I think my tank is dying

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2022

‘he said I was massively over feeding. I was under the impression that my hermit crabs have been starving to death which was sad so I had been doing extra food that I didn’t even think was too much but he said it was way overboard’

his troubleshooter in person. Disease expression in mixed species tanks, well beyond two clownfish, stocked from a pet store in quick succession like this with no quarantine or fallow preps, goes down exactly this way. watch for some more loss challenges in the coming months, and if this tank gets to spring break with no fish wipeouts then I’d rule out disease.

I can’t find a single thread of dechlor tap water killing fish, or calcium or alk or any other param we manage- at least not in pattern

the only pattern we have on file to compare this build design and outcome to comes from the disease forum

Im trying to state facts vs start a flame war with cycle doubts, if any of this summary does not match disease trending we can see in sub-eight month old tanks I’m open to links or relays for a better fit/cause

TokenReefer · Nov 4, 2022

I see. I wonder if we was just commenting on a number of things he was doing wrong instead of difinitively stating it was that which caused the deaths. Obviously the OP left some information out so we cannot solely go on what was posted (unfortunately)

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2022

Agreed

all troubleshoots get details omitted. The one marker I look for in disease tracing is someone stocking any diversity beyond two clownfish from a pet store…soon as that detail is in place I begin with disease and try and rule it out. There’s only one way to rule it out here…fallow and qt. I realize few will start there, they have to get pushed there on the second tank iteration. Or fourth

all mixed fish owners other than Paul will meet this crossroads, we get 20 new example threads each day in the disease forum as patterning

’I have three fire fish, two clowns, two bengai cardinals, a royal gramma, a bicolor Blenny, a coral beauty, and a magnificent foxface’ those are disease-prone species either in the way they’re collected, transported or handled or by genetics. That grouping requires disease prep in a new tank, it isn’t a suggestion but it depends what forum we put behind this thread. A non-disease forum isn’t likely to validate disease at the start though we did have one mention at the start, good job there

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2022

The only reason I arbitrarily picked two clowns as ok for skipping preps is because nano-reef.com has been doing it twenty years online and we have results to parse

but for mixed speciation, those results we can parse don’t turn out well by month eight that’s for sure. He may not have disease here, but we need his tank to hit month eight without more patterned losses to know since preps were skipped. ***in the fish forum rn we discuss skip-prep tanks who run fine it seems, then right when they upgrade tanks or do a scape change an outbreak happens**

there are modes of stasis and control in skip prep tanks nobody can predict yet, but we simply see high loss % in unprepped tanks under eight mos old, as a simple pattern easy to verify and worth considering here too.

I think this is a nice flame-free assessment based on searchable trends in my opinion. Also handy: wait till the end of today for new disease threads to be posted in the disease forum. Tonite go make a check list for all 20 threads being worked on page one of Jays forum

take each reefer and select their name or avatar, then select find all threads. Go back to their first post and tie that in with the date of the help post, count the months age for the tank by finding their first description of the tank, they usually give its age.

the slight majority on any page of the fish disease forum going back six years are under eight mos needing disease help from skipping preps/ a numbers and % game is what we have. That method is how I guesstimate that sub-eight month tanks are in for a loss ride in nearly all cases but the luckiest. Only the outliers are allowed to skip disease preps.

brandon429 · Nov 4, 2022

My view on the eight month thing is also impacted by doing this post assessment trend on the tanks we cycle each month on the board here. The trending doesn’t just come from the disease forum where we expect a disease post

We keep logs of all those new cycle tanks and months later I just go back and select find all threads and see what trended for their tanks. The cycle never was an issue, it’s disease if preps are skipped. This is primarily why all my cycling threads mention disease preps above any concern for ammonia at all, it isn’t a factor.

case in point

Bio-spira works great

I just started a new tank a little over a week ago. I started with all dry rock and new sand. I added a bottle of Bio-Spira and put fish and coral the same day. Never saw any ammonia and fish and coral seem healthy.

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