Alan, nice to meet you. Unfortunately in any new tank there are going to be problems no matter how long you cycle it. The bacteria need time and food and I think they also may need to multiply numerous times for whatever reason before they finally settle down and do what we pay them to do.
It's not just tank parameters that we can test for because if it was all the tanks with great parameters wouldn't have problems, but they do.
I don't know how you are cycling but I like the dead shrimp or clam approach much better then a chemical in a bottle. A lot of people will argue with me about that but they are not as good looking as me. :rolleyes:
A dead piece of fish or shrimp will add all sorts of different bacteria that I think a tank needs at the start.
Then those bacteria will interact with the other bacteria, viruses, algae and parasites to finally come to an agreement and start forming a healthy tank. All of that is needed, not just good bacteria that consumes nitrite, nitrate and ammonia.
So If you want to try a non- quarantined tank to start with I would get live rock and sand then add a dead shrimp or piece of fish maybe 3/4" or so and let the water get slightly cloudy. (this is before you add livestock of course.
When the water clears, add another small piece of shrimp. I think I would do that 3 times and let the water clear.
You may have to acclimate it and put it right in. Feed it frozen foods and if you can get live worms, that would be great as I feel they are the secret to all this but don't tell anyone or they would all laugh.
Don't worry about them, you can find a lot of them on the disease forums. :p
Use no dry foods or pellets, not even "Quality" dry foods.
Use only foods with living bacteria in it and if you can get fresh or live clams and freeze then yourself, thats great and would help.
If the fish gets some spots, leave him alone. If he gets covered in spots you may have to remove him to treat in copper, then put back in if he recovers.
Remember all fish in a store have parasites, but those parasites are suppressed and you don't see them because all stores keep anti parasitic medications in their tanks. If they didn't they would have to give up the fish business and maybe sell egg plants.
When we remove the fish from those meds, the parasites will show and there is nothing we can do for that but try to get the fish healthy and fed correctly because in a few days of good foods, it should bounce back and start to get healthy.
Of course some fish may die but remember, a lot of fish die in quarantine and the ones that live have to live in a bubble for the rest of their life and IMO they will never be very healthy.
A tank is also much more healthy after it gets a growth of algae or "mulm" which is just any organic stuff growing on rocks.
New, very clean tanks with white rocks are not healthy no matter what your parameters are.
If you get a problem everyone will ask you what are your parameters. As I said fish don't care what your parameters are and parameter numbers, unless they are way off the planet, won't hurt your fish.
The only chemical that will kill your fish very fast is ammonia and if you wait a while before you add the fish, you won't have any of that.
Good luck and I hope to see you hear with a healthy tank in 10 years. :D
