Clownfish Pale Face! HELP

[Michellec_107]

New to this forum hoping to get some answers. Looks like our fish had ick we treated them with a fresh water dip and then added itch treatment last week. They seemed fine all cleared up and this morning wokeup and one of the two clowfish had a red spot on top of his head on his white stripe. It's always swimming really low to the gravel and his face looks pale/white. We also did a 10 Gallon/Salted water change on Saturday because the nitrates were reading high! Tested nitrates last night it was between 10-20 ppm and our ammonia was testing around 5-10 ppm more on the lower end. We have a sump and overflow setup and it's a 40 gallon tank with bare live rock and live sand and we have some snails, little crabs, and 2 margueritas, and 1 I think is a slug and a star fish sand sifter. Sorry we are new to this hobby our tank was ready after almost 3 weeks passed all the testing before adding anything we had a butterfly and the two clownfish. the butterfly died a week ago and then thats when the clownfish seemed to have gotten the itch stuff with white dots/air bubble looking stuff on them.

Thank you for any feedback

 

[Michellec_107]

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

our ammonia was testing around 5-10 ppm

This is not good... you don't want ammonia... this should be your #1 concern,,,, something died or the tanks not cycled yet... I would do more water changes... maybe up to 40% get the ammonia at zero...

The ick... another question... best advise I can tell you here... is we have some of the best advise on the net in our diseases forum - read the Stickies here... Great advise....

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?forums/fish-diseases-treatments.155/

How many pounds of rock do you have in your 40 gallon tank, any pics? You need at least 1 pound per gallon to 1 1/2 pounds per gallon.

Hopefully others can jump in & help ! nitrates are not deadly to your fish... Ammonia is very deadly

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

and to RS !

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

post pics of your star fish sand sifter... how he doing? They seldom do well,,, hardly ever in a new tank (months old...) and often starve & start to die ... losing arms,,, creating ammonia, poisoning the fish... but that just a guess... we all learn as we go... best thing you can do... is start a tank thread, post pics & ask questions... and discount what the lfs (local fish store) tell you... like "ick treatment" see Stickies... but you can recover and get all sorted and have a happy healthy sw tank...

 

[Michellec_107]

the fish didn't make it, it looked really slimy once removed we have one clown fish left and I believe we have 30 pounds of rock and the star fish is seen every other day moving around and sifting through the sand

 

[Michellec_107]

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

See what others advise...

How did you know your tank cycled? Losing all your fish... new tank and dry rock... would make me guess... adding the livestock, several fish at once... caused an ammonia spike and killed them... as the new tank could not handle the bio-load...

a good read...
The Mature Aquarium

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

this is a great read too... I had to read it a few times... to get it in my brain... if interested...
Newbies, a little something on cycling/breaking in a new reef tank.

 

[Michellec_107]

I as working with our local owned fish store tested waters weekly made sure it was all cycled and added the fish everyone was fine for two weeks and then the butterfly one died first

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

What did you see... when working with the lfs... testing the water, during the cycle?

this...

the Ammonia will raise then drop, followed by the Nitrites raising and then dropping, then the Nitrates will soar - once the ammonia & nitrites are gone, then do water changes to reduce nitrates.
Ammonia > Nitrite > Nitrate
Tank Cycled

See what others think... if they sold you the starfish & that number of fish, that quick (one a month been better...) and then suggest an ick treatment additive (there not one...) and told you the tanks cycled... and you have ammonia ... I would be 2nd guessing their advise,,,

see what other RS members think....

 

[DaveK]

@nanoreefing4fun has given to op lots of good advice to the op. I just want to add a few things.

I can see by looking at that tank picts that there is not nearly enough live rock. Since it looks like 3 large pieces, I would weigh them and see where you stand. This also looks like dence rock, so expect to need about 1 1/2 pounds per gallon. When you have enough rock, the tank will look rather full of rock.

It sounds like you added a medication to the main tank. This is something you should never do in a reef system to treat a fish disease. Once the tank is cycled, make several large partial water changes to get any residue from the meds out.

You may want to add one of the various products that aid in cycling a tank. It will not cure things overnight, but may help to reduce cycle time.

Since you have ammonia, you either didn't correctly cycle the tank or something died and you have not noticed it. It's best to get your own test kits, and test daily during the initial cycle. That way you know where you are in it.

Keep a close eye on the sand sifting star. They often can't get enough to eat in a new tank, and often die.

The tank isn't off to a great start, but at this point it's not too hard to recover, it just needs some time to get established.

 

[Uncle99]

You may have cycled your tank but your bacterial population could not have been large enough to process the ammonia load in less than a month with just those rocks.

When bacteria populations are new, they are easily overcome by any death, let alone a butterfly. it takes a good 6-9 months combined with a slow inhabitant add rate to bring what I would call a full cycle, one strong enough to take on decomposition of a larger inhabitant.

While this may seem long, it is, but it's ability to process ammonia waste is very strong.

So, again, while you can cycle in 3-4 weeks, (min for me would be 8 weeks) then I might try one small damsel then wait a month, then repeat, wait a month...

LFS staff are usually hit or miss. At mine, there are 12 staff in the fish room and only 4 keep tanks.

DaveK has chimed in and his response always great advice and ones I follow myself. Somewhere in the sticky notes, he has "Daves Standard Lectures" like a Coles notes of real important things.....great stuff

Restart your process, cycle, then add real slow. Build a large population of beneficial bacteria as this is the foundation for success.

Starfish rarely last longer than one year in captivity.

Good luck and welcome to Reef Sanctuary.