Fish are dying! Help

[Oneofayykind]

I need some help here folks. I have a biocube 29 with two clowns, a chromi, and a six line. Yesterday the chromi died and today one of the clowns and the six line died. I'm down to one fish left.

I did a 3 gallon water change yesterday and two days ago I added more live rock. I just tested the water and here are my readings:

PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .05
Nitrate 10 (I think. Tough to read this one)
Salinity 1.026

I've had the tank for just over a month now and up until now the fish have been fine. I also have 7 corals as well and fed them a small amount of food (oyster feast) last night.

I have no idea what's causing them to die. Please help.

 

[Reeferdood]

Just over a month since you set it up?
Did you cycle the tank first or use these since day 1?

 

[Oneofayykind]

Here is a picture of the tank as well.

 

[Oneofayykind]

Just over a month since you set it up?
Did you cycle the tank first or use these since day 1?

I just added the six line. The chromi was in since day one with two others. All have now died, two pretty quickly. The guy at the lfs said that with the sand rock and their water, along with adding the good bacteria (which I did twice in the first week or so) they would be okay. The clowns got added after two weeks.

Also I'm using the lfs water which they keep at .021 so I brought it up a little with reef crystals. I wanted it at .025 and it's a little higher right now. Measuring salinity with a refractometer that the lfs calibrated for me.

Only other thing I can add that I can think of is I added about 4-5 cups of my own water that was run through my distiller. After doing that the next day I started seeing yellow growth on the rocks. I asked in a different thread about using distilled water through the distiller I have and was told it would be okay. It was used to top the water off and thought it would bring the salinity down a little too.

 

[Ljaus]

Let's get the #reefsquad

 

[Reeferdood]

I would not use distilled water..
I would invest in a RO/Di setup ASAP, if not.. sooner!
I think I read something about distilled water not being good for reef setups...

 

[Oneofayykind]

I would not use distilled water..
I would invest in a RO/Di setup ASAP, if not.. sooner!
I think I read something about distilled water not being good for reef setups...

Will do, but is that what caused this? Those 5 cups of water were added about 5 days ago. It's also a small tank and I can grab RO water from the lfs when I get more saltwater from them.

 

[Reeferdood]

Well,
Does your distiller have copper plumbing??
Copper=not good

 

[Oneofayykind]

Well,
Does your distiller have copper plumbing??
Copper=not good

Good question! Here is what I have http://waterwise.com/productcart/pc/8800.asp

Edit: I just called them and it's all stainless

 

[Bronc]

I'd be more inclined to believe there was an ammonia spike, since there is some Nitrite present.

 

[Reeferdood]

I'd be more inclined to believe there was an ammonia spike, since there is some Nitrite present.

This was my next thought..

 

[Oneofayykind]

This was my next thought..

Maybe I overfed them when I fed the corals? I tested ammonia yesterday before the water change after the chromi died and it was 0.

I also read on another forum (it came up from a google search) that bio balls and the filters tend to hold more crap then what they are worth and a lot of people rely on their LR and protein skimmer along with water changes?

 

[Reeferdood]

Also,
What kind of test kits are you using?

 

[Oneofayykind]

Also,
What kind of test kits are you using?

I'm using the marine care test kit from red sea

 

[Reeferdood]

Maybe I overfed them when I fed the corals? I tested ammonia yesterday before the water change after the chromi died and it was 0.

I also read on another forum (it came up from a google search) that bio balls and the filters tend to hold more crap then what they are worth and a lot of people rely on their LR and protein skimmer along with water changes?

Well..
Bio balls work but most of the time they do not get proper attention and become nitrate factories.
If you have a lot of live rock and a GOOD skimmer you will be better off than using a wet/dry system.. I like bio blocks if you have space to use them, I would consider trying it.

 

[Duke4Life]

I'm going with an ammonia spike as well. I use distilled water for now and have seen no issues, most have went away from using copper for pipes.

 

[Reeferdood]

I'm going with an ammonia spike as well. I use distilled water for now and have seen no issues, most have went away from using copper for pipes.

When I hear the word distiller I can't help but think of the moonshiners and all of the copper involved in their stills...:eek:

 

[Duke4Life]

Slow down a bit as well, for a tank a month old you've added quit a bit of livestock fairly quickly. I would also recommend setting up a quarantine tank for future purchases, having a tank wiped out due to disease is no fun either.

 

[jsker]

The tank seems pretty new, I did not catch how old the system is?

If this is a new system, give the tank more time to cycle and establish a bio load. That usually takes about 60 day before one starts to adding fish and inverts. @Broc correct, slow it down, we all like to see movement in the tank. In such a small system I would add one fish and let the system catch up with the new load.:)

 

[SandJ]

If the fish were put in an uncycled tank, and the ammonia spiked (nitrites indicate there was some ammonia), the fish could have sustained damage to their gills which could shorten their life.

If they were not quarantined it could be a disease (fish do not always show outward signs, for instance ick can be in the gills).

Not familiar with distilling water, but it sounds suspect that something may have been in the water to cause this. The appearance of algae right after is a red flag to me. But, it could also just be one of the ugly stages of algae you get with a newly cycled tank.