Looking for some advice lagoon 25 random die off.

WSM · Jan 26, 2024

Hey all,

I started up my tank about a 2 months or so ago with dr Tim’s live sand & dry rock I followed the directions and got the complete cycle. Added a fire fish 3 weeks ago. Added a royal gramma 1 week after. Started seeing diatoms so picked up 6 snails & a small clown fish goby 1 week ago. Everything has been fine up until this point.

The clown fish goby never ate and spent most of the time hiding I found it dead 2 days ago.
The next day the royal gramma was dead & today my fire fish looks to be on his way out laying on sand bed breathing hard.

I use rodi & salt water from LFS and do weekly 5 gallon WC tested my levels this morning & are as follows

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Nitrite 0
Ph 8
Salinity 1.025

I have a healthy amount of pods the filtration is filter floss and a bag of Nano carbon that IM sells in the filtration packs.

Any idea what could be going on?

TX_REEF · Jan 26, 2024

Do you have any photos of the system? Do you have surface agitation for oxygenation?

WSM · Jan 26, 2024

@TX_REEF

Thank you for the reply. I attached a picture and video.

WSM · Jan 26, 2024

He’s another of the surface

TX_REEF · Jan 26, 2024

Surface agitation looks good. What's your temp set at? This may be a case of too many fish too soon - when you start with dry rock only, you have to remember that the bottled bacteria is nowhere near a match for real mature live rock. If you can, I'd recommend you source a bit of mature live rock from a clean established system, or better yet some real ocean live rock from somewhere like Tampa Bay Saltwater. The immediate influx of mature biological filtration, in my pinion, outweighs the chance of any small hitchikers. You can even use Tampa Bay salwater live sand, which has less likelihood of hitchhikers. You could also post a clear 20-30 second video of your struggling fish so the fish medics can take a look and advise.

WSM · Jan 26, 2024

TX_REEF said:
Surface agitation looks good. What's your temp set at? This may be a case of too many fish too soon - when you start with dry rock only, you have to remember that the bottled bacteria is nowhere near a match for real mature live rock. If you can, I'd recommend you source a bit of mature live rock from a clean established system, or better yet some real ocean live rock from somewhere like Tampa Bay Saltwater. The immediate influx of mature biological filtration, in my pinion, outweighs the chance of any small hitchikers. You can even use Tampa Bay salwater live sand, which has less likelihood of hitchhikers. You could also post a clear 20-30 second video of your struggling fish so the fish medics can take a look and advise.

Temp is at 78 fluctuations +1/-1 degree. And thanks for the advice I’ll look into live rock & I’ll post a video of the fish.