Help!!! All the fish are dying!!!
- Thread starter rtcbubbles
- Start date
- Location
- whitestone
That is true.
- Location
- Queens, New York
I did the similar thing and nobody died. the only difference is i used "used" live rock and live sand. And I did couple of large water changes. I only waited a week and put a cromis in there. That little guy lived for a year until somebody chewed him up.
The best bet for you is to wait and do couple of more large water changes.
The best bet for you is to wait and do couple of more large water changes.
- Location
- NY
Probably stupid questions, but I haven't heard anyone else ask them......
1 - What brand of salt did you use? Praying you don't say Morton's
2 - Where and what type of rock and sand did you add? Again, you only said sand and rock, hoping you didn't just take sand from the playground and rocks from your backyard.
3 - What brand and expiration dates are your test kits? FW test kits are not going to give you good readings when used with SW.
As stated by numerous other experienced reefers here, your cycle is not complete if your nitrites are 10.
As aquarists we normally have compassion for finned and gilled creatures. Please don't use live fish to cycle your tank. It is cruel and inhumane. You can accomplish the same result (a cycled tank) by adding quality LR, without sacrificing any fish.
Good luck with your new setup. Whether it appears this way or not, everyone here really wants to see you succeed.
Russ
1 - What brand of salt did you use? Praying you don't say Morton's
2 - Where and what type of rock and sand did you add? Again, you only said sand and rock, hoping you didn't just take sand from the playground and rocks from your backyard.
3 - What brand and expiration dates are your test kits? FW test kits are not going to give you good readings when used with SW.
As stated by numerous other experienced reefers here, your cycle is not complete if your nitrites are 10.
As aquarists we normally have compassion for finned and gilled creatures. Please don't use live fish to cycle your tank. It is cruel and inhumane. You can accomplish the same result (a cycled tank) by adding quality LR, without sacrificing any fish.
Good luck with your new setup. Whether it appears this way or not, everyone here really wants to see you succeed.
Russ
- Location
- Rockaway Park
Let me see if I can handle everyone at the same time here...
The sand was dry sand with 200 lbs of cured live rock out of a friend's tank. The nitrites were minimal and my LFS tested the water. I did take some filter media out of my reef and put it in the sump of the new tank. Damsels usually live through everything, generally it takes something substantial to kill them off... IF I THOUGH THE FISH WERE GOING TO DIE, I WOULD NOT HAVE PUT THEM IN! Haing seen a spike in levels and then them come down to zero, (ammonia - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 10) I wanted to slowly add a few fish to start generating more bacteria. 3 damsels in approx 280 gallons of water should have lived... I mentioned my experience cause I do have a clue, people put damsels in within a few days of setting up a tank to help the cycle process. I failed to mention that I had done two 25% water changes about a week apart. I have done alot of reading!
The tank is ready enough after a month and an obvious cycle period, for three damsels to live, and they have not, now please give me suggestion on other things to check for that I am missing. Yes, I am saying that you are all wrong that the tank is not ready, there is something amiss. The next damsel goes in on January 14, so if you want it to live, as I do, I need some real ideas people.
UV sterilizer goes on line today and I'll have an alkiline reading later today as well. I am having the water tested at LFS later again and will have the results for you.
The sand was dry sand with 200 lbs of cured live rock out of a friend's tank. The nitrites were minimal and my LFS tested the water. I did take some filter media out of my reef and put it in the sump of the new tank. Damsels usually live through everything, generally it takes something substantial to kill them off... IF I THOUGH THE FISH WERE GOING TO DIE, I WOULD NOT HAVE PUT THEM IN! Haing seen a spike in levels and then them come down to zero, (ammonia - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 10) I wanted to slowly add a few fish to start generating more bacteria. 3 damsels in approx 280 gallons of water should have lived... I mentioned my experience cause I do have a clue, people put damsels in within a few days of setting up a tank to help the cycle process. I failed to mention that I had done two 25% water changes about a week apart. I have done alot of reading!
