Starting Reef Tank DISASTER

darkspiral00 · Oct 2, 2023

Hey everyone, I just started my salt water aquarium. Im living in Vietnam and my sister in law and myself wanted to start a tank. We've got a 55 gallon cube we cycled the tank for 6 weeks and all our parameters checked out, no ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates were about 5ppm. Temperature was about 78F. We got our first 2 clownfish acclimated them and introduced them to the tank. After about a day they started swimming crazy, had very labored breathing and were swimming directly into the powerhead with their fins always down, no interest in food. After another 12 hours our fish were dead before we could get a QT setup or copper arrive. We were devastated. Seems we ordered fish we marine velvet as suspiciously the vendor we got the fish from was conveniently sold out of all fish. I fully accept that we made the mistake of buying fish from source that wasn't the best. My tank has been sitting empty for a few days.

1) I know I have to let the tank sit for at least six weeks with no livestock.

2) What do I need to do to preserve the bacteria balance of our recently cycled tank?

3) Besides a QT what can some new reefers like myself do to avoid making this mistake?

4) Should I continue dosing bacteria every week? Is there anyway I can speed up the removal of parasites from my tank? I have live rock and bioballs in the tank.

Its been a rough few weeks but we are determined to learn from this and not be defeated! Velvet is such a horrible disease for our poor fish.

Stealthreefer · Oct 3, 2023

Tank raised fish are usually much hardier. I would try to find tank raised clowns from someone with a decent reputation.
The cysts last 70 days+ but shouldn't be a problem for healthy fish. I don't recommend copper or anything else for the tank since it would wipe out the beneficials.
If you can run a UV on there for a while that's what I would do. Try to move the powerhead around to get any nooks and crannies that could be hiding disease vectors.

brandon429 · Oct 3, 2023

A cycled reef can’t uncycle when it’s wet. Nothing is needed to preserve the display cycle.

you don’t need to test for nor supplement the cycle during the fallow time.

darkspiral00 · Oct 3, 2023

brandon429 said:
A cycled reef can’t uncycle when it’s wet. Nothing is needed to preserve the display cycle.

you don’t need to test for nor supplement the cycle during the fallow time.

Do you think my fallow time is enough or would you go a little longer?

Reeflix · Oct 3, 2023

I would do 60-75 day fallow, I did a 75 for my tank when I had velvet

darkspiral00 · Oct 4, 2023

Reeflix said:
I would do 60-75 day fallow, I did a 75 for my tank when I had velvet

Yea, Id rather be safe than sorry. Losing my first two fish was already traumatic enough. Luckily I found a good LFS in Hanoi now that quarantines his new arrivals, has separate tanks and does some preventative treatments, which is something I didn't have before.

Reeflix · Oct 4, 2023

I would ask them how long they QT, and if they treat for internal parasites

darkspiral00 · Oct 4, 2023

Reeflix said:
I would ask them how long they QT, and if they treat for internal parasites

Yea, I know he treats with copper. Beyond that its tough my Vietnamese isnt native by any means and with science jargon Ive found google translate worthless.