New to hobby-sick fish

[Sean Norman]

I am new to salt water and have an issue. I did a lot of research before diving in. I have a Bio Cube 32, the tank has been running for two weeks- 30 pounds of live rock, 20 pounds of live sand. I am currently using the stock media basket, with filter floss, the Coral life carbon and purigen in the bottom. I also have a Aquimai powerhead. The tank has been running for a little over two weeks, I have added bacteria for the first week and am waiting on some copepods to be added. Levels are where I would expect for two weeks in.
I set up a QT in a 10 gallon tank a week ago with the intention of adding three fish in the QT for 4 weeks before adding them to the tank.
I was doing regular water changes and things were going great. I bought an RODI and was making ,y own water, mixing, warming and then adding it to the QT. I am a fireman and so some of the time the workload falls on my wife. I had her to go to a LFS to purchase some water, they filled up a container from a tap they had and sold it to her. She did a 30% water change in the QT and things seemed fine. I have a Ammonia badge on the tank. I got home the next day and checked the levels- Ammonia was high-.025. Selenity was 1.025 and temp and PH were good. I did a 50% water change.
The next day the wife called and one of my Clowns( two small clowns and one Star Blenni) was swimming on its side..
I had her check Ammonia and it was at .025- this is less than 24 hours after a 50% water change. I had her do a 50% water change- Ammonia is still high- .025. I had her add an Ammonia detoxifier.
Now one of the Clowns has what appears to be white substance on its skin- although it is acting normally..
Today my course of action is to do another 50%water change- and possibly treat for Ich with Cupramine and vitamins.
Luckily this is occurring in the QT and not my DT.
What am I missing? Any thoughts on treating the fish?
They are eating readily- we have been doing a mixture between pellets and frozen food every other day.
PH is 8.4, selenity 1.024, temp 77.8 ...
Any help or suggestions are welcomed..
Thanks.

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R

When a clown gets a "white substance" on its skin, we tend to go to Brooklynella aka clownfish disease. I'll attach a link with pictures for you to take a look at and decide if this is what you are seeing.
Sounds like your tanks are not cycled yet. Usually takes 30-40 days for the ammonia - nitrite - nitrate cycle to work its way through so that there is enough of the good bacteria in there to handle changes to the load of ammonia (fish poop, food, etc.) place upon it.
Do you have some methylene blue to treat the clowns that are probably suffering from ammonia burns to their gills?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/#post-2913287

Malachite Green/Methylene Blue: Treats ammonia burn, cuts, injuries.

How To Treat - Comes in both liquid and powder form, sometimes mixed in with another medication(s). So, follow the directions on the label. Best used as a 30 minute bath solution, but you also can treat with it in a quarantine tank. Aerate heavily. If you are using it in a bath solution, then it is also a good idea to treat the fish with nitrofurazone (active ingredient found in Furan-2 and Nitrofuracin Green Powder) once he is returned to the quarantine tank. Nitrofurazone is great for treating open wounds or sores.

Pros - Highly effective.

Cons/Side Effects - Depletes oxygen from the water. Malachite Green is considered “harsher” on fish than Methylene Blue.

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Welcome to r2r! Sorry your fish is having troubles, but it's a great thing that you have the fish in a quarantine.

I agree that brook is a possibility. Check out the disease forum, it contains everything you need to know.

 

[Bob Weigant]

You want zero ammonia in your tank. As for water never use tap water ( if I read your post correctly ). Lots of chemicals that are not good for your reef. Always use RO water

 

[Sean Norman]

I have been running my tap water through my RODI system for my water changes. I have an air stone in the QT tank. We have not been feeding a lot of food- and changing the water- vacuuming up the bottom of the QT. All that is in the QT is water, three pieces of 3 inch PVC pipe and the HOB filter and air stone.
I added bacteria for a week before adding the fish to the QT, my DT is still in its cycle.
I will look at the pics, I agree the Ammonia hurt them( I was up all night stressing last night). I will try what you all recommended.

 

[Sean Norman]

Reading the post on the Brooklynella can I treat them in the QT?

 

[Big G]

Reading the post on the Brooklynella can I treat them in the QT?

For treating Brook in your QT. Dose the QT with Metro and treat for 10-14 days.

And then also give the fish bath(s) in either a product with formalin like Hikari Quick Ich X, etc. or a product with acriflavine like Ruby Reef Rally. Make sure to run plenty of O2 in the baths, especially with the formalin products as they deplete O2. Remove fish from baths at first sign of distress.

Sometimes Brook can be difficult to beat down.

 

[PDR]

What test kit are you using for ammonia?

 

[Sean Norman]

What test kit are you using for ammonia?

Salt water test kit by API. I have a Seachem Amonia badge that was not showing any color.

 

[PDR]

Salt water test kit by API. I have a Seachem Amonia badge that was not showing any color.

The API ammonia test is known for giving a false positive of .25, so you may not have ammonia issues.

 

[Sean Norman]

Thank you for all the advice. Wife went to the LFS and we decided on a course of action..
Dip in RODI fresh water- 5 mins- 50%water change in QT tank. Water tested and showing zero Ammonia. Begin Copper treatment tomorrow. The white slime came off the fish immediately when they went into the fresh water dip. They all ate this am before the treatment.
I thought I was ahead of the game with setting up the QT and being diligent with the water changes. I was going to start Copper this next week to finish their last two weeks in the QT- perhaps I should have done that sooner. I let the QT run for a week before introducing the fish and added bacteria- but I did not ghost feed to initiate a cycle- that was a fail.
I feel bad for the fish- did not want this to happen.

 

[Sean Norman]

So my black and white clown dies last night- the little clown who was first exhibiting the symptoms is actually doing OK. The Star Blennie- is also doing Ok. The LFS wanted us to treat with Copper- but based on the symptoms I still think it was Broklynella. Should I still treat with Copper ??