HELP!!!!!

[gefune]

Ok, this is gonna be lengthy, first I'll give you my tank info, fish only tank, 75g, 1 40w 18000k flourescent, and 1-30w actinic blue light,crushed coral substrate (never been replaced since I started the tank), wet/dry filtration with activated carbon,300w heater, one powerhead, 90+lbs of live rock, running 4+years.I'll get into more detail in a little bit. My first problem is this, while i know my setup is lacking in areas, namely lighting, my tank had been flourshing prior to this summer, I had a foxface that I got as a juvenile who had grown considerably over the 18 months that I had it, a Red Snapper who did so well and grew so fast that I had to sell him after he tripled in size, a porcupine puffer, alvina puffer, couple of damsels, red-stripe cardinal, coral beauty angel and a couple others i can't remember ......but the point is they were all doing great. All of a sudden over the summer they started to die, first the cardinal then the coral beauty.......I did not change anything or do anything to the tank, then I decided to do a water change which I was doing monthly (perhaps a bit long to wait for a water change but it seemed to keep the water parameters fine-pH 8.1, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrites 0ppm, nitrates around 20-30 which i thought was ok for a fish tank, ) immediately after the water change using instant ocean , the foxface started to die to, he went to the bottom and acted like he was gasping for air, which coincedently is exactly how all of my fish would act before they died. So I being distraught since I loved my foxface dearly did another water change approx. 15 g, and then my puffers died. Eventually everybody died except my bowcutie damsel who is unstoppable and could live in fresh water if he had to. I checked water parameters and the only thing that was even remotely high was the nitrates, but those shouldn't kill fish. Everytime I try to add fish, namely damsels since they are cheap, they die....except for a couple who have survived with the bowcutie. I don't know what to do. Going along with this I have another problem (amazing I know), Shortly after I left to go back to school , (my dad takes care of my tank) large amounts of hair algae began to grow on my rocks , this had never been a problem before, so When i came home for winter break I orderd a bunch of snails from ff-express to eat the hair algae, when i introduced them to the tank they all died, so I had them send me more snails (at great expense) and most of them died too. So I resorted to taking each piece of live rock out and scrubing the hair algae off. Many hours later my rock was spotless and look quite nice.I figured the bloom was due to high phospates coming in from the tap water that I used to make my water change water with. So i purchased a DI/RO filter to make water with figuring it might help my dying fish problem too. So i started doing water changes with the DI/RO (which does a very nice job of making pure water I might add) but the algae has come back and my dying fish problem is still a problem, please help me, what can i do, do I need to start over and redo the tank, or is there something i can.....Thank you so much for any help you can give me.....

 

[Canada_Dry]

Do you have a younger brother or sister? maybe one of them stuck something in your tank that is toxic? a penny mabye, probly shouldnt hurt the fish much but who knows? look around in your tank with a fine tooth comb some could have droped something in it. Did your mom decide to clean the tank glass with a toxic cleaner? ask everyone in your family if they may have done something, that they thought was harmless. You can easily make a home made ground probe to see if that helps, just get a long stainless steel bolt at the hardware store, and 2 nuts, tighten a piece of wire (just about any type of wire will work) between the 2 nuts, then on the closest electrical wall plug loosen the center screw that holds the plastic face plate on and fasten the other end of the wire under the screw and tighten it back up. Then hang the bolt in the tank water, if that was your problem your fish should start to look beter in a few days.
Good Luck
Canada_Dry.

 

[gefune]

both bulbs are less than 3 months old. Haven't tried to probe yet, but why would they die right after a water change? And each one would die seperately after a water change....

 

[Jawbone]

Ahh I did not catch that tidbit of info. perhaps there is a prob with your water. has the local fish store (LFS) helped you with this.

I would take a sample of the water out of the tap or bottle or RO Unit or where ever you get your freshwater from and take a sample of the saltwater you make using whatever ocean making product you have to a lab ( Look in yellow pages for Laboratories - Testing ) and pick up a good book on water quality for marine life and see if yours falls in the danger zones. you may have too much chlorine or god knows what.

Too bad these tanks dont come with a PFM button that fixes everything.

(Pure Freaking Magic)

try isolating your fish in a small tank when you buy them for a couple of weeks if they do well in the small tank and then die when you put them in the larger tank then I would also suggest taking your large tank completley down and check carefully for foriegn objects as Canada-Dry suggested.

Very difficult to track down problems usually end up being the simplest to solve.

 

[Jawbone]

seems to be a common problem
here is another threadon this board

 

[Jawbone]

change the light bulbs for the algae problem

And I know this will sound strange but get a grounding rod for your tank. Sounds like one of your pumps is sending voltage into the water

just a guess

[ February 15, 2002: Message edited by: Jawbone ]</p>

 

[gefune]

I was thinking of swtiching to VHO's, wouldn't the higher light output increase the algae though, they are photosynthetic, they like the light. Thanks..

 

[Jawbone]

its not the higher light output or lumens that causes the algae but rather the spectrum or frequency of that light that causes things to happen. anyway as your lights get older the spectrum of light diminishes and causes bad things to take place.

Even fish benefit from the right spectrum as do human beings..... I am sure you have heard of the winter blues.... Actual fact that we get energy from the sun.

I am sure in the history of this message board there is plenty of juicy posts about light that will keep you up for hours