Tired and ****** off about being tired and ****** off

Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
300
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Long Beach
#1
Well lets see here, I am almost at my wits end with the reef business. Seems like every time I buy a new fish it ends up dead a few days later. I have had my water checked by multiple stores and they all say that its in good shape. 150 gallon tank with 80 lbs of live rock base and canopy with lights, sump and protein skimmer is about to go on craigslist if I cant figure it out. Me and my girl just cant take the heartache anymore.:bawling:
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
752
Likes
3
Points
18
Location
Hawthorne
#2
Sorry to hear buddy,

A few questions:

1) How long has the tank been running
2) What parameters are being checked at the LFS
3) What livestock is in the tank now
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
300
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Long Beach
#4
I have been asking them to check alk, ph, salinity, nitrate and nitrite. As for the tank it has been running for 4 yrs and here in the last month I have lost more than 10 fish 2 anenomes and a frag of xenia in the last couple of days. I do a 10 percent water change every week. I only have 4 fish left. Very sad. Lost my clowns this afternoon. I dont know what the hell is going on and the store keeps telling me everything is great. I dont get it? All I have left is 3 damsels and an engineer goby in a 150 gal tank very sad.
 
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
752
Likes
3
Points
18
Location
Hawthorne
#8
copper can get in by someone tossing a penny in the tank, have you checked to see if you might have stray voltage in the tank?
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
300
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Long Beach
#9
Thanks for all the help guys, I was feeling a little depressed earlier, I think carbon is the way to go. My KH is a little high but Im doing a water change now so maybe things will get back to norm soon. This is a very intense hobby!!! Thanks again to everyone.

no copper, nitrite, nitrate, good ph 8.2, 0 amonia 18 kh
 

KrazyReef

New member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
163
Likes
1
Points
0
Location
SoCal, Anaheim
#10
Uhm... DKH at 18 and PH at 8.2... Do you have a lot of flow/surface gas exchange in your tank? Do you run Calcium reactor? There must be extra CO2 and something else in your tank. 18 DKH can't kill that so many fish.
 
Joined
Sep 26, 2009
Messages
3
Likes
0
Points
0
#13
You already know your alkalinity is high, 7-10 being the average range, though I have heard of some who do keep it much higher.

Not sure if you know how your alkalinity got so high so I'll share some thoughts (based on that ratio of dKh to pH)

If you have been trying to raise ph by using sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) then this can lead to the large increase in alkalinity with only a slight upward increase of pH.

You can increase pH with much effect on alkalinity by using baked baking soda, or soda ash. If you are dosing Kwalk or 2 part then you already know what needs to be done.

A rapid swing in alkalinity should not cause any problems for your fish or anemone, It can however have a disastrous effect on sps. Any rapid shift in pH is detrimental to your fish however.

Aeration as mentioned earlier will help stabilize pH, and your protein skimmer helps with this alot though simple surface agitation is generally considered the best way to facilitate gas exchange assuming there is enough "fresh" air. Tightly closed rooms will have higher co2 levels which will reduce the pH in youre tank.

Short of rapid pH, salinity and/or temp swings the most likely candidate for your fish losses is disease/parasite. Brookynella is a very common affliction for clownfish, though there are many other possibilities. All it takes is one un-quarantined diseased/parasite ridden fish to wipe out much of your tank inhabitants.

Make sure that your make-up/top-off water is up to par without chlorine or chloramine. Carbon is a good choice to remove some toxic substance from your water as well as remove tannins. If you suspect that you may have some other toxic substance in your tank, a poly-filter pad will help remove many things that carbon cant. As far as copper goes (which a polyfilter pad can remove) all of your inverts would be toasted before any fish (except several scaleless varieties) would be adversly affected.
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
300
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Long Beach
#17
ISo far I have 3 damsels, an engineer goby, condy anemnome, banded shrimp and blue lobster left. Ich was a problem about 3 weeks ago but I was using metro to take care of that which it did but I cant see it in there gills so that might have been the case. Either way I will keep doing my water changes and addign garlic to the food and add carbon till reefapalooza. I will buy a fish or two there and have my water checked every week when I buy water. What about a UV sterilizer? Should I get one? Sounds like I might need one but dont know any more suggestions.

Thanks JC
 
Joined
Feb 8, 2009
Messages
465
Likes
1
Points
0
#18
Ok so the tank has been up for 4 years with no issues but for the past month everything has been dieing correct? If so what did you add in the past month? If your fish had ick then your tank still has ick, if your buying unhealthy fish then they will just die. Where are you located? What store are you buying from?
 
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Messages
300
Likes
0
Points
0
Location
Long Beach
#19
The only thing I can think of is that I have been adding alot of live rock in the last month 50lbs or so but I didnt add it all at once.
 

Latest posts

Top