On the verge of quitting..

Spare time · May 21, 2022

SlugSnorter said:
fish die and CUC (or other fish) eats them IMO

People underestimate the speed of detritivores.

Spare time · May 21, 2022

I don't recall seeing it in here, but do you run carbon (ideally something like bituminous and not cruddy lignite)? A no water change system MUST have carbon imo

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

UPDATE:
NO3: 2.5
PO4: 0
Salinity: 1.024-1.025 (recorded with a 6 yr old floating hydrometer)
Temp: 26 Celsius

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

Spare time said:
The whole point of a quarantine is to stop disease before it enters. Similar toi why people are put into quarantine if someone they have been in contact with has a serious disease. Its similar to a vaccine too. You don't vaccinate someone when they get the disease, you do it before hand as a preventative. And yes some diseases can wipe a tank almost overnight (velvet).

I have never done it so I would have to educate myself first and then do it and hope I do not lose my remaining 3 fish in the process. If it is NOT disease then doing all of this and stressing the fish for no reason is pointless and counterproductive. I just want to be sure that it is disease before moving forward you know.

Thanks for explaining though

!

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

Spare time said:
I don't recall seeing it in here, but do you run carbon (ideally something like bituminous and not cruddy lignite)? A no water change system MUST have carbon imo

I did ran carbon up until 1 month ago. I have 80% softies in my tank and lots of leathers. I plan on buying more carbon very soon.

Atomicus · May 21, 2022

Any small sea cucumbers in tank? About 25 yrs ago I had the same thing turned out I had purchased a cuc set with the minincucumbers and every few weeks one would get shredded by the wavemaker and a fish or shrimp would die over night. After removing them it resolved.

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

Atomicus said:
Any small sea cucumbers in tank? About 25 yrs ago I had the same thing turned out I had purchased a cuc set with the minincucumbers and every few weeks one would get shredded by the wavemaker and a fish or shrimp would die over night. After removing them it resolved.

Nope no cucumbers than I know of. Thank you tho!

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

maleks.reef said:
UPDATE:
NO3: 2.5
PO4: 0
Salinity: 1.024-1.025 (recorded with a 6 yr old floating hydrometer)
Temp: 26 Celsius

I would like to add that I put an airline in the return chamber in case it really was inadequate oxygenation, which is unlikely IMO. Also, the light that I use for the fuge has some rusty nails in it. Now while the rusty nails are not in direct contact with the water, i imagine that as condensation accumulates maybe a few drops of water with some rust make it into the tank? I have some seacheam Cuprisorb, should I use it? Could tiny amounts of rust be the reason for fish death? Keep in mind that months ago I found out that my WC pumps were very slightly rusted so I used cuprisorb to remove any heavy metals in the tank.

livinlifeinBKK · May 21, 2022

maleks.reef said:
I would like to add that I put an airline in the return chamber in case it really was inadequate oxygenation, which is unlikely IMO. Also, the light that I use for the fuge has some rusty nails in it. Now while the rusty nails are not in direct contact with the water, i imagine that as condensation accumulates maybe a few drops of water with some rust make it into the tank? I have some seacheam Cuprisorb, should I use it? Could tiny amounts of rust be the reason for fish death? Keep in mind that months ago I found out that my WC pumps were very slightly rusted so I used cuprisorb to remove any heavy metals in the tank.

Maybe get an ICP just to be safe but probably not nearly high enough heavy metals concentration to cause a fish death

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

livinlifeinBKK said:
Maybe get an ICP just to be safe but probably not nearly high enough heavy metals concentration to cause a fish death

Yes one would think that corals would show signs of stress before the fish.

livinlifeinBKK · May 21, 2022

maleks.reef said:
Yes one would think that corals would show signs of stress before the fish.

Absolutely...btw, I think Aquabiomics might have a test that can detect parasites and diseases by DNA analysis of a water sample...that's something I'd definitely look into

Billldg · May 21, 2022

I understand your frustration, trust me I do. I am also going thru never ending issues with my new tank that has been up and running for over a year now. I haven't been active on R2R because I had to pull out all of my fish and QT them again and I lost my Achilles tang week ago in the QT tank. So I stepped back and took a little time off of the forum. Getting your head clear and ready to combat a issue is the first step to solving it. You will get thru this and have a successful tank, I have no doubt.

