help..

This is Andrea, Chris's girlfriend.. he is at home with the fish..

a few days ago he noticed the firefish covered in a white powder. it does not look like ick, just a fine powder like they were digging in the crushed coral. this morning, the goby passed away covered in the same powder. now the two clarkis are covered in the same powder and acting strange.. the params are
ph 8.0
ammonia between .5 and 1.0- possible goby death
nitrites-0
nitrates- 80

nitrates could possibly be high due to cleaning and moving rocks around.

he is afraid the clarkis are going to pass away as well.. we no longer have the internet at home so he is not able to check back to anyones responses until tomorrow morning. if there is anything he can do to fix this can you please call him. he didnt know if he should post his number but he has no other way to find anything out. 606-483-1074

all the fish are letting the shrimp clean them.. so they are aware they are sick

 

Sounds like a cycle. There shouldnt be any ammonia in your system. Does he get text messages. I dont want to be the sole voice of advice for him because Im not that experienced. I would say a water change for now to bring levels down. If he gets text messages Ill send him whatever people post on here.

 

he does get texts.. that would be very helpful.. thank you..

 

does sound like a cycle how old is the tank

 

Cool Ill text him whatever gets posted on here. Now we just needs some more opinions.

 

are the fish eating? Get some really good food and soak the food in vitamins and HUFA. Might want to add garlic so that it will entice the fish to eat.I personally would not do a waterchange at this point...might just stress the fish out more.

Get some Prime and dose that at emergency level...I think it is 3x. I use alpha by aquavitro which is very similar and that level is 4x the amount (or vice versa....) But use that.
Honestly if fish are eating they tend to be able to fight it off better. What is the temp of the tank...is it stable and not fluctuating?Good luck,

 

just looked at nitrate level again.... that is up there a bit. Could be from moving stuff around however if you just recently did that I would not think that would be that high yet...

ammonia is elevated but not horrible...that is more likely from the moving around and goby passing.

Nitrates are the end stage of the cycle..so something has caused it to go up, overfeeding, something else lost, cycle.....

Unfortunately water changes will only decrease that a little unless you do a massive change and I really think it would just stress it more. So use the Prime or Alpha at emergency level and then do water changes later....in a couple days when fish recover a bit.My opinion...but I dont have the most experience here ;D so if someone else chimes in......

 

The tank is about 8 or 9 months old.. all of the fish are eating great.. we are feeding marine cuisine (frozen cubes). we will run to the lfs tomorrow to see about treatment. we are not sure why it would be cycling though.. and chris says thanks mike..

 

Just keep feeding them good food. I also would not recommend a water change. If it is going through a cycle, water changes will only prolong that. The tank needs time to catch up with itself and restore balance.

 

opinion - cant phone or text from China using the number as listed - Im not being tight fisted (*mean or stingy) honestly.

moving the stuff about in the tank has created the parameter issue (cycle)
the act of moving stuff about and the resulting water quality issues has caused stress and the fish are now suffering parastic infections

options and to be honest I have no idea if these will save any fish lives

1 - dose with bottled bacteria type products such as prime or Hagens cycle to try and band aid those parameters back into check
2 - add Purigen or other chemical media to the filtration system, again to band aid the water quality issues - also add carbon if its not already part of the filter system
3 - remove fish if possible and treat them with copper based meds (its the fastest and most succesful method of treating parasite infections IME) a 10 gallon bucket would suffice as an emergency QT
4 - alternative to 3 - kick ich is a reef safe med that I have seen some good reviews for ( not used it myself so cant offer definitive positive advice here)

if the fish can be removed and treated seperately then this would allow the tank time to sort out its water quality issues

its never happened to me, but if it did, the above would be what I would do

Steve