Please help fish dying?

[Stephen.h]

Hi all my trigon 190 litre tank that's been up and running for over a year has started being a disaster.
Parameters are
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Phosphates - 0
Salinity - 25

The stocking was
Small yellow tang
Small Regal tang
5 chromis
Starfish
Cleaner Wrasse

Everything has been doing great for a while until got my ph tested 1 month ago and was very low, so slowly added buffer to get it to 8. Then fish were doing great still.
Two weeks later to that I added 2 very small clownfish.
The next morning one was missing presumed dead, then the next morning found the other one dead along with two chromis. Next morning found my yellow tang dead floating in the powerhead along with another 2 chromis.
I then did a water change and the remaining fish lived on but now left with 1 chromis, wrasse, a starfish and a very erratic the past 5 days regal tang that just hides and dosent eat.
It also just lies between rocks and swims upside down, when I move the rock is darts around the tank erratic and hides again. It also has a few white spots.

Can someone help me do you think that me bringing the ph up with buffer raised the alkalinity too much killing most my fish or was it introducing the two clownfish brought whitespot/velvet into my tank?
Also how do I help the remaining erratic regal tang?
The yellow tang was looking very pale for week also before dieing.
The tank at the moment also has a lot of brown algae even although the phosphates are 0 and nitrates low
Thanks for any help

[Bogue Chitto]

You must have got some sick fish. You should have quarantined them before adding them to your main tank. Sorry about your loss, most of us can write a book on our trying times with reef tanks, but we have to keep going. I sure hope you get your problems solved.

[Silly clownfish]

I do not think that the pH or buffer is the issue, although anything that adds stress to the fish exacerbates the problem. I think that the clownfish were sick and it quickly spread through the tank. I assume from you description that you did not quarantine the new fish.

White spots on the fish sounds like ich. Check out the fish disease forum to confirm the diagnosis and read up on the treatment. If it is ich, tank transfer method (TTM) is your best bet. The display tank needs to be completely fishless for 8 weeks.

Also, 190L (50gallons) is much too small of a tank for a regal tang. Tangs are very prone to ich in the best of conditions. In a tank that size you are asking for trouble. I sm not trying to be mean, just telling you the truth. I know it is a small one, but I have been on you shoes. Back in th 90s, I let a LFS. Convince me that a small hippo tang could be kept in a 30g. While I was able to cure him of the case of ich he got, I spent the next year fighting HLLE before he finally died. I recommend finding him a new home if he pulls through this.

Btw, as inexpensive as pH test kits are, you should really have your own.

Good luck,

Kim

[Stephen.h]

ok thanks will do this. Can ich cause this darting behaviour also? I realise is too small a tank when get a little bigger the tank was soon getting a upgrade of 500 litres plus also. I have my own ph test kit now Will need to now find a cheap tank of gumtree to let the main one sit fishless.
thanks again

[wrott]

A hippo needs at least 2000L+ tank (tang police on patrol) if not bigger,ask snorvich.
I agree w/ Silly, and you should not chase #s, like pH, etc....
It will only lead to sharp changes to your parameters if you try to correct them in one dose. That will stress any living creature to death. Adjust params incrementally, like over 2-3 weeks.
Yes ich and all other diseases can cause those symptoms, the hippo is a gonner, sorry.
Don't add anything else until you treat the remaining fish as if they have parasites.
I hope it works out ok, just do more research and be patient.

[Stephen.h]

Thanks for the replies, as expected the tang has now died now after having for over a year.

Going to sell the remaining wrasse if need to so can have the tank sit fishless for 8 weeks to get rid of ich or velvet. Then after that buy a UV filter/stock better and make sure my ph and water parameters are perfect and stable before starting to reintroduce fish again.
Just a couple more questions

Can the remaining starfish stay during these 8 weeks?
Can I during these 8 weeks just add more cleanup crew since never had many?
Is it the same amount of time for ich and velvet since not sure what one it might be?


Thanks

[MondoBongo]

UV isn't terribly helpful for most disease outbreaks. it relies on the motile phases of the parasite being sucked through it and then being in contact long enough to be killed. the benefits would likely be negligible.

you would be better off setting up a robust quarantine protocol such as Tank Transfer Method (TTM) or a similarly effective strategy.

yes you can leave the starfish in.

yes you could add more cleanup crew during this time, however, know that could potentially harbor things like ich. a low likelihood, but it is a calculated risk. i actually QT my clean up crew as well.

as for the fallow period, i am not sure about the differences.

[Stephen.h]

yes I would also be adding a quarantine tank also before re introduction

[DDon]

Fallow periods for marine velvet and brook are 6 weeks while for ich it is 72 days.
Did you see white spots? Timing of the fish deaths really doesn't fit with ich...atleast in my experience.

[Stephen.h]

Hi yes only noticed a few diferent sized spots on the blue tang not the yellow and before the fish started hiding and acting erratic the spots it had were very few. So spot wise it improved but the behavioiur got worse

Am unsure if ich or velvet because of the time frame also as happened very fast and sudden over a week, will get a pic up of the dead fish to see if helps.

[Stephen.h]

Not the best pic please note that the white stuff on it is just the very fine sand I have. Also the brown that I have been getting of algae the last month at the same time. It looked ok free of spots when died but the black in its body looked a little pale. I seen it die it swam very fast against a rock then just fell to the sandbed.

[DDon]

Probably best just to go worst case and run the tank fallow for 72 days.