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

Billldg said:
I understand your frustration, trust me I do. I am also going thru never ending issues with my new tank that has been up and running for over a year now. I haven't been active on R2R because I had to pull out all of my fish and QT them again and I lost my Achilles tang week ago in the QT tank. So I stepped back and took a little time off of the forum. Getting your head clear and ready to combat a issue is the first step to solving it. You will get thru this and have a successful tank, I have no doubt.

Thank you for the kind and encouraging words. Sometimes the hobby can become a chore very quickly, which is why many quit.

Sorry to hear you are running into numerous issues as well. I guess we are on the same boat. What disease did you have in your tank and how did you diagnose it? Are you planning on QTing the remaining fish and going fallow?

Billldg · May 21, 2022

maleks.reef said:
Thank you for the kind and encouraging words. Sometimes the hobby can become a chore very quickly, which is why many quit.

Sorry to hear you are running into numerous issues as well. I guess we are on the same boat. What disease did you have in your tank and how did you diagnose it? Are you planning on QTing the remaining fish and going fallow?

Ick got into my tank my other means than fish. I was supposed to go on vacation and come home the day before to a tank full of infected fish. So the vacation was a no go. I ended up having to set up a permanent QT station with 2 40b's. Still trying to get almost the fish out to allow the tank to go fallow. Just lost my Achilles tang on the QT tank that also had a Gem tang and Blomde Naso tang in it. So I had to removed the other fish to the 2nd QT tank which also already had 3 tangs in it. Loosing the Achilles tang is why I had to take the past week off to get my head straight.

maleks.reef · May 21, 2022

Billldg said:
Ick got into my tank my other means than fish. I was supposed to go on vacation and come home the day before to a tank full of infected fish. So the vacation was a no go. I ended up having to set up a permanent QT station with 2 40b's. Still trying to get almost the fish out to allow the tank to go fallow. Just lost my Achilles tang on the QT tank that also had a Gem tang and Blomde Naso tang in it. So I had to removed the other fish to the 2nd QT tank which also already had 3 tangs in it. Loosing the Achilles tang is why I had to take the past week off to get my head straight.

Man does that sound like a nightmare. Props to you for not giving up. Hopefully you don't lose anything else, goodluck.

Stoney · May 21, 2022

Just to rule out the clicking sounds, that's coming from your snails. They shake their shell, usually when something's crawling on them. It's always the same 3 click pattern when their shell hits the glass.

Sharkbait19 · May 21, 2022

maleks.reef said:
The fish look fine, build wise. The clown was always the one that ate the most. It only looked so skinny after it died which is weird. Two days ago it looked fine and not exactly skinny. Is there anyway i can rule out that it was a parasite? Do parasites affect multiple fish in the tank and can stay "dormant" so to speak for so long?

As long as there is a host it can survive. Some can go weeks between kills.

Forty-Two · May 21, 2022

A Young reefer said:
Look I agree with you, but I have had the SAME experience. In the uae there are no more than 15 saltwater fish stores. In the emirate ( the equivalent of state in the Us) of Dubai there are like 6 or 7 stores only. I also know for a fact that all of them deal with the same supplier, I bet I can even name you the fish store he gets his fish from.
We once discussed this before, regarding fire fish and banggai cardinals here. I also know other reefers that had the same exact issue with these three exact species.
I am not throwing the fish stores under the bus, but the quality of fish that we get around here is seriously concerning.
I mean I keep tangs, wrasses, anthias and gobbies. Why is the problem only with these three in particular? You guys have the privilege of local captive bred options of these species we on the other hand don’t. And IF they were captive bred they would be imported from other countries that go on a quite long journey.
I don’t have an logical explanation to this, however I can share my experience at least.

we get great stuff here in Israel. Really good quality. I would guess they are the same suppliers? If not I would be surprised.