Ideas..... My husband and I have a 180 gallon tank, and we have had it for about 4 months now.. Everything was going good and NOW we have lost 3 fish so far.. Kole Tang and 2 Yellow Tangs.. We have a flame angel that is not looking good either.. They look like someone poured bleach on them, they have lost their color and are turning pure white. We also have a plant that was emerald green but, now is bleaching white.. Water numbers are good.. Nitrates are a bit high at 40ppm, Ammonia is 0, Nitirites are 0, PH 8.4, Salt is 1.026.. Not sure what's going on.. Protein Skimmer looks good, its working properly. Did a water change. of 25 gallons. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
HELP! Bleached Fish and Plants
- Thread starter Joanne
- Start date
Firstly, I'd keep doing some fairly large or regular water changes until you can bring those nitrates down a bit. I'm sure more knowledgeable folk will stop by, but some things to ponder:
- What are your phosphate levels (out of curiosity)?
- Have you made any sudden or big changes at all?
- Do you run any media like carbon etc?
- Are the fish eating and swimming well?
- Anything unusual on the fish before they turned pale, e.g. red blotches?
Not sure what the phosphate is.. As my test kit doesn't have that. Something we were discussing yesterday was to get a test kit for that and calcium. Yes, fish were/are eating and swimming great.. Nothing on the fish just started to turn white...Today and yesterday the flame angel has been hiding in the rocks so, not sure if he will make it. ugh.. We did add 3 more live rock to the tank but, didn't think that would make too much of a difference. ??
mr_tap_water
Well-Known Member
Hi there
It could be a number of things and is really trial and error now to actually find out what's causing it first things I would recommend this to do some big water changes and buy yourself a poly filter works will take any nasty chemicals out of the water if there is any.
Also it may even be a bacteria infection, something like Brooke,
temperature fluctuation and stress Can also tribute to the fish side of things.
Stray voltage it's also worth a look at,
A few pictures of your fish may help.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It could be a number of things and is really trial and error now to actually find out what's causing it first things I would recommend this to do some big water changes and buy yourself a poly filter works will take any nasty chemicals out of the water if there is any.
Also it may even be a bacteria infection, something like Brooke,
temperature fluctuation and stress Can also tribute to the fish side of things.
Stray voltage it's also worth a look at,
A few pictures of your fish may help.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I would agree that this is going to be very much a trial and error search. Here are a few things to check that haven't been mentioned.
Look for these three major parasitic diseases that fish tend to get a lot.
1. Ick, officially known as Cryptocaryon irritans - look for small white dots that seem to fall off in a day or two, sometimes leaving behind small circular wounds. Treatment is by hyposalinity or copper.
2. Velvet, or gold dust disease, officially known as Amyloodinium occellatun. Looks like the fish is covered in a coating of gold dust, and the fish is often going around scratching. Treatment is by copper.
3. Clownfish disease, officially known as Brooklynella hostilis. Looks like gray irregular patches. Treatment is Formalin.
Tangs especially are noted for being "ick magnets" and getting that disease.
Fish looking bleached often indicates a problem. Did anything recently change? Did anything stress the fish?
Various "plants", actually macro algaes, can die off for various reasons. I wouldn't worry too much about that, except to remove the dead plant.
What fish and other livestock do you have in the tank? Some of them give off various toxin things.
By all means make some large partial water changes. I'd change about 1/3 the water at a time, and make 2 to 4 of these partial water changes about 5 days apart. You sometimes never know what got into the tank from someplace.
It's not as common as it once was, but some places still collect fish using cyanide. This if know to cause fish deaths months later. It's really hard to tell this by just looking at the fish, but some key features are fish that look too good to be true in the LFS and fish that loose weight even though they are feeding.
Are you using tap water to mix your SW? This can bring in a lot of garbage that is harmful to the fish and is why most reef keepers use RO/DI water.
How much live rock do you have in the tank currently? I wouldn't think 3 more pieces would make much difference, unless you have very little to start with.
Are you dosing and additives? Some of these can be real problems ifnot used correctly.
Let us know what you find. Picts of your tank and the filtration system would help a lot.
Look for these three major parasitic diseases that fish tend to get a lot.
1. Ick, officially known as Cryptocaryon irritans - look for small white dots that seem to fall off in a day or two, sometimes leaving behind small circular wounds. Treatment is by hyposalinity or copper.
2. Velvet, or gold dust disease, officially known as Amyloodinium occellatun. Looks like the fish is covered in a coating of gold dust, and the fish is often going around scratching. Treatment is by copper.
3. Clownfish disease, officially known as Brooklynella hostilis. Looks like gray irregular patches. Treatment is Formalin.
Tangs especially are noted for being "ick magnets" and getting that disease.
Fish looking bleached often indicates a problem. Did anything recently change? Did anything stress the fish?
Various "plants", actually macro algaes, can die off for various reasons. I wouldn't worry too much about that, except to remove the dead plant.
What fish and other livestock do you have in the tank? Some of them give off various toxin things.
By all means make some large partial water changes. I'd change about 1/3 the water at a time, and make 2 to 4 of these partial water changes about 5 days apart. You sometimes never know what got into the tank from someplace.
It's not as common as it once was, but some places still collect fish using cyanide. This if know to cause fish deaths months later. It's really hard to tell this by just looking at the fish, but some key features are fish that look too good to be true in the LFS and fish that loose weight even though they are feeding.
Are you using tap water to mix your SW? This can bring in a lot of garbage that is harmful to the fish and is why most reef keepers use RO/DI water.
How much live rock do you have in the tank currently? I wouldn't think 3 more pieces would make much difference, unless you have very little to start with.
Are you dosing and additives? Some of these can be real problems ifnot used correctly.
Let us know what you find. Picts of your tank and the filtration system would help a lot.
