Guidance On Fish For Noob

DaFlava

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I have a waterbox 90.3 (60G) 3 1/2 months old , my plan is to do a mixed reef setup. I'm pretty sure my readings are good but I'll add them and my lighting schedule on here for any feedback if it relates to my problem. I've had a few fish die.. not sure what has been the cause, primarily feed with Brine Shrimp Plus Flakes. Anyone have any guidance after reading below? Maybe I should get an isolation chamber in my tank when introducing a new fish? Maybe my Green Chromis is being a B when when don't see or at night? Suggestions for good/hardy colorful fish to try out?

Current Fish:
2x Clown Fish - Oct 2 *Don't seem aggressive and swim together or break up sometimes
1x Firefish Goby - Oct 16 *Very shy keeps to itself or hides
1x Green Chromis - Oct 23 *Seem him bully other Green Chromis fish, likes to school with the Clown fish.

Other Fish History:
1x Dottyback Mageneta - Oct 16 (Died Nov 26)
1x Green Chromis - Oct 23 *Had it with another one, actually disappeared idk where it went. My guess is it jumped out of the tank and one of my animals got it as I didn't have a cover/net on the tank at the time.
1x Green Chromis - Oct 30 (Died Nov 2nd) *Pretty confident my original Green Chromis killed it as it was being aggressive at times.
1x Flame Angelfish - Nov 29 (Died Dec 1) *Not sure what happened here, swam around fine first day but then hid in a cave then noticed it was laying around behind rocks breathing hard. Stress death maybe? Need longer acclimation idk.

Acclimation method for fish: 15-20 min for temp, 45-1hr give or take drip method for salinity match to tank (1.025)

Readings (These have been consistent since my tank fully cycled about 2 months give or take ago)
Water Temp - 77F
Salinity - 1.025 / 35.2 ppt
pH - 8.0
Nh3 / NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0.25
NO3 - 10
P04 - 0.25
CA2 - 640 (I know seems high but not sure why or if it matters)
KH - 9dKH (161.1 ppm KH)

Lighting (2x AI Prime HD) - 7hr daily
UV - 50%
Violet - 5%
Royal - 50%
Blue - 50%
Cool White 5%
Everything else 0% (Reds/Greens)

Routine:
10-15% water change weekly, clean up socks and skimmer (Quantum 120) weekly.
 

Tamberav

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Do you test the salinity in the bag of the fish you buy? If the salinity is off by several points then you are acclimating too fast. If it is really low, then the fish should be in a QT and brought up .002 per day.

Disease is a huge problem in this hobby with new tanks. You could be buying sick fish or a possible disease already in your tank.

While not related as the deaths happened to quickly, you really should be feeding something better than brine shrimp and flakes. I would consider those two of the worst foods personally. These foods won't do your fishes immune system any favors.

You want stuff like LRS reef frenzy/fish frenzy, PE mysis, if you want to feed dry then a quality pellet like TDO. However, I would not only feed dry, make sure to feed frozen to. LRS is probably the best you can buy.


 
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DaFlava

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Do you test the salinity in the bag of the fish you buy? If the salinity is off by several points then you are acclimating too fast. If it is really low, then the fish should be in a QT and brought up .002 per day.
I actually do not test the salinity of the bags the fish are in. I believe atleast one I noticed that after 30 mins of my typical acclimation it was at 1.020 and I'm at 1.025 so your saying I should take 2 days to acclimate if I see something like that?

Disease is a huge problem in this hobby with new tanks. You could be buying sick fish or a possible disease already in your tank.
Understandable, anything I should do to possible prevent that? If I had a disease in the tank wouldn't my 3 other fish that have been fine for almost 2 months have issues?

While not related, you really should be feeding something better than brine shrimp and flakes. I would consider those two of the worst foods personally. These foods won't do your fishes immune system any favors.

You want stuff like LRS reef frenzy/fish frenzy, PE mysis, if you want to feed dry then a quality pellet like TDO. However, I would not only feed dry, make sure to feed frozen to. LRS is probably the best you can buy.
Just bought some Frozen food yesterday actually, need to research on best way to use it as I think dropping the cubes in by themselves froze aren't ideal I think.
 

Tamberav

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I actually do not test the salinity of the bags the fish are in. I believe atleast one I noticed that after 30 mins of my typical acclimation it was at 1.020 and I'm at 1.025 so your saying I should take 2 days to acclimate if I see something like that?


Understandable, anything I should do to possible prevent that? If I had a disease in the tank wouldn't my 3 other fish that have been fine for almost 2 months have issues?


Just bought some Frozen food yesterday actually, need to research on best way to use it as I think dropping the cubes in by themselves froze aren't ideal I think.

Ideally yes, I realize this is difficult for some people. Second best choice is to get them into clean freshly mixed water that matches their bag water and add an air stone and drip them up as long as possible (hours). This only needs to be done if the water's salinity is low. Fish can go down in salinity pretty easy, it is going up that is harmful. Some fish are simply more fragile than others as well.

Not necessarily, some fish can live/survive just fine and be carriers infecting new fish. Someone here was posting how they lost ALL of their fish to velvet except a goby who was alive and well. That fish can still infect anything new they add.

