Fowlr Trouble!!! Please Help!!! All My Fish Are Dying!!!

Ok, well as you can already tell i have a FOWLR Tank (Fish-Only-With-Live-Rock) and my problem is; all my fish have been dying!!! it is so depressing i just want to get rid of the tank but then i know i will never be able to afford to get a whole new setup again. These are the specs of my tank and hopefully you can tell me what you think the problem could be.

Tank Size: 120 Gallon Acrylic

Sump Size: 50 Gallon

Lights: PC lights w 2 bulbs (Dont remember the specs on it)

Pump 1 & 2:
not sure what the pumps are anymore either its been so long but i know one is a slow moving pump for my UV Sterillizer and the other is a pretty strong pump.

UV Sterilizer: 9 Watt Coral Life TurboTwist (Although ive never changed the bulb and have had it for about a year)

Protien Skimmer: Instant Ocean SeaClone 150 Protein Skimmer (Although I am not sure if it works anymore because it hasnt produced anything in the cup for quite some time now)

Live Sand: about 120 Lbs

Live Rock: About 60 Lbs in the tank and another 80 or so combined in the over flow box and sump


Clean up crew all i have is a brittle serphent star (Im going to try and get a full clean up crew this weekend)

fish all i have NOW is a banana wrasse

Other Stuff

i have a carpet anenome which thrives pretty good for the past year

i have a large chocholate chip star

my levels come out perfect when i test them with my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals saltwater Test Kit and i do weekly water changes with about 20 gallons per water change

well that is all i have in my tank and so please help me and let me know what you think is wrong...its probably a combo of things now that i am looking at how many things probably arent working anymore but please give me some advise on what to do and if you sugest i change equipment please advise me on which products i should get....

thank you so much for taking the time to help me...


...Casey
 

GrendelPrime

Well-Known Member
how exactly are the fish dying? are they gasping at the top of the tank?are they scratching on the rock and sand in the tank? are they eating normal?do u find them dead or do they just disapear? how old are the test kits?and u never mentioned what kind of fish u had, carpet anemones are known to eat fish so is it possible that hes picken them off 1 at a time? thats why i asked if u find them dead or do they just vanish
 

Willie McDaries

Well-Known Member
I would try a different ammonia test kit for sure to reassure that the test kit hasn't gone bad.....how stable is the temperature and what is it currently ?
 
Thank you so much for your replies...

ok well the fish are just dying not grasping for air not scratching and they are always eating like horses...usually what happens is they are fine one day and then the next morning i see the fish swimming close to the sand and bumping into rocks and falling over and then get a little better as the day goes on and then within like 2 days they are dead on the sand...the fish that i had before they all died were a large spiney box puffer which was the first to go then about 2 weeks later my large Tank Raised Maculosus Angel died, then about another 2 weeks my 1 1/2 year old ocellaris clown died, then about 1 week later my other clown died that i had for about 4 months, then about 3 weeks later my yellow tang died and now all i have left is my banana wrasse, brittle star, chocholate chip star, and carpet anenome and yeah my test kit is pretty old like 1 1/2 years old or so. and then my temp usually is about 80 or so...i live in Las Vegas so its hard to keep it lower when i cant afford a $600 chiller...but ive had it like that temp for a long time and have never had problems with it before.
 
i know too that puffers have a poisonous blatter or something like that when they die but i got him out of there like right after he died, i came home from work one day and he looked as if he JUST died and then i took him out of there
 

GrendelPrime

Well-Known Member
for 1 i would get a new skimmer,drop kicking old ladies at bingo would do a better job skimming ur tank then the seaclone but as far as which 1 to go with the choices are limited only by ur wallet, im a big asm g series fan so for ur size tank i would do eaither a asm g2 or g3 and if u want to keep coral i would upgrade ur lights to either 250wat metal halides or even 400watters
 
Do you think there could be anytype of parasite or something in the tank? like maybe that is in the rock or sand or sump mud or something?
 
Oh ok well then ill probably get the 2 or 3 then...still gotta deside...what do you think of that parasite idea? do you think it could be that?
 
Thats the thing though is they arent having any symptoms of being sick or anything untill about a day or two before then they swim very close to the sand, bump into stuff and kind of fall over and stuff but thats it...it seriously just looks like they are drunk lol and then they give up and die and it keeps happening so im like so confused on what to do because im getting very depressed and just want to give it up you know.
 

vubben

Member
Has anyone been using any cleaning supplies near the tank. There was a post in the rsm forum recently about someone's cleaning lady who was, unbeknownst to the owner, cleaning the tank hood with windex or similar. Lost many fish "mysteriously".
 
not that i know of...i usually just wipe down the tank with fresh water...my trash can is the only thing that is next to the tank but i know i didnt get trash misplaced into the tank
 

robpam

Member
What about painting, I made the mistake 15yrs ago and lost all my SW fish. I painted the hall not the room the tank was in w/all windows open
 

lkbart

New Member
A friend lost a number of fish because of a plug-in air freshener that wasn't very close to the tank. Anything airborne can cause problems.
 
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