tank problems

[dale]

is there anyone that can come help me diagnose what could be causing problems with my setup and my fish, i will pay for your time/ gas or trade for a coral whatever, i just need help please.

 

[Carmenh]

Surely someone can help?  Sorry, I'm in Burlington and am not a pro but free bump

 

[dale]

thanks, but nobodys offered yet and all my fish are dying and i still have no idea why. i appreciate the thought.

 

[Neopimp]

I woudl love to help ya but I have my own issues I cant figure out lol....
I have killed 3 tangs.. pygmy angel... royal gramma ... six line... couple clowns... magenta colored fish.... yellow coris wrasse...
I am sure there are more but they have been forgotten in the blood letting my tank has been
What are you symptoms??
Cloudy Eyes? Spots? White Fuzz?  Film?

 

[dale]

i have to go to work now but i will write out a description the best i can when i get home, any input would be great, right now im thinkin tds meter and uv.,.,  thanx.

 

[pulpfiction1]

send me a pm dale with info on how to get ahold of you  I'll see what I can do to help you 

Sent from my HTC Incredible S

 

[Petercar (RIP Dec 2017)]

I'm in sarnia got the big leather from you.    It's doing real good ....I wouldn't know what to tell yu to do  ..bu my tank was sick one day months ago....the fish where all breathing real fast ...so pulp saidto test for stray voltage. None. And he said do big waterchanges so I did a 20 gallon water change. My tank is a 55  then by the time it was all over ..lost just 3 damsels    One damsel lived. So did the2 clowns and sailfin

 

[Duke]

im off for the next few days.. i probably wont be any help, but if you still want someone to pop by i can.

 

[davesolo29]

still waiting to hear what the symptoms are........ ???

 

[dale]

ok so heres the story, i built the tank in dec 11, added fish too soon and they died (my fault) added fish again in jan, (volitan lion and snowflake eel)  about 10 days later i added the dog face puffer, after a couple weeks they showed signs of ich and the lion was getting cloud eye so they went into hypo saliniy about 3 weeks later i added a dwarf lion to hypo and they stayed there for another 5 weeks or so and they all looked great except for the volitan lost an eye. during this time the display had no inhabitants except for the growing number of little critters, i fed the tank a bit during this time. all 4 fish went back in around april 10th and looked great and ate lots, during this time the puffer constantly sifted the gravel (about 15 hours a day it looked like) and ate more than i thought a fish could eat , they ate mostly frozen shrimp. the dwarf lion would only eat live things ( i tried to feed him off the stick but he would have none of it) after about 3 weeks of this i decide to install a sump, and i think all went well and stuff is growing.  about a week later i see that the puffer is getting spots (figured it was comming from the gravel) so i watched the others closely and they never did get spots, so after another week he went in the 10 gallon hospital and started doseing with kordon rid ich plus (formaldihyde). and it looked like he got completely better, during this time the volitans other eye stared getting cloudy a few days later the dwarfs eyes started getting cloudy too, a couple days later they were both weak and lost most of their color so they went in the hospital too and died within 12 hours, during this whole time the snowflake has looked and acted completely normal and is still in the main tank. i dont test my water much, but after the puffer went to the hospital i started every day for nitrates and a couple times for ammonia and nitrite (both at 0 or close) the nitrates were at 80 or so with an api test kit i did 20 gal water changes for 4 days and i put in a reactor with old nitrate remover /phosphate remover and carbon the nitrates went to 40 then to 20 the day the lions died. after the lions died the puffers eys went cloudy he lost all his slime  and died about 3 days after the lions. the skimmer pulls about 1 cup every 3 weeks but the fish wernt in there very long. so i still dont know whats wrong. if antbody needs any more info .,., just ask.  thanks everyone!

 

[dale]

im off for the next few days.. i probably wont be any help, but if you still want someone to pop by i can.

ya shur, you might think of or know something i didnt. im usually home aroud 6 or so

 

[davesolo29]

sounds to me like a matter of too much too fast.  I know i am guilty of that also and have had no luck keeping anything alive, fish or coral.
Myself, i am at the point of not adding any fish, not adding any coral, let my system find a balance and leave it alone for awhile. 
how big is your hospital tank?  is it big enough to house your remaing fish for another 6-8 week period?  if it is, i would move all the fish, let the ick clear itself from your display(usually takes 6 weeks with no fish). let the tank find a balance and slowly start putting your fish back in from the hospital tank.
be sure to get the nitrates and phosphates down too. 
If your fish is already stressed, the high nitrates and all the changes in a short time are definately not helping.

 

[Duke]

if its fishless now, maybe run fishless for a bit and throw some snails and hermits in there and wait it out for a few weeks then try a cheapo fish for a few more weeks to make sure everythings good to go. other than that im not sure what to say.

 

[Fraggle Rock]

I agree with dave too much too fast. Even if it isn't the route cause of the problem it's not helping matters any. The only thing that that ever seems to happen fast in a fish tank is "BAD".
Just don't get too discouraged it'll all work out in the end.

Lots of good info in the link below for you to look over concerning Fish treatment and diagnosis,
http://wetwebmedia.com/mardisindex.htm

Hope it helps you as it's helped me in the past.

