a 29g biocube for 1 year and a half. I have 2 clowns 1 midas and recently added a white spotted puffer a month ago. I notice fin rot on both of my Clown fish 5 days ago so I went to buy medication. My lfs recommend a brand don't know the name but I used it and waited 24 hours then did a 25% water change. I went off to work when I came back All my corals are pretty much dead. My bubble tip moved from he's place and it's dying my clown fish is upside down on the sand barely breathing. I checked my parameters and they all check out good. No ammonia. ph is at 8.0. Nitrite is 0ppm nitrate is at 10ppm. I have no idea what went wrong. Could it have been the puffer picking at the corals? Or the medication. A week a go my tank didn't look to good but I figured it was the fin rot. I also moved my tank about 3 weeks ago to my other living room. It does get more sunlight than before and had a little bit of an algae problem. It was like a hairy green color. What should I do?

maroun.c · Apr 15, 2015

Most probably it is the medication. would be best if you can find the name and post to be better able to assist you. In the absence of this you could proceed with a couple of water changes , changing Carbon and possibly adding some heavy metal removal resin.

Small triggers · Apr 15, 2015

Most medications are not reef safe... Increase water flow (and oxygenation) and do a few large water changes...
Please find out the exact medication also...

joshbbert · Apr 15, 2015

Yep wanna set up a hospital tank cheap 10g and an hob gotta medicate separate from your reef

polancoeddie · Apr 15, 2015

My clown fish is still alive but he looks worse. I think he has a parasite. He's face is turning white. He's left eye is white and looks beat. This is the medication I added before this happend. I did a water change and running new carbon.

ebushrow · Apr 15, 2015

I don't see that it says it is reef safe....not sure what the inside instructions say though....I assume you only used 2.5 caplets of medication?

cthedaytrader · Apr 15, 2015

Thats an antiobotic, I would not use that in a reef tank you could have also killed the benefical bacteria in the tank as well, which is the primary basis of filtration. I would check your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate again. I would also keep doing water changes 5-10% every other day for a week until things stablize, and you might want to consider adding a bacteria supplement to help replenish the system. Something like zeobak.

It would also be helpful to know other factors about your system, like Po4, Ca, MG, Alk, lighting, filtration etc.

Waters · Apr 15, 2015

Based on a quick search, it is used to battle cyano as well as bacterial infections. If dosed correctly it shouldn't affect the coral (although I found a lot of posts saying you need to dose less than the recommended amounts) but it will most definitely kill beneficial bacteria as cthedaytrader stated.

polancoeddie · Apr 15, 2015

My lfs uses it for their reef tanks. It says to use 1 pack for every 10g so I used 3 packages for my 29g. Then after 24 hours I used another 3 waited another 24 hours an did a 25% water change. That's what I got from the instructions. Do you guys think I should give my corals and fish to my lfs and take down the tank and start again? I'm an idiot. Doesn't matter how many hours you spent researching on saltwater tank. It's all about experience.

maroun.c · Apr 15, 2015

WE all made mistakes, NExt time just check before dosing anything in your tank that is the best use of this forum.
As said you probably killed your filtration bacteria and your tank is going through a cycle. water changes and seeding your filtration with some bacteria (SAnd or filter foam) from a healthy running tank might help. bacteria dosing: MB7, Zeobac, biodigest... will help.

KoleTang · Apr 15, 2015

polancoeddie said:
My lfs uses it for their reef tanks. It says to use 1 pack for every 10g so I used 3 packages for my 29g. Then after 24 hours I used another 3 waited another 24 hours an did a 25% water change. That's what I got from the instructions. Do you guys think I should give my corals and fish to my lfs and take down the tank and start again? I'm an idiot. Doesn't matter how many hours you spent researching on saltwater tank. It's all about experience.

The biocube 29g isn't actually 29g. It's more like 23-26g and that isn't counting how much the sand and rock displaces. It's very important to know that actual volume of water before dosing/treating anything.