Tank seems off to me

[l Morphine]

Hi guys,

I recently had alot of deaths in my tank that I attributed to my fu manchu lionfish but after losing more after giving him away, I dont know what gives. I have lost 2 PJ cardinals, 1 bangaii cardinal, a spotted wrasse, twin spot goby, a scooter blenny and a red coris wrasse. I have checked my params and they are

Nitrates: 0PPM
Nitrites: 20PPM (50% water change just done when I saw that)
Ammonia: Under 0.25PPM close if not on 0PPM
PH: 8.4
Temp: 79 degrees

Tank size is 30 breeder

Current Stock:

2 PJ cardinals, 1 bangaii, 1 black and white perc, 1 tomato clown, 1 engineer goby.

Tank is full of corals, which all looks okay but arent as open as they should be. Anemones look eh. Not bad but not good either.

I cant seem to find out whats wrong. Im running a fluval 306 which I change every week, and an aquaclear 70 which I change the other week. I run 3 koralia powerheads (MP will be here friday). Lights are artic ocean s026.

 

[BFITZ06]

think you have to many fish a 30gal

 

[l Morphine]

Well my current stock is what I added after my other fish died. I kept replacing them. So what I have now and what I had back then was completely different. Do you still think Im overstocked?

 

[rambler67]

how long has the tank been cycled? looks like it could be going threw a cycle again and it is over stocked for that size tank. that heavily stocked tank you should look into getting a skimmer on it also. or just really keep up with bi weekly wc

 

[l Morphine]

Tank has been set up for about a year. Used sand and rock from my 5 yr old 125g. Was going to do a skimmer but I can never find a good nano skimmer. I do water changes weekly. I do 10g water changes using nutri seawater

 

[piranhapat]

Are you ruling out velvet or some other disease that a fish could of had. Any signs of fish breathing heavy. Not eating or scratching against rock. Any swing in salinity or temp over night. Did your lion fish stress other fish. Did you put new fish right in main tank without QT them. They can be several reason but you must observe your tank and you might catch something that's not right.

 

[Djbetterly]

I'm quite sure I have velvet it's taking my tank down painfully slowly, it's so depressing to watch. Keep an eye on things and unlike myself when you lose your next fish take a close look at it's body, gills, etc.

I feel your pain on this one...

 

[l Morphine]

They are all eating. No scratching. But all of these fish disappeared as in I didn't find any bodys.

 

[Djbetterly]

That's what was happening to me. One of the symptoms of velvet is the fish go into hiding and a lot of times they don't ever come out. They die in the place they are hiding and before you ever find them the cleanup crew has taken care of them.