History:
I started with a small 55 gal salt tank and have upgraded tanks over the last year or so. I am still pretty new to the hobby and learning as much as i can as i go. about a month ago i upgraded to a 125 gal with a 35 gal sump, large eshopps skimmer, carbon in a reactor, and using 2 stages of filter pads going into sump. I did this when i almost lost my whole stock. I use to never QT fish, and i got burned with a nasty either velvet/ ich infestation that killed a lot of my prize fish almost overnight. Even lost my harlequin tusk, sailfin tang, diamond goby, foxface rabbit fish, and the list goes on. When this happened i got it through my head that a QT is a requirement. I went out and got setup with a QT system. I pulled all of my fish out of the main system and into the QT tank with cupermine. I was actually able to save the rest. It did wonders. I let my DT sit completely empty of all life, inverts got took out with a "reef Safe" ich med i used that fowled my water parameters up something awful. Phosphates went off the chart and i could never get it down. I even considered giving up on the hobby, but my wife talked me out of it. So I ran cupermine in the QT tank at recommended levels and water changes for 8 weeks. and then put them back in the 90 gal DT i had at them time. We left them in there for a bout a month under careful observation. Never a spot happened again and everyone was happy, and so was i. I went out and upgraded to my current set up as mentioned above with the 125 gal. I plumbed it with hard pipe to the sump, added NEW sand and some new dry rock and the original rock. All the water was new water besides the 10 gal i took from the old tank. I didnt want a lot of this water due to the awful phosphate levels. Everything was going good for 3 weeks so i decided to go out and get some new stock for the tank. I went to my LFS and found a Emperor angel (pulled from one of his customers tanks), and 4 anthias. I put them in my QT and watched them closely with no meds in the water. The angel had a gash in her side that was almost healed and the fin on that same side was a good but shorter then the other. Everything else on her was normal including behavior. He said she was injured during the capture, but it was almost healed. after a week i noticed she had one cloudy eye that was slightly popped out, but not to the extreme i would call pop eye. I added cupermine to the water at this point to address any parasite issues if there happened to be. Over the next two days it appeared she was having a reaction to the copper and here come mistake 1 i think. I moved her to the DT out of the copper along with the anthias. She improved within about 2 hours and was all good.
new problems arise:
The next morning when i went to look at my tank an anthia was dead and stuck to the circulation pump with my humu trigger chomping on the remains. I was thinking maybe a space dispute with the others lead to his demise and the humu was just enjoying an early meal. I looked at the angel and the eye was clear and no other problems seen so i brushed it off. I will go ahead and list all livestock that was in my tank at this time. i have a humu trigger, Niger trigger, a jeweled damasel, emperor angel, was 4 but 3 anthias, a hawk fish, coral beauty, 2 reg clowns, yellow tang, 2 Halloween crabs, 2 couches and 60 or so reg grabs. The reef cleaner package was added a couple of days after the tank set up with no QT. I wasn't aware they could in rare cases transmit diseases. the next day a anthia had a cloudy eye so i began to get concerned and checked all fish. angel's other fin was starting to erode down as the tail, and the damsel was showing signs of small fin errosion, and my coral beauty was very pale but pale reddish all over looking. I pulled out my trusty QT tank and set it back up, pulled 20 gal from my DT to fill it, have several PVC pipe pieces in it, heater, light, and biowheel filter. When all this was done the angel had lost almost all of her ?arm? fins and in the "armpit" was very red and irritated looking as was her gash that was mostly healed. I pulled her and put her in the QT and added E.M. erythromycin by API per directions of 1 pack per 10 gal, so added 2 packs. i tried to feed her nori and brine shrimp but she refused which i found odd as i used it to get her out of the rocks in the DT to catch her as she was eating it. I left her be and went to bed. She was dead in the morning. I pulled her out and disposed of her and check my DT again. My coral beauty was not improved and had tattered fins. I pulled her out and put her in the QT tank with the meds in it. checked on her throughout the day and no signs of problems. She was swimming normal. I offered nori and shrimp and she refused to eat. I checked on her at 515 am this morning before i left for work and all was normal still. At 9:30 am i asked my wife to feed her and make sure she eats and she told me she was dead. Im not sure why this is happening. I have some other fish who are showing signs of an issue like the anthias with a cloudy eye, and a damsel with tattered fins but other than that no problem. everyone acts normal and eats normal. im at a loss on what i should do. Any ideas would be helpful.
