help on fish death and bubble coral help

[strigoiviu]

I have had my tank set up for about 2 months and the water levels finally cooled down to normal. we had a cow fish in the tank and he got massivly covored with ick. we bought 3 cleaner shrimp and they ended up passing away and we got a few more and they all died. Our tank is just a 29 gallon. We have crushed coral and live sand at the bottom and close to 30lbs of live rock. a ton of things have popped out of the rocks since these 2 months. our levels cooled down and we got the cow fish. he died from the ick and our levels dropped back down again. we went to a local expert and checked with him before we put anything else in the tank. we bought a devils hand which seems to be doing great, a bubble coral that was good for the first day adn completely shrank up the 2nd day and looks dead.and we have one more but we have no clue what it is. we bought a cleaner wrass about 2 weeks ago to help with the ick and he seems perfect and we had a maroon clownfish but he passed away about an hour ago. we have a power compact lighting hood with 2x65 watt 10,000k bulb and an actinic blue light. if anyone might have any ideas on why the clownfish has died and why the bubble coral has completely shrank up to nothing that would be awesome.

[Doctor_Reef]

Hi there and welcome to CF.....

Wow...Really sorry to hear about all the trouble you are having!! We really need to know a few things about the water quality in the tank in order to help determine what the problem is…has your tank completely cycled? What are your test results on ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?? What is your salinity?? What is your calcium level? Need to know what your alkalinity and PH are…

Also it wouldn’t hurt to let us know what your filtration system is so we can try and figure out what is causing this problem…

A couple things before we get started on trying to figure out what is going on…You need to slow down a bit…You never want to rush into lots of fish and corals…Your tank has to adjust every time you add anything to your tank…Remember that nothing that happens fast in the hobby if ever good!!! Your temp needs to remain consistent within a couple degrease!!! If you have had a massive outbreak of ich, you will need to remove all your fish and put them in a Hospital tank and treat them…Your display tank will need to remain fishless for about 6 weeks… before you put any fish back in…The cleaner wrasse will not work on ich…it will get it too and die if not treated…

Man, real sorry that this has happened!!

[strigoiviu]

the temp. is at 78 and hs only dropped to about 76 but thats when the ac in the house got turned on but its perfect now. the hydrometer is right at 1.023..ever since we have gotten our tank started we started going to this guy who has been in business and has been well known for his saltwater and reef tanks and helping people. he wouldnt even let me touch a fish or coral untill he knew our tank has cycled and our levels were perfect. he was just in the business to help other people and not for the money. and you could tell when he was selling all of his corals for 30$ for 29 years. i will check all the levels again tomorrow but i know the ph, nitrate and nitrite were absolutely perfect for about 2 weeks.

[strigoiviu]

oh. i forgot to add...we have been giving the corals DT's live marine phytoplankton and ever since we got the lighting set up we have been puting in Reef Vital DNA everyday.

[Doctor_Reef]

if anyone might have any ideas on why the clownfish has died and why the bubble coral has completely shrank up to nothing that would be awesome.

If your water parameters are all ok your clown may have died do to the ich outbreak...

Bubble corals do shrink up and come back...Just watch it for a couple days and see if it comes back...I have a bubble and it shrinks up every night and opens up in the light...Make sure it is in moderate light and it should be ok...

[Condiman]

I agree with the dock that Bubbles do that from time to time. I am interested in what your water perameters are?

[Sugar Magnolia]

Also, keep in mind that it takes 4-6 weeks for all the ich parasites, eggs and larvae to die off in your system. By putting that cleaner wrasse in there, you have a pretty good chance that it will develop ich as well. It's always best to let the tank sit fishless for that 4-6 week period of time so that the parasites die. I'm quite surprised that your "expert" guy keeps selling you fish. He should know about the life cycle of this common parasite if he claims to be an expert.

Read through these two articles to get a better understanding about ich, and treatement for ich.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichart2mar.htm

And, as the others have mentioned, please give us the exact numbers for your water parameters.

[MikeS]

oh. i forgot to add...we have been giving the corals DT's live marine phytoplankton and ever since we got the lighting set up we have been puting in Reef Vital DNA everyday.

I'd skip both of them, they are too small to be used by most of your corals (maybe dose a small amount of DT's once a week or so for the pods and small filter feeders) and are likely only adding excess nutrients to your system, probably creating water quality issues....

