Need help! Nitrate Spike

[Travis Rider]

I did my normal 25% weekly water change last Saturday and by Wednesday I had a Nitrate spike. I have been running high on nitrates for the last two weeks (up to 50ppm). I had processed a three water changes prior to Saturday's and the nitrates were going down. Tuesday evening during feeding time I noticed that my fish were not coming to get their food (I hand feed my clowns, Emperor, Butterfly, and FoxFace). They didn't seem interested at all. I gave them a closer look and it almost seemed like a couple of my fish were covered in little air bubbles. Over the next 48 hours I lost 3 of my fish. I did another 25% water change Wednesday night and then checked the nitrate levels. They were down to around 80ppm. Thursday night the nitrate levels were down to 40ppm. Fish look better but my Emperor still looks pretty bad. Is there a possibility that I may have a disease in my tank?
All other perameters were registering at 0. Salinity is at 1.024 and ph is at 8

 

[zemuss]

My First question is how new is the fish tank?

 

[Travis Rider]

Tank has been up and running for 3 months now. I was pretty sure it was fully cycled. I initially thought that the tank had a mini-cycle.

 

[melypr1985]

Have you added any new fish, wet rocks, corals, inverts to the tank? Anything wet... how long ago was the last thing added.

Also, when you say covered in bubbles, could it be spots or a dusty like appearance?

 

[Travis Rider]

I haven't added anything to my tank in the last 6 weeks. The bubble like appearance did look a little dusty like. Each one of my fish look absolutely fine except for my Emperor. I was even able to hand feed my clown last night (I lost one of them).

 

[zemuss]

The problem with the "cycle" is that is never ends. When a tank cycles beneficial bacteria is added. However, in my opinion, the quantity of the bacteria will only sustain the life in the tank, so adding many new organisms to the tank at once unbalances this and we see spikes until the bacteria numbers are large enough to not see the spikes.. (Again only my opinion). I would keep those water changes going and you should see the nitrates reduce over time.

Other contributing factors is feeding. If it is from feeding too much slow down on that as well.

 

[twilliard]

First thing I thought.. Velvet
Did you QT the fish?

 

[Travis Rider]

I have not QT the fish yet. I just noticed the way he looked this morning via text from my wife. The other fish I lost did not have any signs of spots or powdered looking covering. They looked perfectly fine. I thought I lost them due to the nitrate spike.

 

[Humblefish]

Nitrates won't affect fish until they reach up into the hundreds.

I recommend looking thru these photos of fish with velvet (scroll down) to see if it looks like what you are seeing on your fish: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

 

[Travis Rider]

I looked through the photos and I didn't see a big resemblance. I got home this evening and did a fresh water dip for 2:30 minutes. There is no heavy breathing just lethargy. He won't eat and just sits, barely trying to swim. He also has a ton of fun rot. All other fish seemed to bounce back fine. I feed them some mysis shrimp and they devoured it (normal behavior). Any other ideas?

 

[Travis Rider]

Just noticed my foxface has white spots all over his fins. No fin rot and he is acting just fine. Could it be ich?

 

[Travis Rider]

Here is what my hippo tang is looking like.

 

[melypr1985]

Just noticed my foxface has white spots all over his fins. No fin rot and he is acting just fine. Could it be ich?

Are the about the size of a grain of salt or like a fine sugar size and too many to count? That's not definitive, but it gives a good idea.

 

[melypr1985]

Here is what my hippo tang is looking like.

I can't see much of anything on him besides what could be a bit of HLLE starting up. With the graininess of the photo it's hard to tell. Could you try again to get a clearer picture? Try to get one of the foxface as well please.

 

[Travis Rider]

Are the about the size of a grain of salt or like a fine sugar size and too many to count? That's not definitive, but it gives a good idea.

They are small in size but distinguishable. You can count them.

 

[melypr1985]

They are small in size but distinguishable. You can count them.

I'd say it's ick... but I wouldn't bet money on it without at least a good picture to go off of.

 

[Travis Rider]

I can't see much of anything on him besides what could be a bit of HLLE starting up. With the graininess of the photo it's hard to tell. Could you try again to get a clearer picture? Try to get one of the foxface as well please.

I noticed tonight that the tang was scratching herself on the rock.

 

[melypr1985]

I noticed tonight that the tang was scratching herself on the rock.

scratching against rocks can be a sign of parasites like ick. No matter what I would suggest getting the fish into QT for treatment. Copper or TTM would be my choice for ick, though I still want a good picture of the fish with spots before I commit to it.

 

[code4]

If its ich TTM is my choice of eradication. I also use prime or amquel to keep ammonia from being an issue. Just went through this after adding some rocks. Will quarantine them next time. I used 20 gallon tanks for this. Removed all rocks and sand and put them into quarantine for way over the 73 days. Cleaned the DT and let it dry while fish were undergoing TTM. Then seeded the tank (140 gallon) from my smaller DT. Used amquel more than I like to admit. Only lost one fish during this. Ich gone! My experience, others will differ.

DO NOT USE COPPER WITH PRIME OR AMQUEL! Reminder to myself.

Shelley

 

[Humblefish]

They are small in size but distinguishable. You can count them.

Your last sentence sounds like ich. There is a photo of a Hippo Tang with ich here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/