help!!!

Hi folks, I,m new to marine. Have a 55 gl corner tank, some live rock , shrimp, couple of snails. I did have 2 clowns which died so I replaced them with a yellow tang and a small procupine puffer , both of which died yesterday. There was no obvious symtoms - the small puffer did look pale and was quite lethargic but I only had him a coouple of days so I thought he was just adjusting. I,ve looked through the web and I have now lowered the salinity to 1.012. Am I doing the right thing? Should I turn the heat up? I have read I should leave it now for 2 -3 wks - whats your view? All tests were fine prior to wipe out ammonia 0/ nitrite 0 /ph 8.2/ nitrate 10.

 

First of all to 3reef.

Second your salinity should be 1.024 to 1.026 depending on if it's going to be a reef tank or not.You are starting to mix reef safe and non reef safe fish so you need to decide what you are going to keep in the tank.
We need some more info:
1. How long has tank been up
2. What type of filtration
3. Water parameters

 

salinity is too low it causes kidney failure in the long term, in short term it add un needed stress to the animals during aclimation.


most of the stuff youve done leads me to believe your trying to treat ich. but you haven't mentioned it in your post. if your not treating ich then raise the salinity to normal levels. the porcupine would eat your shrimp if it lived.

 

It's really important to know how long your tank has been setup. As Sostoudt said, it does sound like you are treating for ick. What did you read that said to lower the salinity? What was it about?
When you see you've read to leave it for 2-3 weeks, this sounds like you were reading something about a cycle. The cycle allows a tank to develop beneficial bacteria that will eliminate ammonia and nitrites from the tank so your fish are happy. This requires generally about 4-6 weeks, but can vary. If you haven't cycled, then the fish probably died from an ammonia spike. Even if you have cycled and it is a new tank, introducing a lot of livestock at one time will cause an ammonia spike because the bacteria need to catch up to handle the increased bioload.

 

Well that's quite a way to introduce yourself...welcome to 3reef?

As stated above, raise your salinity back to normal levels. Salt water fish need...well...salt water. Dropping below the range of proper salinity will lead to kidney failure, and make the fish miserable until then.

What I would do now is:
-tell us more about your system. Filtration, how long it's been setup, etc. These are extremely important in getting more help!
-do not add any more livestock until we can put a finger on what exactly is going on.
-bring salinity back up (this is super important if you haven't noticed already)
-research research research. Since you are new to marine aquariums, take the time to learn as much as you can. Marine aquariums are not difficult, but need a good understanding of how they work and what needs to be done before you should tackle your first setup. Do your homework, and it will save you a ton of headache.

This forum is an excellent place to research. There is never a stupid question here, just ask away and someone will always gladly help you out.

 

Sorry maybe I didn't explain myself properly. I have no fish left they have all died. The tank has been set up for 10 wks now - fully cycled before I put the clowns in. The LFS recommended clowns to start rather than damsels - they lasted 2 weeks and since then I have added the tang and small puffer. The tang was rubbing itself against the live rock and swimming strangely, although there were no obvious spots. LFS gave me asha oodinex and told me to try that as she thought it might be ich/velvet and since I have lost all fish I put in and my levels were all ok (confirmed by lfs water test) I thought it best to take it apart and start again - then I read up on web and thought lowering the salinity was a better bet. Salinity prior to that was 1.022I have an aqua one mari system filter everything else seems fine.

 

Just my two cents, but you're putting in too many fish, way too fast. And a 55g is too small for a tang. Especially a corner tank. They like room to swim.....lots of straight line action. I wouldn't put a tang in less than 75g and that is pushing it. Now about the Ich. Ich is in all tanks.....it's just a matter of the fish being stressed enough to catch it and not being able to shake it off. I have had some very transient ich episodes (a spot here and there) and the fish have pulled through because the system is not stressed.

In your case.....I think the system is stressed. You need to slow down the addition of livestock. I would not put anymore than one fish in every two weeks. As previously stated, your bacterial count needs to catch up with the new bioload.

Now is a good time for you to figure out exactly what you want to do with your tank. Do you want a FOWLR? Or a reef tank? A species tank? If you are going to have corals, that will decide what fish and inverts you can have. Fish will also determine if you can inverts at all. Get some compatablility tables and look through them. A good decision made now will save you lots of time and money, plain and simple. Research not only compatablility but tank size WRT to fish you get. And realize that you will only be able to fit about 15 inches of fish in your tank, and IMO that is pushing the limit.

So I would bring the SG up slowly if you have anything left alive in the tank. No more than .001 per day until you get to about 1.023. If you want a reef tank 1.025. Then wait a week and let things mellow. Then buy one fish once you have figured out what kind of ecosystem you want set up. See what happens for two weeks and go from there......

So that is my two cents.

 

with a suitable water parameter, fish would not die right away in just couple days only. unless the fish were really sick when you bought it.

 

I put the tangs in after I lost the clowns about 3 weeks ago and added the puffer last weekend. Both died within hours of each other after having the puffer 4 days. Should I continue to treat the tank for ich i.e low salinity or should I bring it back up and just omit fish for a couple more weeks?

 

There is really no reason to treat for Ick if you do not have fish in the tank. I would bring the salinity back up and leave the tank sit for a bit. If there are no fish in the tank the Ick Cycle will be broken. From there I would keep a close eye on my parameters and put in a couple Blue/Green Chromis. These fish are cheaper and they are not agressive like a damsel would be. If that fish does well for a few weeks then look to build from there. What was your procedure when you put in the puffer and the tang? Did you drip aclimate them? In my experience even if you get a smaller tang and think that the tank is big enough there is still stress on the fish which really opens it up to sickness. I learned this when I had my Red Sea Max.