Please help

Pelly · Mar 7, 2021

Hello everyone, i am new to this, have a 75 gallon tank for 5 months, started with 2 ocellaris after 2 weeks and brown algae bloom, 4 weeks later i added a neon dotty and coral beauty, 2 weeks later they got ich, put them in quarantine, 2 weeks later reintroduced and they died overnight as well as 1 ocellaris?! 1 week later i added 1 firefish goby, 2 sharknose goby and a blue head wrasse, all died overnight. I have a chocolate chip and brittle star, and 1 green crab and 1 sally.
Levels are 8.2 ph, 1.026 salinity, .25 ammonia(is this it?), 0 all else. Thanks

fishguy242 · Mar 7, 2021

hi welcome to the reef going to love it here!!
lots of fun/info/fun/help/fun....

fishguy242 · Mar 7, 2021

i 'm going to leave this for the experts,but poss
1 bad source for fish?
ph shock?
ammonia?..best wishes to turn this back on track
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 ? thoughts?

Bfragale · Mar 7, 2021

Hello. Are you sure it wasn’t velvet or brook? From my experience ick is not as quick as velvet or brook and for them all to die over night sounds more like velvet or Brook to me. Do you have any photos?

im no expert- but I believe brook and velvet need 8-10 weeks of a fallow tank to go thru it’s life cycle and die in your main display. Ick is like 96 days or something like that.

personally I think you may need to identify what they actually have and then go fallow for the amount of time.
It sucks but probally the best way to eliminate reinfecting new fish.
Good luck my friend.

Mikedawg · Mar 7, 2021

Pelly said:
Hello everyone, i am new to this, have a 75 gallon tank for 5 months, started with 2 ocellaris after 2 weeks and brown algae bloom, 4 weeks later i added a neon dotty and coral beauty, 2 weeks later they got ich, put them in quarantine, 2 weeks later reintroduced and they died overnight as well as 1 ocellaris?! 1 week later i added 1 firefish goby, 2 sharknose goby and a blue head wrasse, all died overnight. I have a chocolate chip and brittle star, and 1 green crab and 1 sally.
Levels are 8.2 ph, 1.026 salinity, .25 ammonia(is this it?), 0 all else. Thanks

First of all I would stop adding any animals until you get a good sense of what is going on, e.g., what evidence do you have of their cause of death, if you have tried any remedies what effects have they had and so on. May want to consider starting over.

Fred2482 · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome! What test kit are you utilizing for ammonia? Some tend to show that value all the time.

Jekyl · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome! Sounds like there are issues all over. Possible disease and adding livestock too quickly will end in disaster every time.

ScottR · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome to REEF2REEF!!! Lots of help already. Just help us to help you by providing more info and pictures are useful. Someone will chime in and guide you. Typically after you have had a parasite, you’ll need to run fallow (fishless) for a period of time. It could be from 45 days up to 76 depending on who you ask. This will help to let the parasites to live out their life cycle without a host.

SPR1968 · Mar 7, 2021

Assuming the tanks cycled you shouldn’t have any ammonia showing, but as already said that could be a test error

I would look into the source of were the fish are coming from, are they already diseased etc

I wouldn’t add anything else until you find the cause of the problems

And Welcome to R2R!!!

maceto · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome!

Jimbhoy13 · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome to R2R and the salty world. Sorry about your losses. Hope you get back on track. Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

Jeffcb · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

ScottJ · Mar 7, 2021

I'm sure if you stick with this forum, you will find help. Lots of very smart people here. One word of advice, take things VERY slowly! It's hard to wait things out, especially in this age of instant gratification. But, 'nothing good ever happens happens fast in a reef tank' are words to live by.

Tamberav · Mar 7, 2021

Pelly said:
Hello everyone, i am new to this, have a 75 gallon tank for 5 months, started with 2 ocellaris after 2 weeks and brown algae bloom, 4 weeks later i added a neon dotty and coral beauty, 2 weeks later they got ich, put them in quarantine, 2 weeks later reintroduced and they died overnight as well as 1 ocellaris?! 1 week later i added 1 firefish goby, 2 sharknose goby and a blue head wrasse, all died overnight. I have a chocolate chip and brittle star, and 1 green crab and 1 sally.
Levels are 8.2 ph, 1.026 salinity, .25 ammonia(is this it?), 0 all else. Thanks

The tank needs to sit without fish for 45 days at 81 degrees to starve out ich or 6 weeks for velvet.

Adding fish just gets them infected as the parasite is in the tank now and not just on fish.

Disease is common in this hobby and with your tank being new... I would suggest Quarantining every fish you purchase before adding it to your display or this could happen again. This means either treating them with medications that work (copper, prazi, etc) or observing them for at least 30 days (which still isn’t a guarantee but will help avoid big killers like velvet).

KrisReef · Mar 7, 2021

ScottR said:
Welcome to REEF2REEF!!! Lots of help already. Just help us to help you by providing more info and pictures are useful. Someone will chime in and guide you. Typically after you have had a parasite, you’ll need to run fallow (fishless) for a period of time. It could be from 45 days up to 76 depending on who you ask. This will help to let the parasites to live out their life cycle without a host.

In other words, the pest that killed your fish can live without fish to attack & kill for almost 3 months. To avoid killing more fish you keep the tank running without fish for 3 months so the pest dies in your system.

That aside, Welcome to Reef2Reef. We do want to help you succeed and are glad you have joined us.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 7, 2021

There are a few concerns . . . . .
I question age of tank ?
Type of test kits used as I am under impression , we are talking of a newer tank with zero readings which are not likely and even if aged tank, there were a lot of fish added quickly both before and after first disaster increasing the bioload quickly and likely ammonia and nitrate spikes may have occurred. After having what was thought to be ich, you responded not by addressing what parasite and treating accordingly but proceeded to add fish once again.
This is NOT a beat you up session, but rather pointing to where things may have gone wrong.

Are you by chance using API test kits?
Method of filtration?
Acclimation is a method of preparing fish from the bag to the tank. How did you acclimate and for how long ?

vetteguy53081 · Mar 7, 2021

KJ · Mar 7, 2021

Welcome to R2R!!!

G Santana · Mar 7, 2021

All I can say is knowledge and patience are a reefers best friend.
Stop and listen to the years of experience here. Learn and proceed with caution.

My tank is just shy of 3 months and all I have is two fish in a 130 gallon tank, why, because I am taking it slow, waiting for my tank to show signs of maturing. I have no real desire to buy stock that will die quickly.
This hobby is expensive and not for the Fast and Furious.
Good luck with your tank, but learn from your mistakes before moving forward!!!