I started with a small 55 gal salt tank and have upgraded tanks over the last year or so. I am still pretty new to the hobby and learning as much as i can as i go. about a month ago i upgraded to a 125 gal with a 35 gal sump, large eshopps skimmer, carbon in a reactor, and using 2 stages of filter pads going into sump. I did this when i almost lost my whole stock. I use to never QT fish, and i got burned with a nasty either velvet/ ich infestation that killed a lot of my prize fish almost overnight. Even lost my harlequin tusk, sailfin tang, diamond goby, foxface rabbit fish, and the list goes on. When this happened i got it through my head that a QT is a requirement. I went out and got setup with a QT system. I pulled all of my fish out of the main system and into the QT tank with cupermine. I was actually able to save the rest. It did wonders. I let my DT sit completely empty of all life, inverts got took out with a "reef Safe" ich med i used that fowled my water parameters up something awful. Phosphates went off the chart and i could never get it down. I even considered giving up on the hobby, but my wife talked me out of it. So I ran cupermine in the QT tank at recommended levels and water changes for 8 weeks. and then put them back in the 90 gal DT i had at them time. We left them in there for a bout a month under careful observation. Never a spot happened again and everyone was happy, and so was i. I went out and upgraded to my current set up as mentioned above with the 125 gal. I plumbed it with hard pipe to the sump, added NEW sand and some new dry rock and the original rock. All the water was new water besides the 10 gal i took from the old tank. I didnt want a lot of this water due to the awful phosphate levels. Everything was going good for 3 weeks so i decided to go out and get some new stock for the tank. I went to my LFS and found a Emperor angel (pulled from one of his customers tanks), and 4 anthias. I put them in my QT and watched them closely with no meds in the water. The angel had a gash in her side that was almost healed and the fin on that same side was a good but shorter then the other. Everything else on her was normal including behavior. He said she was injured during the capture, but it was almost healed. after a week i noticed she had one cloudy eye that was slightly popped out, but not to the extreme i would call pop eye. I added cupermine to the water at this point to address any parasite issues if there happened to be. Over the next two days it appeared she was having a reaction to the copper and here come mistake 1 i think. I moved her to the DT out of the copper along with the anthias. She improved within about 2 hours and was all good.
new problems arise:
The next morning when i went to look at my tank an anthia was dead and stuck to the circulation pump with my humu trigger chomping on the remains. I was thinking maybe a space dispute with the others lead to his demise and the humu was just enjoying an early meal. I looked at the angel and the eye was clear and no other problems seen so i brushed it off. I will go ahead and list all livestock that was in my tank at this time. i have a humu trigger, Niger trigger, a jeweled damasel, emperor angel, was 4 but 3 anthias, a hawk fish, coral beauty, 2 reg clowns, yellow tang, 2 Halloween crabs, 2 couches and 60 or so reg grabs. The reef cleaner package was added a couple of days after the tank set up with no QT. I wasn't aware they could in rare cases transmit diseases. the next day a anthia had a cloudy eye so i began to get concerned and checked all fish. angel's other fin was starting to erode down as the tail, and the damsel was showing signs of small fin errosion, and my coral beauty was very pale but pale reddish all over looking. I pulled out my trusty QT tank and set it back up, pulled 20 gal from my DT to fill it, have several PVC pipe pieces in it, heater, light, and biowheel filter. When all this was done the angel had lost almost all of her ?arm? fins and in the "armpit" was very red and irritated looking as was her gash that was mostly healed. I pulled her and put her in the QT and added E.M. erythromycin by API per directions of 1 pack per 10 gal, so added 2 packs. i tried to feed her nori and brine shrimp but she refused which i found odd as i used it to get her out of the rocks in the DT to catch her as she was eating it. I left her be and went to bed. She was dead in the morning. I pulled her out and disposed of her and check my DT again. My coral beauty was not improved and had tattered fins. I pulled her out and put her in the QT tank with the meds in it. checked on her throughout the day and no signs of problems. She was swimming normal. I offered nori and shrimp and she refused to eat. I checked on her at 515 am this morning before i left for work and all was normal still. At 9:30 am i asked my wife to feed her and make sure she eats and she told me she was dead. Im not sure why this is happening. I have some other fish who are showing signs of an issue like the anthias with a cloudy eye, and a damsel with tattered fins but other than that no problem. everyone acts normal and eats normal. im at a loss on what i should do. Any ideas would be helpful.