What is going on in my tank?!?!

Joebiwan3 · Jun 8, 2018

Ok so ive been in this hobby since 2012 and i have no clue whats going on in my tank....i recently had to move my 150 gallon mixed reef tank from my first floor to my second floor because of renovations to my house. I will not be able to stay here for 3 months during the renovation however i will be stopping in daily to feed the fish. I brought all my rock and coram to my lfs. I put in new rock, new sand and reused half of my tank water and also kept all the same sponges in my sump. I also used biospera to get some benefial bacteria going. Everything was fine for 2 weeks after the move. The trouble started when i moved my 2 black clownfish from my 40 gallon into my 150 because i didnt want to run two tanks while im not home full time. I had two orange ocelleris clowns already in there so i know to lookout for fighting. Again about a week passed and all was well......all of a sudden i see the black clowns covered in what looked like ich. I suspected possibly fron stress and maybe they were getting bullied by the other clowns without me noticing. Next thing i know half my fush are covered in it....it looked like ich at first but now it just looks like they are all turning white. Ive lost the 2 black clowns, a lieutenant tang who i had for 6 years, a yellow tang who i had for 6 years, a bangai cardinal fish , and 1 orange clown so far...... the fish still alive look ok but my solar wrasse looks like shes going crazy and wanting to jump out of the tank.....

My water params are salinity at 1.022
Ammonia at 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate is ariund 20-30 ppm
And ph is at 8.0

Nitrate is higher than usual since i havnt had my skimmer on and salinity is a few points lower than i usually have it but neither of tbis should cause all these fish to die so quickly so i have to assume its whatever disease/parasite that is in the tank.

Ive been dosing reef medic bth polyplab for a week now and it just seems to be getting worse. Any suggestions ? Do i start dosing seachems cupperine treatment for ich? Im at a loss for words right now.

Dom · Jun 9, 2018

Did this start when you moved the tank?

Joebiwan3 · Jun 9, 2018

Dom said:
Did this start when you moved the tank?

No it started 2-3 weeks after i moved the tank and 1 week after adding the black clowns. All fish including black clowns were healthy prior to this.

HotRocks · Jun 9, 2018

Can you get some clearer photos?

This looks like Brook. It most likely came in on your recently added rock.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

Also sorry you are having this issue, welcome to R2R! Great place, Great People, and tons of great Info!

This is possibly velvet given your description of the losses, but additional photos of all fish would be very helpful.

PDR · Jun 9, 2018

Was the new rock dry or live?

Joebiwan3 · Jun 9, 2018

PDR said:
Was the new rock dry or live?

Both...i only added a few piecea since ill be redoing the aquascape come september

4FordFamily · Jun 9, 2018

HotRocks said:
Can you get some clearer photos?

This looks like Brook. It most likely came in on your recently added rock.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/brooklynella.247938/

Also sorry you are having this issue, welcome to R2R! Great place, Great People, and tons of great Info!

This is possibly velvet given your description of the losses, but additional photos of all fish would be very helpful.

100% agree I’m leaning toward brook but it could possibly have both. We need a less blurry closeup ASAP to best advise.

Either way you’ll neee to remove all fish and treat, leaving the DT fallow. I’m assuming this is a DT since it has sand.

Humblefish · Jun 9, 2018

^^ Agree with brook diagnosis.

I would:

Give all fish a 5 min FW dip: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/
Then either a 45 min bath using formalin or a 90 min bath using acriflavine (skip this step if you cannot locate either chemical)
Into a quarantine tank and treat with copper + metronidazole
Go fallow (fishless) in the DT for 76 days.

^^ The above strategy will treat: ich, velvet, brook, uronema. So, you are covered no matter what.

Dom · Jun 9, 2018

Joebiwan3 said:
...1 week after adding the black clowns.

I feel like the clowns may have brought something in with them.

HotRocks · Jun 9, 2018

Dom said:
I feel like the clowns may have brought something in with them.

Very possible. Humble has you covered as far as treatment plan.

Joebiwan3 · Jun 9, 2018

Dont have the qt tank up at the moment since as i said we are renovating the house im not even there all week....usually i have a 40 gal and a 75 gal tank up and running with the 150.....would any of you suggest trying medications such as metroplex or cupramine? LFS suggester cupramine however i dont know if that will be effective against brook if thats what it is....i have no experience with metroplex but it looks like it covers a broader spectrum of ailments.

HotRocks · Jun 9, 2018

Joebiwan3 said:
Dont have the qt tank up at the moment since as i said we are renovating the house im not even there all week....usually i have a 40 gal and a 75 gal tank up and running with the 150.....would any of you suggest trying medications such as metroplex or cupramine? LFS suggester cupramine however i dont know if that will be effective against brook if thats what it is....i have no experience with metroplex but it looks like it covers a broader spectrum of ailments.

Metroplex covers Brook, but is not "reef safe" and should be used in QT.

Cupramine is ionic copper and will cover ich/velvet. Also not reef safe inverts and corals will not tolerate copper at all. Copper could be tough to monitor/achieve proper therapuetic levels used in a DT due to absorbtion by sand, LR, etc.

Joebiwan3 · Jun 9, 2018

HotRocks said:
Metroplex covers Brook, but is not "reef safe" and should be used in QT.

Cupramine is ionic copper and will cover ich/velvet. Also not reef safe inverts and corals will not tolerate copper at all. Copper could be tough to monitor/achieve proper therapuetic levels used in a DT due to absorbtion by sand, LR, etc.

At the moment i dont have any inverts or coral in my tank. I have like 5-6 pieces of live rock and both medications say carbon will remove them. Would you say its safe to use the metroplex since i womt be reconstructing my reef until september? Ill run carbon afterwards.

HotRocks · Jun 9, 2018

I personally wouldn't dose the DT. I've read several threads where people successfully removed copper from DTs and maintain mixed reef down the road. The theory is the rock could absorb some copper and then slowly leach over time causing issues later. You could always scrap the rock/sand, after treatments when you get ready to re-do your tank anyway.

It sounds like it's your best chance at survival at this point and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.