Possible low oxygen

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Fish behavior change, all of the fish are out and really moving. The lion is really cruising and staying at the top. I have uploaded a video to YouTube and seeking some input

I have been struggling with this tank ever since I restarted carbon dosing. Three days ago I did a fairly thorough cleaning of the sump due to a build up of pinkish slimy snot which from a previous thread I believe to be bacterial in nature, and their is a white film that can be scraped off of the glass. Total tank volume around 160g and I did an 80 gallon change at the time. I didn’t suction the rock or sand bed, but did move some sand around to level it out some which stirred up some of the trapped detritus.

Ammonia read .2 on Red Sea test
Nitrates 46.8 Hanna HR
Phosphates .9 up from .48 on 12/31 Hanna ULR
Salinity 1.025
Temp 77

Skimmer drawing fresh air from outside, running large air pump with two stones and have good surface agitation from return lines. Don’t know if @fishmedic has any direction.

 

[brandon429]

you'd start by tracing out disease preps first, before params and oxygen, owing to the fact that 6-8 mos is an average onset of disease from skipping qt and fallow

you built that huge reef using fallow for each item? no biosecurity breaks?

reefs don't suffer from lack of o2 in nearly all cases/water motion and surface boil assist there. perhaps if you drove up water column aerobic bac in heavy carbon dosing/no skimming and things were sustained cloudy I'd consider it but disease preps are where it's at, this kind of prevention.

thats a lot of work in QT and fallow you'd have to do to build a huge reef like that, no recent additions from a pet store seems unlikely

was that live rock fallow prepped at the start?

 

[brandon429]

that video rules out oxygen issues for me at least.

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

that video rules out oxygen issues for me at least.

I’m not sure what you are saying about fallow? The tank is well over a year old. All fish were observationally QT’t and run through TTM before introduction. Last fish added was the lion at about 1/4 the size. Questioning O2 as the fish seem to be hovering at the top. The lion has what I believe to be higher than normal respiration but not distressed at this time, and is swimming back and forth across the top like jaws with his spikes out of the water. The lined puffer seems to be sticking his mouth out of the water as well. I know ORP doesn’t equal O2 but I think there is a relationship and my ORP is dropping into the 275 range. Dosing 10ml of H2O2 drives the ORP into the 3-350 range for a couple of hours then I drops back off.

The bacterial issue, is not the common bloom of cloudy water, but more something that I have read in threads can be a result of carbon dosing. When I originally started carbon dosing I had recently placed some Cespitularia, and anthelia into the tank that melted away (I believe from extremely high nitrates). This got me to try newer ways to reduce nutrients, thus I started dosing homemade NOPOX. When I got the snotty build up then, I thought it was from the corals as it is similarly colored. Then I allowed my NOPOX to run dry without catching it and when I restarted this slime has returned, which had previously gone away.

My tanks are in the basement and have minimal outside air during the winter. Hopefully their activity isn’t stress, but different is concerning to me. Hardly ever see the Panther grouper as it hides except at feeding time, but it is out and about and active.

Rock was dry when I purchased and I pressure washed and scrubbed it before setting up and cycling tank.

Please clarify what you mean by disease prep?

 

[Garf]

They look excited that you may be feeding them. Perhaps their appetites have increased. I can't see anything odd.

Edit - that's a lot of fish.

 

[brandon429]

any sort of qt and fallow including medicated quarantine holding for likely issues among species (like tangs for example) is disease preps

about 95% of people online aren't running any it seems, they buy fish from a pet store and add them. disease becomes really likely then


you can at least say you instated some disease preps and the tank isn't packed in corals and clean up crews/constant vectors for input like most reefs, good start. this is a fowlr setup with initial disease preps ran it seems. I would not think it's oxygen due to factors listed...surface boil, circulation, clean water, no reason for increased oxygen command above norm.
the fish don't look oxygen stressed to me at all.

they're evenly distributed.

I would not suspect oxygen issues here and if your disease plan handles gill flukes/the full spectrum of options anyone else is free to chime in. I'm not sure how that particular plan handles the spectrum of fish disease, that would take research but at least something was implemented.

 

[Tiny Ocean]

could it be a big sulfur bubble escaped from your sandbed?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Those fish are huge! What size is that tank in gallons and dimensions?

I think they look ok, but you would know best, im sure that's why your asking because you feel like something is different. Are they eating ok?

 

[HankstankXXL750 Verified Sponsor]

Those fish are huge! What size is that tank in gallons and dimensions?

I think they look ok, but you would know best, im sure that's why your asking because you feel like something is different. Are they eating ok?

Might not be enough tank? It is an XXL750 71”Lx25”Wx23”T. Tank 160gal. Thought it was a 200g when bought but RedSea does their total volume. Know they are going to outgrow it, might move them to my 3XL900 in February, but it is sitting fallow at this time. Future plans is to get a 300-400 gallon for them.

I’m hoping they are just more active and that the bacteria from the NOPOX is waning. But this is “My Wife’s Tank” and she immediately reacts to any behavioral changes.

As far as eating, last night the lion stayed on the opposite end and didn’t eat but everyone else ate.

 

[brandon429]

I would rate that as the highest bioload tank I've seen in five years

I thought it was a 65 gallon off the vid, the fish are massive compared to the swimming room


I'm admiring the ability of live rock to handle ammonia at the exact same level thousands of lightly stocked reefs run on red sea, that's really high quality live rock.

I would not think a tank parameter is an issue, ammonia was your big test and that's passing perfectly. It's not zero on that kit for hardly anyone's tank. The rest falls in line.

Your video shows no fish malady at all I can see


I would search out methods used to guide very high bioload fo systems for action here, if any is required


Jay usually asks for clear video showing the issue, is there a part of the video we can relay to Jay for him to see a fish malady

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I like your rocks, lot of them and good hiding places. But I do feel tank is too small, for all these big fish.

 

[brandon429]

@Jay Hemdal

Jay I'm so interested to know your take having seen many fish only setups

do the disease preps here eliminate the expected issues with this speciation/ mix or were different disease preps required to shore up potential disease here?

they all sure look healthy to me so far and if nothing is wrong, what has been the general observation across hundreds of heavy stocked FO setups like this/// do they work pretty well long term?

HB I thought it was commendable that your flow is so well that no accumulations of the heavy feeding that tank commands are littered about the rocks as waste. that's a high throughput system, which is why I dont suspect o2 issues.

 

[brandon429]

if you had chose to report this tank as a cycling issue for the ammonia stated, I'd never have been able to convince anyone that wasn't the case but the fish sure look healthy to me.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Off the cuff, that seems like a pretty high bioload tank. What is the pH running? Any difference between the early am pH reading and the later afternoon reading?

Jay