The tank is ready enough after a month and an obvious cycle period, for three damsels to live, and they have not, now please give me suggestion on other things to check for that I am missing. Yes, I am saying that you are all wrong that the tank is not ready, there is something amiss. The next damsel goes in on January 14, so if you want it to live, as I do, I need some real ideas people.
UV sterilizer goes on line today and I'll have an alkiline reading later today as well. I am having the water tested at LFS later again and will have the results for you.
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- Location
- Rockaway Park
Live sand is pink aragonite, the salt was Instant Ocean, the test kit was bought over the summer for my reef. I used the rock from an eestablished tank and the media from my filter to cycle the tank, the damsels were put in about 10 days after the readings went back to zero. and then died
AS one post mentioned there was a typo... a big one, I apologize, nitrITEs were high and went to zero... NitrATEs are at 10ppm
AS one post mentioned there was a typo... a big one, I apologize, nitrITEs were high and went to zero... NitrATEs are at 10ppm
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- Location
- Rockaway Park
I Have set up a nano tank with dry rock and dry sand and put 2 baby clownfish i got from josh at the swap in the same day because they would of got lost in my DT and now about a couple of months later my tank is fine idk what i did for nothing to to go wrong but it happen. also i had to get a big aggressive tomato clown out of my DT so i set up a 46g bow front and thru him in there with some dry sand and one large dry rock and now hes doing fine, with about 6 other tank mates.
(ammonia - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 10) that is not what you had in your first post. I think most of us asumed nitrite - 10 as the cause. And with nitrates 0 indicating the cycle had not completed.
Any bad chemicals around from painting or whatever. How about stray voltage.
Any bad chemicals around from painting or whatever. How about stray voltage.
Went back to post #1 and had something odd pop out. You said this was set up as a freshwater tank first, that you converted over, and the way it reads you left about 20 gallons of old freshwater in there?
That would likely mean it was the nasty sludgy water left over after you pulled the substrate. That stuff can be seriously toxic if it gets into the regular water column, did you have that nasty rotten egg smell when you broke down the freshwater? How long does hydrogen sulfide remain in the water column?
-Hans
That would likely mean it was the nasty sludgy water left over after you pulled the substrate. That stuff can be seriously toxic if it gets into the regular water column, did you have that nasty rotten egg smell when you broke down the freshwater? How long does hydrogen sulfide remain in the water column?
-Hans
- Location
- Flushing, NY
+1
- Location
- whitestone
Have you added anything to the water? This is as mysterious to me as the coral line algae that keeps growing in the protein skimmer in my sump.
damsels dying
Look there is something else killing the damsels instead of cycling. In the early days of reef tanks I always used damsels to cycle tanks & not one ever died. I put the damsels in as soon as the water temp reached 78. As he stated he has about 280 gals of water. I would start with a major water change say 75% if you are positive that there is no copper in the tank. If the tank has cooper, go back to fresh water tank or sell & buy new tank.
Look there is something else killing the damsels instead of cycling. In the early days of reef tanks I always used damsels to cycle tanks & not one ever died. I put the damsels in as soon as the water temp reached 78. As he stated he has about 280 gals of water. I would start with a major water change say 75% if you are positive that there is no copper in the tank. If the tank has cooper, go back to fresh water tank or sell & buy new tank.
- Location
- Queens, New York
Sorry for jacking the thread. Does copper kill fish? I know it kills inverts and LR but never heard of it killing fish.
- Location
- Long Island, 11769
What I don't understand is why you would continue to add multiple fish to your system when there was an obvious issue with your water quality.
- Location
- whitestone
That is somewhat extreme. Copper isn't that bad for a fish only tank. Can we find out more about your equipment, how you acclimated your fish, and what kind of things you have added to your tank. At the moment it can be anything from predatory critters hiding in the rocks to poisoning.
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