tank problems

[dale]

[quote author=dale link=topic=2533.msg20258#msg20258 date=1336006938]
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 ?
[/quote]yes, the 3 were in there for 3 to 4 weeks and looking great then i put the other lion in there as well instead of regular quarantine for another 4 weeks and they all came out lookin great and very healthy and stayed that way for about a month in the display...

 

[dale]

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

ya, sorry about that,., im going to replace evaporated water with 1.025.

 

[dale]

when they were in hypo the sg was at 1.009, and the display is/was at 1.o20 and i took about 8 or 9 days to raise the sg in the hypo tank.

 

[reeffreak]

[quote author=reeffreak link=topic=2533.msg20301#msg20301 date=1336132591]
[quote author=dale link=topic=2533.msg20258#msg20258 date=1336006938]
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 ?
[/quote]yes, the 3 were in there for 3 to 4 weeks and looking great then i put the other lion in there as well instead of regular quarantine for another 4 weeks and they all came out lookin great and very healthy and stayed that way for about a month in the display...
[/quote]

oh   guess they werent healthy , take your time slow your process down ...read as much as possible till your eyeballs start to burn , turn red and the words on the computer screen get blurry enopugh you cant make them out anymore , IMO hypo this fish and keep them in there for several weeks , observe there health and all that before doing anyting with them , start adding one at a time back to the DT add one every 2-3 weeks observe the fish as its in the DT , if no signs of ich then add the next fish wait 2-3 weeks observe no signs of ich , next and so on take your time with the process add the least aggressive of the fish first and the most aggressive last , this will take you a few months to pull off but if you care for the health of the fish and want them to survive it will take awhile to be sure that the fish are a true %100 back to health . Bio load might be an issue also make sure water is as close to levels it should be and SG of 1.25 is where you want to be in your DT

 

[dale]

ya, i guess not,. nothing ive read on hyposalinity would suggest that what i did would allow marine ich to still be present in my system, therefore im really not leaning towards ich  plus im not positive it was ich on the puffer because he was constantly covering himself in gravel, so im thinkin it could have been anything living in the gravel, and none of the other fish showed any signs of ich after hypo, the cloud eye did come back however on all 3 fish that died, the puffer got better then died. the puffer could have ultimately died from toxins from dead lions or may have been poked by a lion , i really dont know.  most of what ive read about cloud eye was that it was usually caused by poor water ie: my high nitrates, and that is why i was/am so concerned about nitrates. SO im take some precautions to ensure this doesnt happen again.,., quarentine the eel and fishless tank for 8 weeks, display at 1.025 sg, new skimmer, reactor with just carbon, no large sponges (just to protect pumps), allready got new light for sump, add eel, then 1 new fish to clean qt, wait 6 weeks,.,., also considering vodka dosing., still hoping to keep at least 3 fish..., does that sound about right???

 

[unibob]

Sounds like you have things on track now. The amount of fish I think really depends on size of fish, and how much waste they produce. A skimmer is definitely an excellent idea.

 

[reeffreak]

I would also suggest to make sure your DT levels are all stable for atleast a couple weeks to be sure before adding the fish , ifthe QT time is up and the DT is not ready keep them in QT no harm in that safe or sorry or raise the QT salinity to 1.025 whichever works best for u