Biocube issues

[Richw]

Need help with our biocube, cant seem to keep clowns alive. Salinity is good Alkalinity good PH good, the only thing that keep coming up is nitrate levels creep up. Should we get a Protein skimmer?

all else in the aquarium is healthy

2 crabs

2 cleaner shrimp
snails
frogspawn

 

[BL1]

How long has the tank been setup? What are all the results for water tests? How often are you doing water changes?

 

[Richw]

Tank has been set up for 45days, change about 25% of the water weekly
salinity is 1.024
aquarium store tested water two days ago said all was ok
only other test they have me doing in Alkalinity which is btwn 8 and 9

 

[Richw]

one other thing put a new clown in on tuessday fish was ok last night this morning almost dead

 

[Richw]

anythoughts on putting in a skimmer and uv sterilizer?

 

[fastrd400]

The lack of a skimmer, or a UV sterilizer is not your issue. The problem lies someplace else. I have 2 clowns, and an orange stripe goby in a 24 Nano with no skimmer or UV sterilizer and they are fine and happy.

 

[Richw]

all other tank inhabitans are healthy, could the frogspawn be killing the clowns?, my first assumption is high ammonia

 

[fastrd400]

There has to be water quality issues, equipment malfuncion, or contaminants entering the system.

 

[fastrd400]

The frogspawn won't kill the clowns. Why is your first assumption high amonia?

 

[Richw]

The frogspawn won't kill the clowns. Why is your first assumption high amonia?

have been having trouble keeping nitrate levels in check

 

[ErinCahir]

How are you acclimating them?
If your water quality is poor you will see it in your corals before you see it in your livestock.

 

[Richw]

How are you acclimating them?
If your water quality is poor you will see it in your corals before you see it in your livestock.

Corals are all doing well, acclimating I put the bag in the tank for 30 minutes added 1/2 cup of tank water waited another 30 minutes followed this process 4 more times.

 

[bjohanson1234]

Do you have tests yourself?

Sometimes the LFS will tell you everything is good, when infact it isnt.

What are the specific numbers?

 

[little_fish]

Also, are you buying healthy clowns?

Are they bright eyed when you buy them? Are they not breathing heavily and eating when you purchase them?

And if you are having trouble keeping the nitrates in check i think your tank might be overstocked - your adding too much at one time.

And you need to get the test kits to test your water yourself.
+1 Bj for the specific numbers as well, what is fine to one person may not be fine to another.

Also, try asking the lfs how their clown are collect from the wild.

 

[Ulta]

I would purchase a good test kit before purchasing any more fish...

It NEEDs to include:
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
pH

And you can try using the drip acclimation process instead. Get some air line tubing and tie a knot in it so it drips into the bucket about 1-2x per second and let them drip acclimate for a few hours in a bucket. This method works the best.

And if everything is fine with your tank you should look for a new place to buy your fish. Also making sure they are healthy and eating before you purchase them helps.

 

[SaltwaterNoob17]

+1 to all of the above. Additionally, 25% water changes per week sound pretty heavy duty. That could be throwing off your parameters as well.

 

[sen5241b]

1+ water test results --stat!

 

[dcantucson]

Test results will definitely help. When you say you have high Nitrates, just how high are they?

 

[Tristan]

im betting that it's either unhealthy fish from the store or acclimation.
drip acclimation is the best.

ive seen fish just chilling like it was nothing in aquariums with high nitrates lol

 

[dcantucson]

True, but high nitrates can lead to higher Ammonia and that is extremely toxic to fish as we all know.

There could be a combination of things going on here. There may be to low of an oxygen level combined with too high nitrates or ammonia. Often where one thing isn't detrimental a combination of things is.