Mike

[strigoiviu]

the guy that we go to gave us this kick-ich stuff to use for 15 days. it says safe for all corals,inverts and fish. we put the cleaner wrass in there because i read online somewhere that he will help keep the tank cleaner and i'v checked him everyday to see if anymore ich was on him and he seems to be completely ich free. the clownfish was only in there for 1 day, do you think that one day would have gotten to him that bad?>

[FishinInTheDark]

Hi Strigo! Welcome to Coral Forum. I lived in Monroe, MI for years!

As all have said, specific numbers for your water perameters would be great. I'm also wondering how you have been acclimating your new creatures.

Hopefully, we'll get you squared away soon. Sorry that we have to keep asking questions, but it's a sort of process of elimination. Welcome again!

[strigoiviu]

well move back! you can come over and help me:p

[FishinInTheDark]

Nah, I'll be visiting out there later this summer though! Nice place to visit. . .

So, how do you acclimate new acquisitions?

[strigoiviu]

we soak them in the water for about 25 minutes and then we take a cup of water and dump it in with them and every 5 minutes we take a cup out and dump another cup in and i do that every 5 minutves for about an hour.

[FishinInTheDark]

Hmm. That should be sufficient. That's not the issue.

How about those ammonia, nitrite and nitrate numbers?

[Doctor_Reef]

It would be good to see the exact numbers as FITD has asked for...

[strigoiviu]

The nitrate and nitrite were at .2 and the amonia is at .02. after we put the clownfish and the corals went in the levels sky rocketed. we did a partial water change and the levels went back down some.

[FishinInTheDark]

That would be your problem. Ammonia and nitrite need to be at zero. Nitrate can be as high as ten if you want corals, but zero is better. Hold off on adding anything else to your tank until the first two readings are absolute zero. Feed as little as possible. Once the initial cycle has finished, you'll find that you have better luck with fish and coral.

By the way, keep an eye on that cleaner wrasse. Unless it's eating prepared foods (which is rare), without a large number of large fish to clean, it will starve. They don't fare well in most home aquaria, and are considered a "difficult" species to keep. I highly recommend that you ask the fish guy to take it back for store credit.

[strigoiviu]

the cleaner wrass sleeps in ahole in the rocks at night and right when brine shrimp hits the water he takes off out of that hole like hes starving and he eats a ton of it. you can see his stomach buldge by the time hes done.

[FishinInTheDark]

That's great news! Try to mix up his diet a bit by offering cyclopeeze or mysis shrimp too. These foods have better nutritional value, so you can feed less. Congrats!

[strigoiviu]

he hates mysis shrimp. so did our clownfish and cow fish. picky picky fish:p

[coral_diver]

I just want to make sure that u are not putting any of that bag water in your tank right??? If you are stop! I had issues with clowns until my tank was more mature like 6months I know some say they are hardy and I have heard the opposite also it just depends on who you ask and which book you are reading. I almost have to wonder if you are aware of what to look for in a fish as far as health such as make sure the eyes are clear make sure the stomach is fat and not concave and that can take some comparison to learn the difference for some people. The other thing is make sure you are reasearching for compatiability before you bring these fish home! I noticed you said you had brought something home and you werent sure what it was? not good...I dont want to sound mean but we have all wanted to bring home that awesome fish just to find out it gives off toxin or is agressive or you should keep in a pair or not etc the lists are long but really get us your parameters if you arent at ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate -10 ph 8.0+ your tank is not ready. What is your SG and temp also? Things will get better hang around these guys got me started and in line all about almost 2 years ago now I have 5 sw tanks plus my 2 fw! Yikes it is addicting get out while you still can j/k :)

[strigoiviu]

lol. i am definately not putting the bag water in. i also have a freshwater tank that i have some bala sharks in. the couple things i have no clue what they are, one of them came in a live rock that we didnt even notice when we bought it. the rock was covored in coraline algea, purple and orange. it never leaves the rock but it sticks out some just so you can see it. and the other is a coral. its green and white on the stems and they stick out about 7 inches fully extended and they have flower like tips that wave around and they are green and yellow. they are very flourescent under our lunar lights. i heard crushed coral was terrible in more of a reef tank so i took the crushed coral out and added about 4 inches of sand. there is aragonite sand and Aragalive. the tank is just starting to get less cloudy.