Huge Problem Plzz help

skt12344

Reefing newb
Ok so I have a 30 gallon tank and I have a big problem I stated my tank with a 3 black strip damsel then I got a Yellow-tail Blue Damsel at first the two fought and the striped on got beat up and looked bad but I gave it like a week and he was fine. So then the other day I bought a clown fish and 4 red leg crabs and my striped damsel started looking really bad like pale and just did barrel rows when he swam and so last night he died sad yea I know well when I got home today the clownfish was at the front top of the tank on his side then went a like laid on the bottom but started swimming again but like slow and stuff and the yellow tailed damsel is really really pale and he usually is active but he’s just sitting there so does anyone know what’s wrong with my tank plzz help me fix this problem helpppppppppppppppppppp me save my fish
 
its been running for about 2 months i put like a peice of shrimp in the tank before i got fish and i guess it went to the cycle
 
Hi,
First off, you are overstocked. In a new tank, you should add no more than one fish every 3 weeks or so. It takes that long for the microbes in your tank that process waste to catch up to the increased waste load that the new fish are producing. Test for nitrites and ammonia. Both of those could be killing your fish.

Next, damsels and clowns are some of the most aggressive fish you can put in a tank. They will try to kill one another until there's only one left. It's very rare that you can have multiple damsels and clowns coexisting in a tank -- and even then, it will probably only happen in a large tank. Your tank is too small for that many of that type of fish. They fight to the death.

Now, you need to figure out if you have any problems besides overcrowding and incompatible fish. Do you have enough water flow in the tank? It sounds like they could be suffering from a lack of oxygen. Do you have powerheads moving the water around? If you have a glass top, take it off. You need water movement at the surface of the tank to mix the air and water to oxygenate the water. A 30 gallon tank should have one or two powerheads.

You may also have stray voltage in your tank. Read this and check for it. You'll need a hand-held voltmeter (which you can get at any hardware store for around $10).
Identify, Locate and Solve Stray Voltage

Those would be my guesses. Fish being territorial and killing each other, stray voltage, ammonia, nitrites or insufficient oxygen. Let us know what you figure out.
 
no i dont have powerheads i have a undergraval filter and thought that was enough but gettin powerhead tommarow but what can i do to keep the fish alive overnight
 
Sorry but undergravel filter just won't cut it. I tried that once in a small tank and every fish died that I tried for almost a year.
 
The undergravel filter doesn't work for saltwater -- it's actually just trapping crap in your crushed coral (I'm assuming you're using crushed coral, not sand?) and that stuff rots and leaches back into the water.

You should remove the undergravel filter. Do it now before you have a lot of rocks or animals.

Also, do you have live rock? You should have 1 to 2 lbs of live rock per gallon (so 30 to 60 lbs). Live rock will serve as your main source of filtration.

You should get a powerhead for water movement. MaxiJets are a good brand and are really cheap.

I don't know if there's anything you can do right now (like tonight, to keep your fish alive). It does sound like a lack of oxygen is your problem, since you don't have much water movement. Do you have airstones powering your undergravel filter? You could take the airstones out of the undergravel filter and just have them running in the open water, that will give you more oxygen than you have right now with them being part of the filtration.
 
+1 biff

you could mix up some more salt water and do a water change. make sure the specific gravity matches your water in the tank first.

you should also get some test kits, for ammonia nitrite and nitrate or you can bring a water sample to your local fish store and have them test it.
 
I had the same problem when I first started...it's actually what first brought me to this site, I had no idea what a power head was, all I had was my canister filter in my 58. I was trying to get set-up as cheaply as possible to get going so my LFS guy forgot to tell me one or two important things (i.e. power head, and gravel sifter...just did that for the first time last week after 3 months of being up and running). While I didn't have the money to buy the powerhead i wanted, Koralia 3 (talk about starting cheap, huh?), I did a couple of extra water changes and bought an airstone from Petsmart then returned it saying it was a piece of junk when i bought my Koralia :evil!?!?:
 
ditch the crushed coral and get some live sand, the stuff is much better... and then go out and get a hang on the back filter for your system, i have two of em and they work great for what I have....

how long did you let your tank cycle? did you test the water to see if it was even ready for fish? do you have live rock? that will also make a huge difference.. one thing i've learned with this hobby is to take things as SLOW as possible...
 
I've been using an undergravel filter in a 10G and although it has not killed any fish it does tend to collect too much crud. My nitrates never went above 10ppm in the 10G tank. At any rate, we are getting rid of the undergravel filter.

You may wish to consider going with a sand-less bottom. Some people go bottomless because sand beds can trap a lot of detritus and cause problems. If you use sand just think about how you will keep it stirred and clean.
 
I've been using an undergravel filter in a 10G and although it has not killed any fish it does tend to collect too much crud. My nitrates never went above 10ppm in the 10G tank. At any rate, we are getting rid of the undergravel filter.

You may wish to consider going with a sand-less bottom. Some people go bottomless because sand beds can trap a lot of detritus and cause problems. If you use sand just think about how you will keep it stirred and clean.


Sand will actually help buff your PH. I have a tank that is sand less in this tank we need to add a PH buffer.
 
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