HELP!!! My fish are dying

[bgs522]

Okay, here is my interesting case. I have a 75 gallon aquarium with a t-5 lighting fixture, 2- koralia 4s. I use to have an emporer 280 and a prizm protein skimmer for filtration but recently changed to a large reef octopus skimmer rated for 150-200 gallon tank because people use to say that my tank was underfiltered.

What I have inside the tank:
75lbs of live rock
40lbs of substrate (crushed coral)
20lbs live sand

Fish:
2 Clown fish (1 died)
Madarin Goby (died)
Blue hippo Tang (died)
Yellow Blenny (died)
Diamond Goby
Copperbanded Butterfly (died)
Yellow longnose butterfly (died)
Green Spotted Puffer
Porcupine Puffer
Lawnmower blenny
Wrasse, its blue and black and suppose to eat the parasites off the fish

Inverts:
Cleaner shrimp
Peppermint Shrimp
Emerald Crab
4 snails
4 small hermit crabs
Sandsifting star
Sandsifting cucumber
Urchin


The fish all did well until I added the two butterflies. After about two weeks it looked like a case of ich. So we started with a freshwater water with RO/DI water. That stressed the yellow blenny too much and he died. We then started treatment with KENT Rx-P. Which did nothing for about a week and did a 20% water change and then switched to Ich Attach for a couple about a week. No results from that either. We then set up a 10 gallon tank and moved all the inverts and some live rock to it. We lost our Mandarin Goby earlier that day (which I heard they are suppose to be immune to ich). So, performed another waterchange and switched to the reef octopus protien skimmer. Then I started treating the tank with Quick Cure. We also lower the salinity to 1.016 and raised the tank temp to 84 F back when we started to use Ich-Attach. But ever since we lost about a fish a day and now are just down to the 6 fish, the porcupine puffer still has some white specs on it but the other fish seem okay, but these fish also never show signs. All the water parameters test out just fine. All are at 0 ppm. The Ph is right around 8.3. I stopped the quick cure treatments and switched back to the Ich-Attach.

Any Ideas? Thats alot of fish lost and alot of money too.

Should I have bought the new skimmer?

I don't have a quarantine tank but now that I have the 10 gallon set up, I will use it as one.

I want to save the other 6 fish but I have no idea what is killing them.

[sober_pollock]

.....Thats alot of fish.....

.....I have no idea what is killing them.....

The first part of this Quote.....Is the answer to the second part.....


pollock

[SpokaneReef]

Also what are your water peram? Do you have a UV filter?

[returnofsid]

You did wayyyy to many things to quickly. Because of this, it'll be impossible to say which step actually killed the fish.

Using any Ich treatment, in a display is a big mistake. If it'll kill Ich, it'll kill most any motile inverts, including all your beneficial pods and even your beneficial bacterial colony. However, chances are, it won't even kill the Ich.

Hyposalinity of 1.16 was useless, as it won't effect Ich. If a Hyposalinity treatment is used, it needs to be at 1.009. Any higher, Ich will survive.

I would agree that you had way too many fish in a 75 gallon tank. For your fish list, I'd recommend at least a 200. The Hippo Tang, alone, should be in a 200 gallon tank.

[Flagfin Angelfish]

It sounds to me that you have a multitude of problems.
1) Too many fish
2) Sounds like you need a canister filter or sump as there seems to be no actual media in your set up. The skimmer is fine but shouldn't be the main source of filteration.
3) I would suggest an in- line UV filter to plug into a canister filter to kill any parasites that might harm fish. (Makes the water crystal clear too)
Good Luck! It's a learning experience, seek advice from many sources.

[Parrothead]

Flagfin,

The liverock and sand is the biological filtration in a reef tank, he has both, Too Many fish is a definite issue, but all a canister filter would do is become a nitrate factory, a sump would be beneficial as a main. and additional tank volume, fuge, skimmer, heater, etc, not a source for mechanical filtration.

Tanks,
Robert

[leebca]

I feel the need to contribute to this thread.

bgs522
First, the sizing of a skimmer is not by what the manufacturer says it is good for. Read this post to find out how to determine if the skimmer is right or not: What is Water Quality

Too many fishes and added too quickly. That's obvious.

However the recommendation on the use of a UV is not accurate. If interested in a UV then you and Flagfin should read this: UV for U and Me

The thing to do now is 'back up.' Trade or return some of the fish. Make sure all fish are clean of Marine Ich and other diseases. Don't put new fish into your system without first doing a proper quarantine. The fish may still need treatment if you didn't follow this process: Curing Fish of Marine Ich

[bgs522]

Thanks, I appreciate all of the info. Well I am down to only the wrasse, lawnmower blenny, diamond goby, Green Puffer, and Porcupine puffer. The puffers leave the other fish and inverts alone but I have never tried them with corals. The tank was a well established tank and had never had an issue with ich before. All the remaining fish show no signs ich and they never did. I am not going to add any fish for a while. I use to listen to the guy at the local fish store but it sounds more like he just wanted to sell fish. He said all those fish would be fine but obviously not. I will just stick with the setup and give the new skimmer a chance. I will go ahead and get everything back to normal and start over. This was a nice learning experience because I am going to be building a house soon and building a 400+ gallon tank. So from now on I know to move slow and not get so many fish.

[SpokaneReef]

In the stores defense, not that I condone this, unless you remind them everytime you buy fish what size tank you have and what you have in that tank already they are most likely going to tell you if the fish are compatible or not.

Please remember they have a lot of customers and they may remember you but they may not remember the specs on your tank.

I have a 300 gallon tank and 18 fish in the tank. Well 16 in the tank and 2 in the refugium. Since two of my fish are show show size tangs and produce more waste I will not be adding fish that often if at all.

Many of us would love to have tons of fish for the movement but the choices we make, make hard or limited on how many more we can put in the tank.

[Parrothead]

Yeah, but 11 fish in a 75 gallon tank, research should be done by the hobbyist, very rarely do you find an honest lfs that even if you tell them what you have and the size tank, they'll say sure it'll work, I've heard it a thousand times and I'm sure I'll hear it again. Thats how they stay in business, selling things, as I said it is the hobbyist responsibility to do the research and provide the best env. we can for our inhabitants. JMHO

Tanks,
Robert

[SpokaneReef]

research should be done by the hobbyist,

And I totally Agree it all falls on the hobbyist. I am was not giving the store an escape goat, I was just saying the store does NOT know everyones set up and could say yes all those fish will be fine together.

They should also go on to ask what size tank do you have OR Those will work fine in the right size tank which should be about X amount of gallons.

The hobbyist should always double if not triple check what the store is telling them.

After I had one store tell me I could raise clams under CF lighting. 4 days later it was dead but the store still got my money.

[bgs522]

I will definitely do more research before and I am sure the new filtration system will help alot too. I will also use a quarantine tank as well.

I know that alot comes from research but it is also really tough to believe everything you read or hear published or not. Especially with puffers, because almost everything you read about them has a might in the sentence. Now that I am a member I will make sure to ask after researching if I have anymore questions. Thanks for everyone for helping.

[bgs522]

Please Check my post under:Marine fish: care, health, disease treatment