Coral good but fish dieing

[TX..r33f]

Hi,I have had a 45g tank set up for about 3-4months now. Evry time i put in a new fish they do good for a week then die. All my test are good but magnesium and calium are a bit low not by much. Every thing els is spot on. My corals are doing fine its when i add a fish it dies. I aclimate them rite(drip aclimate). The last fish i had it started to breath hard and open and close its mouth fast. i thought it was lack of airation in the tank so i put in a air line. But it still ended up dead. any one help?

[Psirex]

What are the actual levels especially ammo? What are you using for filtration?

[TX..r33f]

my ammo is 0ppm fo filtration i am using a canister filter. But today i am building a sump. would the sump help if i put chaetomorpha and other things in it?

[drparker]

Your acclimation might be too slow allowing the ammonia in the bag to sky rocked and the fish never recovers.

[ReeferBill]

I used to have a 75 reef and when I started a 46 bow up i tried to stock it like the 75.I lost 2 tanks of fish before i added a 38 gallon refugium with DSB ,Liverock and macro algea. I am not proud of it but I will never set up a tank that small without a big refugium again...What do you have for filtration?

[TX..r33f]

Originally Posted by drparker

Your acclimation might be too slow allowing the ammonia in the bag to sky rocked and the fish never recovers.

You might be rite,but once i put them in the tank they are fine for about a week they eat and swim. Next thing i know their floating on the top and, the bad thing is i killed a damsel . The fish that can never die lol. for filtration i have a canister filter. i am building a sump today though.

[Psirex]

Acclimation could be the issue if too slow as stated - my acclimation for fish takes about 30-45 minutes...

[drparker]

People QT fish in 10 to 20 gal tanks for 6 to 8 weeks all the time. Size of tank is not an issue.

Either the parameters are not stable and in an acceptable range: Ammonia spiking etc., larger tank with sump helps keep things stable.

The acclimation is not done correctly: Fish stayed in open bag too long, Ph change to great or Salinity change to big, but the fast rise in ammonia once the bag is opened is the biggest danger.

The fish was so far gone to begin with it can't recover. Caught with cyanide. Caught deep and brought the surface to fast. Not eating and too weak to recover. Flukes etc.

Try running a QT before putting them into your DT tank.

[Psirex]

Originally Posted by TX..r33f

You might be rite,but once i put them in the tank they are fine for about a week they eat and swim. Next thing i know their floating on the top and, the bad thing is i killed a damsel . The fish that can never die lol.

Have your water param 2x checked by your LFS

[drparker]

What are you dosing? Anything that is known to lower O2?

[Playa-1]

With limited information, It sounds like an acclimation issue to me as well.
I would suspect Ammonia poisoning from the slow drip process or rapid Sg change from the transport bag to the tank. It a good idea to know what the holding tank/shipping bag Sg is at before the fish is acclimated. Sometimes the LFS Sg isn't where they think it is, so I would advice against taking their word for it.

[joelespinoza]

I have a open top 10 gallon tank that has a sponge filter and a high flow airpump. I also have a LOT of macro algae in there. I have 4 small (about an inch) juvenile pinfish from the Gulf of Mexico, in the mornings (when the light first came on) I noticed my fish breathing heavily, after a bit it would get better, then the next morning the fish would be gasping again. The shrimp, hermet crabs and snails showed no signs of stress.

I upgraded to a 400GPH Aquaclear 70, thinking that would be plenty of flow for a 10 gallon tank, the next morning they were fine, so I stopped watching, 2 weeks later the fish had grown (1.5" maybe) as had the macro algae as well. I came out one morning and 2 fish were dead, the 2 others were on deaths door, laying on macro, pale, gasping for breath, 15 minutes later they were fine. The shrimp, hermet crabs and snails still showed no signs of stress.

I had killed them from lack of oxygen, when the lights went out at night the macro algae switched from photosynthesis to aerobic respiration and tank went past its bioload compacity and depleated the O2 until they died.

I am not saying that is what killed your fish, but that being said I could dump a cup of table salt into a 2 gallon jar and stir it up for 20 minutes add an airstone, then drop in a blue/yellow damsel without acclimation of any kind and keep it alive for more than a week. Inverts are very suceptible to changes in water paramaters, vertebrates far less so.

So clearly you have some serious problem that is not usually run across.

[Sk8r]

If you acclimate for more than 30 minutes, your fish suffers kidney damage from ammonia IN the bag. This takes 3-5 days to show up, the fish dies. Read the sticky on acclimation. FIsh poo= ammonium in a closed bag; an open bag releases co2, co2 release =ph change; ph change triggers chemical reaction, and safe ammonium> deadly ammonia within 30 minutes, fish inhales it, dies 5 days later.

[TX..r33f]

Originally Posted by drparker

What are you dosing? Anything that is known to lower O2?

No just kent essintial elements and Precision potassium

[TX..r33f]

Originally Posted by Sk8r

If you acclimate for more than 30 minutes, your fish suffers kidney damage from ammonia IN the bag. This takes 3-5 days to show up, the fish dies. Read the sticky on acclimation. FIsh poo= ammonium in a closed bag; an open bag releases co2, co2 release =ph change; ph change triggers chemical reaction, and safe ammonium> deadly ammonia within 30 minutes, fish inhales it, dies 5 days later.

i think your rite i acclimate for too long

[SushiGirl]

Originally Posted by TX..r33f

No just kent essintial elements and Precision potassium

What are your testing levels of the ingredients in those?

[mike of swindon]

never never never turn the lights out with micro alges present co2 will go through the
roof in the dark .keep all alges in the sump lights on 24 7 keep electric costs down
use cheap LEDs YOU dont need aquarium LEDs to make alges grow but it will grow slower
also dont be afraid to throw alge away you have had for a while as it collects toxins

[SushiGirl]

Originally Posted by mike of swindon

never never never turn the lights out with micro alges present co2 will go through the
roof in the dark .keep all alges in the sump lights on 24 7 keep electric costs down
use cheap LEDs YOU dont need aquarium LEDs to make alges grow but it will grow slower

If that were true, there would be a lot more failed tanks, including the 4 I've owned over the years. 24/7 in a sump with algae is not required, either.

[f3honda4me]

Originally Posted by SushiGirl

What are your testing levels of the ingredients in those?

This would be my question too.

[TX..r33f]

Okay sorry it took long to reply here are my per:

MAGNESIUM .70(ML) 1400 (PPM)
Alkalinity .92(ml) 4.6(meq/l) 12.6(dkh)
CALCIUM .74(ML) 370(PPM)
AMMONUIA 0

So is it my acclimation to long THANKS

[SushiGirl]

What about for the ingredients in the stuff you're dosing? Those were the parameters I was asking about. You could be overdosing something (such as iodine or potassium). An iodine overdose will kill off everything.

[TX..r33f]

yeah well im putting in Precision potassium ,but i sm not over dosing. In fact i do a little less than the bottle says for the reason of over dosing.

[DanK13]

Like everyone else has stated, sounds like an acclimation issue. I make a separate bucket of saltwater and match salinity, pH and temp for whats in the bag with the new fish and plop the fish in immediately. You can do a slow drip at that point. I acclimate dozens of fish and inverts at a shot and have very few mortalities this way.