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Help! I wake up and 3 of my fish are dead!!

Domboski

Domboski

No Coral Here
Manhattan Reefs
Location
Montclair, NJ
Rating - 100%
237   0   0
WilFresco said:
i just did an amonia test and it came up .50 i know thats not good, how can i get that down? and what would cause it to spike up?
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Do a monster water change (90+%) and add more live rock and increase the flow. Something is not right. It could be the cause of the deaths or the fish dying can be causing the ammonia to spike. My guess is you do not have enough biological filtration to sustain the life you have in the tank. You need to do something quick though. Your fish are suffocating.
 
LatinP

LatinP

Look at my bare bottom!
Manhattan Reefs
Location
Staten Island
Rating - 100%
4   0   0
The Amonia spike could be due to the recent deaths in the tank but regardless do as people said and do a big water change. I find it really hard to believe you can achieve 0 nitrate in a tank with THAT many fish.

Do a big water change, like really big and hope for the best. In the future try not to have that many fish in such a small tank, I'm not the tang police or anything like that but 3 tangs, a parrot, 2 grammas, 3 damsels, 5 clowns (including 2 tomatos) and 2 eels thats ALOT of incompatible fish not to mention way overcrowded. I'm leaning towards aggression. Test nitrate again too I it can't be 0 doesn't seem likely anyway, even with a MONSTER skimmer.
 
WilFresco

WilFresco

Master Debator
Manhattan Reefs
Location
Middletown, NY
Rating - 97.8%
90   2   0
Domboski said:
Do a monster water change (90+%) and add more live rock and increase the flow. Something is not right. It could be the cause of the deaths or the fish dying can be causing the ammonia to spike. My guess is you do not have enough biological filtration to sustain the life you have in the tank. You need to do something quick though. Your fish are suffocating.
Click to expand...

i think thats exactly what i will do, im not trying to lose any more fish, and i will have to cut down on my livestock, a lesson learned in the worst way
 
Aqua Pro Builder

Aqua Pro Builder

Vendor: WingoLED
Manhattan Reefs
Location
Flushing NY 11355
Rating - 99.1%
225   2   0
A big water change(provided that the water is properly made) is needed. I hope you use RO/DI that removes TDS and toxins-sometimes aging the water is not enough. Water change solve couple issues in the short run, (1)it removes toxins if you have there, (2)it usually have good amount of oxygen in it because most people use powerhead to stir the water, (3)it resets a lot of the parameters to an acceptable range even your test results may be wrong. The 0.5 ammonia seems to me also due to the recent death and the ongoing death within your system now-that is not just your fish is dying, the rocks, sand bed and other bio-filter may be dying. Instead of stray current, really test the system for LEAK current-LEAK current does not always show up constantly. I have a korlia that leak once a while took over a month to really find out and prove it in a separate water tank in another month. Fish die of that sometimes(not all the times) have this symptom: gills extrude, mouth wide open, crooked body, fins spike up-kind of like the cartoon Tom and Jerry when the cat stepped on the electrified trap.
 
Last edited:
Jzhou

Jzhou

Advanced Reefer
Manhattan Reefs
Location
whitestone
Rating - 100%
43   0   0
For that amount of fish and less than a 10% change of water everyweek, the only way I can see him having zero nitrate is if there is a lot of algae growing. My guess is that he got some kind of algae that started to spawn through spores that ended up poisoning the fish. Does your tank have a nasty smell coming from it, like if you were at a marina?
 
WilFresco

WilFresco

Master Debator
Manhattan Reefs
Location
Middletown, NY
Rating - 97.8%
90   2   0
Jzhou said:
For that amount of fish and less than a 10% change of water everyweek, the only way I can see him having zero nitrate is if there is a lot of algae growing. My guess is that he got some kind of algae that started to spawn through spores that ended up poisoning the fish. Does your tank have a nasty smell coming from it, like if you were at a marina?
Click to expand...
no odors coming from the tank
 
WilFresco

WilFresco

Master Debator
Manhattan Reefs
Location
Middletown, NY
Rating - 97.8%
90   2   0
Aqua Pro Builder said:
A big water change(provided that the water is properly made) is needed. I hope you use RO/DI that removes TDS and toxins-sometimes aging the water is not enough. Water change solve couple issues in the short run, (1)it removes toxins if you have there, (2)it usually have good amount of oxygen in it because most people use powerhead to stir the water, (3)it resets a lot of the parameters to an acceptable range even your test results may be wrong. The 0.5 ammonia seems to me also due to the recent death and the ongoing death within your system now-that is not just your fish is dying, the rocks, sand bed and other bio-filter may be dying. Instead of stray current, really test the system for LEAK current-LEAK current does not always show up constantly. I have a korlia that leak once a while took over a month to really find out and prove it in a separate water tank in another month. Fish die of that sometimes(not all the times) have this symptom: gills extrude, mouth wide open, crooked body, fins spike up-kind of like the cartoon Tom and Jerry when the cat stepped on the electrified trap.
Click to expand...
u said u have a koralia that used to leak, what r u referring to? a pump, powerhead or something else?
 
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