Some people quarantine and treat all new fish to avoid disease in their tank. Others buy from online venders who quarantine already like TSM and Dr Reef. Then many just take the chance at losses.

You can just thaw the food in some tank water in a glass and then pour some in.
 

Dave1993

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Don't think salinity is issue i get my fish ordered online at 1.017 salinity they go straight into 1.024 salinity never had problems
 

ryan.bierweiler

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I actually do not test the salinity of the bags the fish are in. I believe atleast one I noticed that after 30 mins of my typical acclimation it was at 1.020 and I'm at 1.025 so your saying I should take 2 days to acclimate if I see something like that?


Understandable, anything I should do to possible prevent that? If I had a disease in the tank wouldn't my 3 other fish that have been fine for almost 2 months have issues?


Just bought some Frozen food yesterday actually, need to research on best way to use it as I think dropping the cubes in by themselves froze aren't ideal I think.
I take some tank water and put it into a shot glass and defrost the food in there, then just dump it into the tank afterwards.
 

Radman73

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I actually do not test the salinity of the bags the fish are in. I believe atleast one I noticed that after 30 mins of my typical acclimation it was at 1.020 and I'm at 1.025 so your saying I should take 2 days to acclimate if I see something like that?


Understandable, anything I should do to possible prevent that? If I had a disease in the tank wouldn't my 3 other fish that have been fine for almost 2 months have issues?


Just bought some Frozen food yesterday actually, need to research on best way to use it as I think dropping the cubes in by themselves froze aren't ideal I think.

I know quarantining sounds scary, expensive, and not worth the trouble; but it is worth it. You can even use a 5gal bucket and a bubbler as a QT system for small fish. I used to do the tank transfer method as it was easier but with so many fish having such different diseases I switched over to chelated copper and using fish meds as necessary.

There is a learning curve for sure. I lost my fist batch of 6 anthias to urenoma. Didn't even know what urenoma was until I compared pictures. Second batch, I lost three to urenoma because I didn't treat proactively. 3rd batch of 3 anthias I lost 0.

I've lost 2 fish in QT since. An engineer goby that never recovered from some bacteria infection that was eating its tail and a diamond head goby. Both were early on in my QT learning as well. Since then I proactively treat with copper(where appropriate), prazi, and anti-bacterials. I've QT'd at least 10-12 fish without losing one since starting that regimen including some fairly expensive fish. I credit chelated copper for the bulk of the success. You have a large enough tank that it's probably worth QT'ing for you. You'll likely want one more $100+ fish and losing those adds up quickly.

Best of luck, and this forum is a great resource.
 
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DaFlava

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Well I think I MIGHT have found my issue which would explain clean up crew snails only lasting a few days, starter corals not taking/blooming, and few dead fish. Seems my salinity is actually 1.035 and not 1.025. Seems all the water I've been making has been completely off for months... feel like a complete tool although I blame my Refract.

This was the Refractometer I was using and calibrated with distilled water. I got an apex system yesterday and it was saying my salt was at 50 ppt with my water at 77F, which I just sorta assumed I didn't calibrate properly at the moment and alot of posts online people having issues doing so. Went to my LFS to get some more calibration solution as they only give you one test so I could work to get it calibrated properly and figured I'd have them double check my water. I originally had them check it 2 months ago for everything but salinity just cause I thought i was good on that for sure. They confirmed and I got a second opinion or third if you will outside my own at another LFS with the same readings.

My LFS recommended Refractometer Calibration Solution so now I have it re-calibrated. Currently slowly desalinating my tank which I'll do over the next few days as to not harm my current fish that seem to have survived.

Guess two thing I've learned with this is.
1) Don't be stupid and assume something simple, get a second opinion even on basic stuff.
2) Apex has already shown a little of it's value pointing this salinity issue out.

Hopefully for now this is my only major issue to move forward!
 
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DaFlava

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So definitely was salinity issue, got it back down to 1.025 in the last 3 days. One of my green star polyp coral already started to bloom a little and got some snails which are way more active than any previous ones I've had. I was a little sceptical about my jumping the gun on my Apex but I'm highly satisfied so far, it's been accurate from the get go and saved my but on this.
 

Jedi1199

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Just bought some Frozen food yesterday actually, need to research on best way to use it as I think dropping the cubes in by themselves froze aren't ideal I think.


Here is how I deal with frozen food:

First, let me preface by saying that I have 3 tanks that I feed. 1 of them is a predator tank so it needs more food than the reefs.

I take a half pint mason jar (The ones with the separate lids and rings that are used for canning) and fill it with about 3 oz of tank water. Then I put in about 8-12 cubes of frozen food. Plankton, mysis, brine, emerald entree, carnivore (which is a blend of mysis, brine and bloodworm), and marine cuisine. I then add about 2 tablespoons of dry flakes and finally, 1/2 teaspoon of Benepets. I keep this mixture in the refrigerator and feed the tanks from that jar. Obviously, the smaller tanks get less than the bigger ones, anywhere from a half a teaspoon to 2 tablespoons.

Hope this helps.
 

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