 

[dale]

sounds to me like a matter of too much too fast.  I know i am guilty of that also and have had no luck keeping anything alive, fish or coral.
Myself, i am at the point of not adding any fish, not adding any coral, let my system find a balance and leave it alone for awhile. 
how big is your hospital tank?  is it big enough to house your remaing fish for another 6-8 week period?  if it is, i would move all the fish, let the ick clear itself from your display(usually takes 6 weeks with no fish). let the tank find a balance and slowly start putting your fish back in from the hospital tank.
be sure to get the nitrates and phosphates down too. 
If your fish is already stressed, the high nitrates and all the changes in a short time are definately not helping.

  its just the eel in there now and he looks good and the lionfishes didnt look like they had ich, just the puffer and the tank was fishless for 2 months while the fish were in hypo with no new fish for 5 weeks and i medicated for cloud eye with just the volitan for 1 week, so i was just assuming that neither of those diseases made it through.,., but of course a possibility  and the puffers eyes were cloudy too but not for about a month after they returned from hypo.,., could the cloud eye come back because of bad water and killed my fish that quickly?? and not affect the eel? and of course going too quickly and not letting it happen naturaly..,, i was thinkin that the rock was all live rock when it went in and so was the gravel it matured for 2 mos and everything was just crawlin with tiny critters in a 100 gal  and just 4 fish would be enough??? but im guessin i should go even slower. so should i still take the eel out for 6 weeks.. run carbon in the main., feed it a bit., the tank looks like its running great.. thanx for your help .,  dale.,.,,,.,.,, ., .,  (and ive had different softies in there  the whole time and doing well) O YA! the puffer ate a leather the size of my hand within 24 hours about 5 days before he got sick., but the lions didnt <-- lol

 

[davesolo29]

from my understanding,  the tank needs to be completly fishless to erradicate ich.  even if the fish in the tank show no signs of ich, it is still present. 

 

[spyd]

Is your tank 100G? If so, that is a crazy bioload for that size tank. I know it is only 4 fish, BUT, those are 4 huge bio-load producing fish. Nitrates of 80 are insane. Even 20 is far too much. You should be operating below 5 at all times. The fish are getting stressed because there is not enough room for all of them and that is why they are getting sick. What type of skimmer do you have? You should definitely be running something that is way overkill to handle the bioload. Even then, the bio-load is just way too much. 1 Volitan Lionfish can be kept in a 120G tank... But 2 in 100G is far too much. I'm not tyring to harp on you, only telling you what the actual problem is. 1 of those 4 fish would be fine alone in the tank. You could add a couple smaller fish that are able to defend themselves but that would be tops, especially, with corals in your tank as those contribute to your overall bio-load as well. The eel should be fine on its own but I wouldn't put any additional fish in there. If you had at least 200G then that bio-load should be sustainable.

To correct the problems, definitely water changes. I know all you have left is the eel so 20% every 2 weeks should be sufficient. If you have more than that, you may want to consider weekly water changes of 15% or so to keep those nitrates down. Again, sorry if I'm coming off a little rude but some research would prevent these issues. Puffer needs a 90G min. 1 - Volatin needs a 120G min. and a Snowflake Eel can handle a 90G min. But those sizes are based on that one fish being the main bio-load producer. A combination of them means a lot more Gallons in your tank to handle that kind of load. Best of luck. HTH.

 

[AdInfinitum]

Puffers aren't my thing but, is the dogface closer to the brackish puffers or is it like the spiny and the various boxfish that let out toxins whenever they are stressed/startled/annoyed/looked at inappropriately.....etc. ?

My bitterness...but I once had a beautiful blue boxfish NUKE a whole tank (including itself) after an emperor angel chased it and nipped its tail.  No-one had mentioned the puffer toxin to me when I bought it and this was in the pre-internet days when learning meant a trip to the library....

 

[reeffreak]

ok so heres the story, i built the tank in dec 11, added fish too soon and they died (my fault) added fish again in jan, (volitan lion and snowflake eel)  about 10 days later i added the dog face puffer, after a couple weeks they showed signs of ich and the lion was getting cloud eye so they went into hypo saliniy about 3 weeks later i added a dwarf lion to hypo and they stayed there for another 5 weeks or so and they all looked great except for the volitan lost an eye. during this time the display had no inhabitants except for the growing number of little critters, i fed the tank a bit during this time. all 4 fish went back in around april 10th and looked great and ate lots, during this time the puffer constantly sifted the gravel (about 15 hours a day it looked like) and ate more than i thought a fish could eat , they ate mostly frozen shrimp. the dwarf lion would only eat live things ( i tried to feed him off the stick but he would have none of it) after about 3 weeks of this i decide to install a sump, and i think all went well and stuff is growing.  about a week later i see that the puffer is getting spots (figured it was comming from the gravel) so i watched the others closely and they never did get spots, so after another week he went in the 10 gallon hospital and started doseing with kordon rid ich plus (formaldihyde). and it looked like he got completely better, during this time the volitans other eye stared getting cloudy a few days later the dwarfs eyes started getting cloudy too, a couple days later they were both weak and lost most of their color so they went in the hospital too and died within 12 hours, during this whole time the snowflake has looked and acted completely normal and is still in the main tank. i dont test my water much, but after the puffer went to the hospital i started every day for nitrates and a couple times for ammonia and nitrite (both at 0 or close) the nitrates were at 80 or so with an api test kit i did 20 gal water changes for 4 days and i put in a reactor with old nitrate remover /phosphate remover and carbon the nitrates went to 40 then to 20 the day the lions died. after the lions died the puffers eys went cloudy he lost all his slime  and died about 3 days after the lions. the skimmer pulls about 1 cup every 3 weeks but the fish wernt in there very long. so i still dont know whats wrong. if antbody needs any more info .,., just ask.  thanks everyone!

so if i read this right u had your 3 fish in hypo( violital lion and eel and puffer) then went and bought another fish(dwarf lion fish) and placed  it into hypo aswell ?

 

[pulpfiction1]

I kinda discuss this with him on the phone yesterday  I mention he should bring the salinity up to where it  should be and his phone died  so I'm not sure what he's doing about it

Sent from my HTC Incredible S