Water parameters and disease

[Kirstin]

Hello, I had an issue with fish die off last week and people on this forum suggested it was brooklynella and I should try reef rally. I have ordered that and the ich product and they should be here tomorrow. My question is, the only fish that died were those from a new order, all of them within 4 days. There are 6 fish currently in the tank all are health, well one clown does appear to be developing ich but the preexisting fish show no signs of whatever killed the others, bumps, sloughing skin ,slime legarthy. The company where I ordered my fish is telling me that my water is bad. I have a seachem ammonia alert that is showing a sliver, the width of the dividing line, of color change from good to alert. They claim my ammonia ts too high. A sliver of change is high? 99% of the badge is showing good. Also my alkalinity is 120 on a test strip. I had my water checked at my LFS and specifically asked about alkalinity and they said my water is fine even the alkalinity. I am confused. This company also says I have too many corals. Is my tank over stocked? It is a 40 gallon breeder with a 3.5 gallon hob refugium. Thanks for any guidance.

 

[Euphyllia97]

Would not trust your LFS 100% to be honest.

Parasite will be actively in your tank as long as fish are present. The established fish are probabely less stressed (better immunity) and are therefore delaying the outbreak of the parasite. The fact that the parasite is present and your clown is showing signs of ich, is not a good sign. The reef safe products that claim to make ich and velvet disappear don’t seem to work and is a waste of money most of the time. If pulling all fish out of the tank and treating them in a QT is not an option, you could look into the “Ich management” method. A lot of good info here on R2R.

Concerning the alkalinity And coral stocking. 120 ppm for alkalinity is a bit on the low side but is still acceptable as long as you can keep it steady at this level. However, I would suggest you to raise it to 130 as a minimum. From the picture your tank looks quite new? I‘m confident your tank is not overstocked talking about the corals.

With the dead fish included, depending on the type of fish, 10 fish could be too many for a 40 gallon.

More info on the tank is needed to help you with more details. (Tank parameters, type of fish/coral, tank age)

 

[Kirstin]

Thank You.
My tank is about 8 weeks old. It has a cleanup crew of 5 Dwarf Blue Hermits and a variety of 7 snails. There is a Tiger Pistol shrimp about 2.5 " long and there should be 2 Red Banded Pistol shrimp both under 1" long, I have not seen the "tank rescaping" from them that the Tiger does. I also have a skunk cleaner shrimp. There is about 12" of fish in the tank, 1 Fire Fish, 1 Zebra Dart Fish, 1 scooter Blenny, 1 Prawn Goby, 1 snowflake clown and one Black Ice Snowflake Clown. The first 4 fish were in the tank when I placed the new fish in. The Black Ice was part of the same order but a different shipment origin. I got the snowflake clown the next day because the 2nd Black Ice clown was DOA and I wanted to make sure I had 2 clowns that were roughly the same size and not already developed females if that makes sense. What I had ordered were the 2 clownfish, 2 mandarins and 5 clown gobies. A Mandarin and 1 of the clownfish were DOA so were never in the tank but they were in the aclimation box just incase some clean water would help. They arrived Tuesday and by Friday all were dead. I acclimated for over an hour. Doubled the water removed some and doubled again. I have 2 Dwarf Feather Dusters and a cluster duster. My corals are all frags. 3 xenia, 1 clove polyp, 2 leather, 1 plating and 1 encrusting montipora, 1 mushroom, 1 japanese toadstool, 1 frogspawn, 1 hammer, 2 acans and 4 green star polyps.. My tank parameters are: Temp- 75 deg., Salinity - 1.025 , Amonia - per seachem alert, Safe with a small band at the bottom of the disc that is the Alert color. The band is about 1/32" just barely there., My Nitrates and Nitrites read 0, Ph is between 7.4 and 8 on the test strip.

 

[Kirstin]

Here is a better picture of the tank that I just took, the previous one was about a week old. There are 2 zoanthid frags also

 

[T-J]

On top of the parasite issues, IMHO 8 weeks is way too new to have that much livestock. You could have a number of swings happening. Are you testing or just relying on the ammonia alert?

