I have had my sailfin tang forever and my pencil urchin(who I think will ive threw the appocolypse). I have added a few fish here and there and some have made it, others have not. Currently I have my sailfin, 2 gold head gobies, 2 clowns, 1 primal bleeny, 1 scooter bleeny, 2 carpet anenomes and a small scissor tail goby. I have bought fish from Petco..... my LFS and 2 different FS that are around 2 hours away. I have killed off about 6 tangs ( kole eye, powder blue and brown, 2 x yellow and one that looked like a perch) 2 fox face rabbit fish. I am also missing a couple sea hares but I have alot of rock that they can be hiding in. Most of the fish have dissapeared. I have checked overflows and have almost tore my tank apart to look in the rock. I have a 180 with 0 amonia 0 nitrite and my nitrate are barely starting to show up. Other than having alot of hair algae everytyhing looks good....... I have 75 or more hermit crabs a couple emerald crabs and a bunch of snails. When I acclimate I have tried doing the drip method and also a bucket method. Fish will be visible for a few days and then poof! Oh and I dont add but 1 fish or 2 at a time. HELP PLEASE
Im about to give up
- Thread starter youtoo54
- Start date
2XAl
Salt Addict
temperature and salinity will both help. Have you tested phosphate? what do you do for water changes and how often? Have you tested for stray voltage (your inverts typically would be most sensitive but I have seen stranger things happen) I have a similar problem- any new fish I add seem to have a 50/50 to survive. One of the reasons I have a lot of corals is I seem to have much better luck with them. I just pulled a starfish out of my DT yesterday hoping hes been the problem with my disappearing fish. I've lost a sailfin, foxface, six line, and two cardinals in the past 8 weeks.
Smitty
Reef pro
Or you may have a hidden predator in the tank... Sorry to hear about all your troubles, and good luck finding out the issue.
I have a coral banded shrimp that has been alive for a few months also and a sand sifting star that I just saw a few minutes ago. My water changes I do about every month and a half at 50 gallons. Use RO/DI water temp is 78. Salinity and phosphates my LFS check and both are good.
mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
Wow, not alot of water going thru your tank. Think of the ocean as a whole, water is constantly replentishing itself. I bet you would have better luck with your water quality moreover "better luck" with your fish. I do a 15g water change every other day. Good luck with your fish, let me know if i can take that tank off your hands. :-)
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mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
I understand the evaporation. Changing water is the best thing one could do for a tank. I never heard of people who "limit" their water changes because of better luck. Relying on a protein skimmer and small filtration will never compare to water changes. Maybe ill learn something on this one. Im about saving money.
Civicdemon
Go Big Or Go Home !
Evap water has nothing to do with watter quality, the nitrates and everything stay in the water and dont evap away, if anything as water Evaps the Parameters get wors until you add back the water that dielutes it down a bit.
First thing is first, your test must be off somewhere if you say you dont really have nitrates and have a bunch of hair algea. i have 3ppm nitrates at its highest and i never have hair algea in my tank.
I would say your water change schedual needs to be changed. 50 gl every month and a half is not good, you should be doing 10% every week or 25 percent every 2 weeks. this is your best bet. or you can try 35% every 3 weeks thats about 55 to 60 gl water change every 3 weeks. It would be best to do less water more often to keep things stable.
I do 30 gl every 2 weeks in my 125gl tank.
When my tank was fairly new i was doing 15 to 20 gl every week. As things get more stable you can push it back a bit like i have done. But everything in my tank seem to be doing really good with the bi weekly water changes. so thats where im keeping them.
First thing is first, your test must be off somewhere if you say you dont really have nitrates and have a bunch of hair algea. i have 3ppm nitrates at its highest and i never have hair algea in my tank.
I would say your water change schedual needs to be changed. 50 gl every month and a half is not good, you should be doing 10% every week or 25 percent every 2 weeks. this is your best bet. or you can try 35% every 3 weeks thats about 55 to 60 gl water change every 3 weeks. It would be best to do less water more often to keep things stable.
I do 30 gl every 2 weeks in my 125gl tank.
When my tank was fairly new i was doing 15 to 20 gl every week. As things get more stable you can push it back a bit like i have done. But everything in my tank seem to be doing really good with the bi weekly water changes. so thats where im keeping them.
mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
Actually you did.
Civicdemon
Go Big Or Go Home !
Just notice that also you said you add water for evap every 3 days ???? WOW you should be doing that every day filling what ever has evap maybe get a ATO or something because that 10gl can change you salinity making it go up as it evaps then back down as you add water.
All right lets try this. I understand that evap has nothing to do with water quality. At about the 6 week mark or so is when my nitrates get to 3 to 5 ppm and I do a water change. I just did a water change and my nitrates arent at 0 but there close enough. I test it and I also have the LFS test it. Both with differnt types of test kits. As far as the hair algae I was under the impression it could be from lighting also. I havent worried about it so much because my sail fin loves it and so did the vlamingi (bofore he commited suicide) and I wanted a few other tangs so I havent put much thought on getting rid of it. I can start changing water every week
Actually i did not. I said they dont do water changes and have better luck. I didnt say they dont do water changes because they have better luck. You understand the difference?
mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
Yep, my fish are doing fine and yours are?
Civicdemon
Go Big Or Go Home !
Well that can be streesing the fish out also, Being as the water is going from near perfect to 6 ppm and then back down so fast, is better to find a good medium where you dont let it get up there just get it to where it stays stable.
And refil evap water daily if posible.
You also said you have a Coral Banded Shrimp right ???
I had one and he was found eating one of my fire fish one night so be carefull with him.
And refil evap water daily if posible.
You also said you have a Coral Banded Shrimp right ???
I had one and he was found eating one of my fire fish one night so be carefull with him.
Civicdemon
Go Big Or Go Home !
thats what i tought with mine but trust me Night time they go hunting. I would not trust one again.
As far as Anemones go im not sure im still debating my self to get one or not.
mariobrothersleeve
squirrel
Fish are smarter than you think. The anenome isnt jump off the rocks and attacking the fish like rambo. Just change your husbandtry and youll see a difference. It sounds like everything else is the problem, but its not. I want to sort of help you, maybe.
