Oxygen help???

[MANDAMARIE]

Soooo I am new to the hobby and learning everyday! Our tank is 6 weeks and everything has been doing great. Water has been great and stable. We added orange clown and black clown early on and have a yellow clown goby and a blood shrimp. The black clown was the smallest. All fish were doing great and we woke up to our little black one dead. All water levels were good after talking with the LFS they are thinking the levels of the back of our tank were too high and they weren't getting enough oxygen which the night before we found him all fish were acting normal swimming normal and noticed nothing different! How do I know how much water should be in the back and if my fish are getting enough oxygen? I feel terrible bc we are doing everything we are told. Please help!

 

[Mayerlyn A]

6 weeks is still a fairly new tank. When you say all levels are good , which levels and what are they? How big is the tank? Give us a little more details about your equipment and filtration.

 

[foxt]

Pictures are very helpful as well. What do you mean by "back of the tank"?

 

[MANDAMARIE]

6 weeks is still a fairly new tank. When you say all levels are good , which levels and what are they? How big is the tank? Give us a little more details about your equipment and filtration.

If course everything is still stock on my jbj 28 gallon nano. Still dont know much about equipment yet. Just added fusion 1 and 2 for a few days to get coral. All I know is I have the strips and our LFS checks it for us almost weekly.

 

[MANDAMARIE]

Pictures are very helpful as well. What do you mean by "back of the tank"?

We have a jbj 28 nano cube. Back of the tank meaning where all the filters and all are. Sorry I'm new to everything!

 

[MANDAMARIE]

We have a jbj 28 nano cube. Back of the tank meaning where all the filters and all are. Sorry I'm new to everything!

The one of the fish in the corner they started hanging out in the corner after a water change I just figured they discovered a new area. And the other was 2 days before my clown died he kind of stayed by the rock but never looked distressed.

 

[W1ngz]

Am I understanding this correctly?
Your LFS told you the oxygen levels in the water were different at the back of the tank?

 

[saltyhog]

Can you show us what each test on the strip is? There should be a comparison chart on the bottle. Generally those kind of tests are not considered to be very accurate. How long had the fish been in the tank when it died?

 

[MANDAMARIE]

Noooooo they are thinking the water level in the back of my tank was too high and could have caused lack of oxygen. My blood shrimp, orange clown and yellow clown goby are fine so I'm not sure.

 

[EmdeReef]

You need to get an ammonia test kit or seachem ammonia badge.

What kind of flow do you have in your tank?

Also consider opening the top cover and leaving open to help gas exchange in case it is an oxygen issue.

I wouldn’t add fusion until you start testing for alkalinity you also don’t need it until you add corals and there’s all/Ca consumption

 

[EmdeReef]

Noooooo they are thinking the water level in the back of my tank was too high and could have caused lack of oxygen. My blood shrimp, orange clown and yellow clown goby are fine so I'm not sure.

You need to keep some space between the top cover and the water level to allow better gas exchange

 

[MANDAMARIE]

Can you show us what each test on the strip is? There should be a comparison chart on the bottle. Generally those kind of tests are not considered to be very accurate. How long had the fish been in the tank when it died?

Both clowns were added within the first week. So 5 weeks

 

[MANDAMARIE]

It's all stock the tank is brand new so I'm not sure. I know nothing about all that. Been trying to read on here to learn more.

You need to get an ammonia test kit or seachem ammonia badge.

What kind of flow do you have in your tank?

Also consider opening the top cover and leaving open to help gas exchange in case it is an oxygen issue.

I wouldn’t add fusion until you start testing for alkalinity you also don’t need it until you add corals and there’s all/Ca consumption

 

[MANDAMARIE]

You need to keep some space between the top cover and the water level to allow better gas exchange

The back of the tank is open but not the very front. I'm kind of wishing we would have went with the jbj 45 gallon but because we had kids we were told it would be safer to have a top.

 

[Dana Riddle]

Lack of oxygen will be indicated by fishes swimming at the surface 'gulping' air. True, that conversion of ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate will consume oxygen, but compounds present early in the nitrogen cycle are usually the reason for fish losses, not low oxygen levels.

 

[MANDAMARIE]

I just dont want to mess everything up! And of course the black clown was my pick

 

[W1ngz]

Time to start moving away from the LFS babysitting your tank for you and get some test kits to do yourself.
You definitely need to start learning this stuff before you even think about getting corals.

There's way too many variables for anyone to guess why the fish died, and it could well have been a series of problems. It might have had a bad case of ammonia burn in the gills if it was dumped in there after only 1 week, and a low-ish oxygen level did it in.

 

[MANDAMARIE]

I guess the fish was absolutely perfectly fine even the night before it died. Is there anywhere to find out more on testing? When to test? How often?

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

I would stay away from coral for at least 6 months of the tank running and until you have a deeper understanding of everything. I would ditch the test strips and pick up some liquid test kits like red sea or seachem tests.
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate these 3 will be your first important ones in the first month or so.
You should also get tests for
Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium and phosphate.

I would highly recomend watching all the videos of brs 52 weeks of reefing. They are amazing and informative.

 

[Jake_the_reefer]

I guess the fish was absolutely perfectly fine even the night before it died. Is there anywhere to find out more on testing? When to test? How often?

Test every day to every other day until you everything is in acceptable range and you know the tank is stable.