 

[Kirstin]

I am using the ammonia alert and Tetra Easy strips. As a double check I have taken water to my LFS 3 times and they have performed the fancy vial and reagent tests and they have said my paramaters were good. I guess not. With my freshwater tanks I found that the test strips were as accurate as the more involved test kits so I went the same route with this tank.

 

[Euphyllia97]

In that case I think you might have been introducing fish way too quickly :/ If your tank is only 8 weeks old, I would be really surprised not to see any ammonia/nitrite with that bioload.

The new fish were probabely stressed and quite weak. Mandarins are quite difficult fish to keep (in new tanks) as they rely on pods in your tank. This will only be enough in a tank which has matured enough. Some might eat frozen foods, but this alone is not enough to maintain a healthy mandarin.

I don’t have a lot of experience with gobies, so I’ll leave that for someone else. However, I have the feeling that 5 gobies in a tank that size is going to cause a “war” in your tank. The related stress will weaken the immune system.

Furthermore, I think you have quite some knowledge already! So I’m pretty sure you will be successful in this hobby as long as you slow down a bit on the stocking.

I would not introduce new fish in the tank until you have seen 2 months of stability in parameters. Would recommend to test them yourself with test kits (like salifert). Observe your fish, reduce stress and strengthen their immune system.

Maybe you could try adding some prime stability in the meanwhile and see how your fish evolve the coming weeks. (Development of the parasites and how the fish deal with it). Feed them a variety of foods and see what is best for your tank.

Again for the corals. You are not overstocked at all. I wonder if you can even have too many corals. As long as you maintain good and stable parameters and you do research on the corals you buy. There should be no chemical warfare.

To help with the parasite:
-Feed your fish good nutrients, strenghtening their immune system.
- Reduce stress (no new additions for the moment, leave the tank as is)
- You can raise the temperature (reducing the time available for the parasites to find a host)
- Install a UV to help fight of the parasites. (Note: This will also kill benificial bacteria and pods in your tank. It will NOT get rid of the parasite completely)
-Read about the “ich management” method.

Other option:
As your tank is that new, you can maybe still pull out the coral frags and put them in a small QT. That way you can perform hipposalinity or copper treatment (take out ALL inverts if you do this) in your display. This way you can get rid of the parasite, so your new fish won’t be infected. They will have stress but no parasite lurking to kill them while they are vulnerable.

Good luck!

 

[Kirstin]

Thank you so much for the advice. I will try the temperature and hipposalinity. There is no way to catch three of the fish since they live under the Rockwork. Since you mentioned diet, I take a cube of Marine cuisine, sometimes Emerald cuisine, thaw then in the morning I take a bit of that, some can o cyclops and oyster feast. Probably a 1/4 teaspoon worth of mix, add tank water and using a baster put some in a jar for the Benny, even though he still chases the other food, and the rest just gets pit in the tank. Twice a week I add Seachem Reef Phytoplankton and Kent Microvert to the tank. In the evening I put a pinch of New Life Spectrum Marine Pellets in the tank. Everything seems happy but am I feeding correctly, Should I change something? in the last month I have added pods to the tank and refugium 5 times. There should be something running around. Again I appreciate all the advice, I have a lot to think about. Saltwater/Reef tanks really are a whole new world from freshwater.

 

[Euphyllia97]

Thank you so much for the advice. I will try the temperature and hipposalinity. There is no way to catch three of the fish since they live under the Rockwork. Since you mentioned diet, I take a cube of Marine cuisine, sometimes Emerald cuisine, thaw then in the morning I take a bit of that, some can o cyclops and oyster feast. Probably a 1/4 teaspoon worth of mix, add tank water and using a baster put some in a jar for the Benny, even though he still chases the other food, and the rest just gets pit in the tank. Twice a week I add Seachem Reef Phytoplankton and Kent Microvert to the tank. In the evening I put a pinch of New Life Spectrum Marine Pellets in the tank. Everything seems happy but am I feeding correctly, Should I change something? in the last month I have added pods to the tank and refugium 5 times. There should be something running around. Again I appreciate all the advice, I have a lot to think about. Saltwater/Reef tanks really are a whole new world from freshwater.

Diet sounds good to me! Good luck with the treatment of your fish, keep us posted.