Cannot introduce new marine livestock.

C

carsingtonstaffy

Reefing newb
I have just joined this forum because i am at a loss as what to do with my 6ft marine fish only tant.I did an aquarium clean up around 8 months ago and alot of dirt etc was disturbed when the filters were turned back on.This resulted in a few deaths with my queen angel seeming to get quite ill,stop feeding and then apeared to fight the disease(?) and is now fine,as are all the other fish(including a moorish idol which i have owned for just over 8 months).
The problem is if i add any new live stock they just die within a few days,even the hardiest of fish while the existing ones show no signs of any disease and feed well.I have read a few things on the net and was thinking it may be a bacterial problem but am only guessing.
I was thinking of trying some anti bacterial medication but for years have said i would not use any medication having bad previous problems with them.
Also i do not want to risk my moorish idol with anything even though he seem to be the hardiest fish i have kept.
Water perameters are fine except for slightly high nitrate of abou 40ppm.
I have two external filters,uv,skimmer,live rock.
I am at a loss and do not realy want to strip the tank down and start again,but a 6ft tank with 6 fish in it is just a bit silly.

Any help would be more than greatly recieved....
 
First off, welcome to LR!!! :D

Second, someone more experienced than I will surely help you out but you should post all your parameters. Saying "they are fine" doesn't really tell us much.
Also, tell us more about these "external filters", how much live rock, how many gallons of water, etc.
 
The filters are a fluval 305 and ehiem 2227.Around 40 kilos of live rock.I have had this setup for 8 years with no previous problems.The tank holds around 100 gallons.Ammonia 0,nitrite 0,nitrate 40ppm,phosphate 0,s.g 1.023,temp 75-79 degrees.I presume the existing fish have built up a resistance to whatever it is?Its driving me crazy..........
 
Welcome to the site
Like D2 said,it'll help a lot if you'll post your actual numbers for your tests.
 
Disreguard my above post:D

The only 2 things that come to mind are acclimation and stray voltage.
My guess is that your problem is in one of those.

BTW,I got 6ft tank with just 3 small fish in it:D
 
Thanks for your reply.I drip acclimate the fish for up to one and a half hours depending on the fish and am sure that is not the problem but don`t know about the stray voltage.I`ll have to read up on it.Thanks again.The only other thing i would say is i am using the same salt,water changes,ro water,cleaning program(except for the major cleanup i did from which my problems seemed to start)as i have done for the last 8 years,i do nothing different which is why i am so puzzled.
 
are you postive your fish have disease? if so melafix is supposed to work well. but if not you definitely need to figure out the other problem. I have not heard of a lot of people keeping moorish idols longer than a year. the queen angel would be an expensive loss. sorry to hear about your problems
 
Thanks for that alexander,no, i`m not sure they have any desease its just that i don`t know what to do because i have never had a problem like this before.I just bought some melafix but am not sure i am treating the problem and at the same time don`t want to risk the moorish idol even though it says on the bottle it is safe.Thanks for your help and i`ll try and check for stray voltage now,but would this not effect the existing fish.......i`ll check anyway..
 
Is it possible that your nitrates are higher than 40ppm? If the sand was disturbed a whole lot, then maybe it kicked up buried nitrates, and spiked the nitrates. From my experience (and past advice from this forum), anything above 20ppm for fowlr should be lowered w/ the water changes.

Plus maybe your test kit is bad. I bought a brand new API test kit back in October 2008. And after remedying my nitrate problem, I was still at 40ppm. So I took my test kit to my lfs. I tested it side by side with the kit they've been using on their tanks, and I actually had 0ppm! I was surprised cuz my dropper bottles have only been open a few months (yes, it's possible the were on the shelf a while; I didn't check the date). And so I bought another nitrate test kit, and before leaving, we ran the test again side by side, and both theirs and the new one showed 0ppm.

Just my 2 :twocents:
 
I had the same problem with my 100 gallon. In my case I didn't find the problem until I took it apart. It turned out to be a power head that the shaft had rusted on. It was supposed to be for saltwater but had apparently failed. I ended up lossing a Fuman Chu lion fish, 2 violatins, raidiata, and little bud a dwarf fuzzy. You might want to check all your power heads. Good luck.
 
I also suggest buying a new set of test kits and seeing if those results are the same as what you've been getting. If there's a problem with your water, your existing fish may have been able to slowly adjust to living with it, but when you add a new fish, it's so drastically different from what they're used to, they go into shock and die.

Do you try adding one new fish at a time, or have you tried to add more than one at once?
 
Thanks everyone ,a few things for me to try there(and i`ll get some new test kits just in case).Mostly i introduce one fish at a time,but have tried to add two and three small fish a few times with all of them dying.Also checked for stray voltage and none shows up on the meter..... thankyou , i`ll keep searching
 
Unless positive, never med main tank. If need to med, do so in Q/T. Even though tank is decent size, maybe it is way it is acclimated into main tank. Although many possibilities, Stress is big factor in fish death, not to mention diseases.
Hope pH is up to par at the time of new arrival. Your fish may be ajusted but new arrival may not. Unless I missed, dont see the result of pH test.

How about quaranteeing new arrival for few weeks in Q/T. Simple filter will do such as sponge filter which is kept in main tank running and heater. Day before the new arrival, set up q/t using your main tank water provided your water is up to par.
Pay close attention to q/t since smaller, can foul fast.

When all goes well, start acclimating q/t fish to main tank using IV tubing or air line tubing. May drain majority of water from q/t and drip main tank water right into q/t. Should drain water from Q/T from time to time.

Use large, Clear Palstic Jars and punch good amount of holes using hot screwdriver tip toward upper half of the jar. Attach fishing line to jar for easy retrieval for feeding, etc. Could add bits of sand to hold it down. Put new arrival in its own jar.
This way new fish can really adjust to your tank water for longer period w/o any harrassment from tank mates and may even get used to each other thru clear plastic.
When releasing new arrival, do so in the middle of night when it's dark where all fish are asleep. This way new one can also relax w/o being investigated by tank mates ( that little poke by mate can cause problem to fish: Seen Anthias have heartattack and die when spooked). Be gentle not to spook the new arrival and gently release into the tank. Had great sucess thru this method when introducing new arrival even though troublesome. At least i learned from experiences that more efforts we give, better results from our beloved fish. And since removed from their natural habitat, would and should do our best to give optimal life expectancy in captivity. At least they are not part of food chain in our tank... Well, most of the time. LOL
Wish you luck and hope this help a bit.

BTW, canisters are not the best for S/W but it was only option back in early 80 for me w/ UGF and PHs. Canisters should be maintained more often in s/w to keep nitrate down.
 

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