Hi,
My new 75 gallon + 25 gallon sump has been running for two months but without fish. I have some trochus snails and small blue leg hermits that have been in there for about 3 weeks. I cycled the tank with Dr.Tim's and pure ammonia for a fishless cycle. I added copepods a month in and have been dosing 15ml of phytoplankton daily. I also on occasion (2-3 times a week) ghost feed a pinch frozen food. I kept a sponge (rated for 30 gallons) inside of the sump for those two months with the intention of using it to quarantine my first fish.
7 days ago I purchased two small (about 1.5"-1.75") tank-raised clownfish. And because of brookynella that killed a clownfish in my first reef 7 years ago, I always try to prophylactically treat for it. I acclimated the fish in a bucket down to the 1.020 SG of my QT and had another bucket ready with the Ruby Reef Rally. I kept them in the bath for 90 minutes and transferred them to the QT with a pre-dosed copper level of 1.0 using Copper Power and a Hanna Checker. The QT is a 15 gallon acrylic aquarium (30" long) with two large pieces of PVC, a sponge filter (from my sump), and a powerhead. Obviously the first day they were super stressed and I left the light off and let them settle down. The second day I tried feeding some frozen mix that they would bite but spit out. I also started dosing the metroplex, and dosed Aquaforest BioS. Third day I tried to feed again and they refused, so went out and got some Omega enriched frozen brine with some garlic power. One of them ate a couple of those the other seemed to ignore it. The one that ignored it seemed to be staying in the heavy current area. But I suspected it was just still stress.
I out of town for a day. I came back and tried to feed them but neither would eat. My seachem ammonia alert still registered "safe ammonia", but I tested with my Tropic Marine kit and it might have registered some ammonia 0.02, but that is the lowest it will show. Regardless I did a 33% waterchange just in case. My first mistake was that I didn't re-elevate the copper till the next day. Yesterday, still no luck with eating and the fish that likes the flow is still frantically swimming into the flow (seems to never stop). I did another waterchange, this time making sure I brought the copper back level up with it.
I can understand if the fish are going on food strike for a while (I've had some go almost two weeks without eating), but the one fish that is constantly swimming into the flow is concerning me. I hope it's not something like velvet. It doesn't show any physical signs outside of maybe some faded color. Breathing is elevated, but maybe because of all of the swimming. It could have also been ammonia poisoning, though I'm doing my best to make sure ammonia isn't an issue with waterchanges and bateria dosing. Is there a way to distinguish between ammonia poisoning and velvet? I have all of the medications/equipment that I need to handle either scenario, but I'd rather not put the fish through any additional stress if I don't need to.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
My new 75 gallon + 25 gallon sump has been running for two months but without fish. I have some trochus snails and small blue leg hermits that have been in there for about 3 weeks. I cycled the tank with Dr.Tim's and pure ammonia for a fishless cycle. I added copepods a month in and have been dosing 15ml of phytoplankton daily. I also on occasion (2-3 times a week) ghost feed a pinch frozen food. I kept a sponge (rated for 30 gallons) inside of the sump for those two months with the intention of using it to quarantine my first fish.
7 days ago I purchased two small (about 1.5"-1.75") tank-raised clownfish. And because of brookynella that killed a clownfish in my first reef 7 years ago, I always try to prophylactically treat for it. I acclimated the fish in a bucket down to the 1.020 SG of my QT and had another bucket ready with the Ruby Reef Rally. I kept them in the bath for 90 minutes and transferred them to the QT with a pre-dosed copper level of 1.0 using Copper Power and a Hanna Checker. The QT is a 15 gallon acrylic aquarium (30" long) with two large pieces of PVC, a sponge filter (from my sump), and a powerhead. Obviously the first day they were super stressed and I left the light off and let them settle down. The second day I tried feeding some frozen mix that they would bite but spit out. I also started dosing the metroplex, and dosed Aquaforest BioS. Third day I tried to feed again and they refused, so went out and got some Omega enriched frozen brine with some garlic power. One of them ate a couple of those the other seemed to ignore it. The one that ignored it seemed to be staying in the heavy current area. But I suspected it was just still stress.
I out of town for a day. I came back and tried to feed them but neither would eat. My seachem ammonia alert still registered "safe ammonia", but I tested with my Tropic Marine kit and it might have registered some ammonia 0.02, but that is the lowest it will show. Regardless I did a 33% waterchange just in case. My first mistake was that I didn't re-elevate the copper till the next day. Yesterday, still no luck with eating and the fish that likes the flow is still frantically swimming into the flow (seems to never stop). I did another waterchange, this time making sure I brought the copper back level up with it.
I can understand if the fish are going on food strike for a while (I've had some go almost two weeks without eating), but the one fish that is constantly swimming into the flow is concerning me. I hope it's not something like velvet. It doesn't show any physical signs outside of maybe some faded color. Breathing is elevated, but maybe because of all of the swimming. It could have also been ammonia poisoning, though I'm doing my best to make sure ammonia isn't an issue with waterchanges and bateria dosing. Is there a way to distinguish between ammonia poisoning and velvet? I have all of the medications/equipment that I need to handle either scenario, but I'd rather not put the fish through any additional stress if I don't need to.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
. I actually suspect it was being aggressively harassed by the other clownfish. Though I'm surprised the aggression got to that extreme.
