First Reef Tank first disaster

[Emperor559]

Well I knew it would eventually happen but I didn't think it would happen this soon. I bought an established reef tank about a month ago. I took the water and and all that was in it including a dragon goby. It was algae riddin when I got it but I bought some Astreas and a nerite and they went to town. They have done a great job. I have done one water change about 2 weeks after I got it and I am getting ready to do another, maybe. A week ago I bought 2 clowns and a peppermint shrimp. One clown lasted a day we thought maybe the dragon goby messed with him since he had been in the tank by himself for so long, even before we got the tank. Well 4 days later the other clown kicked it. Right after the first clown died my peppermint molted so I didn't think anything was wrong disease wise at least. I watched the other clown closely and she was eating fine, swimming at the top of the water but once again thought it might be the dragon goby keeping her from coming down. Wednesday night i noticed a white film hanging off her and thursday morning she was dead. The peppermint died Sunday and the dragon goby died last night. Once again last night I noticed that film but not before last night. Sunday night I dosed some kent supperbuffer to get the ph up and then again last night. I dosed lugols last Saturday and this past Saturday one drop each time. I have a 29BC with a sapphire skimmer. My water params are Ammon. 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate <10 Ca 425 Mg 1350 ph 7.87 dKh 7. I have put a frogspawn in since I put the clowns in but before I knew it was a disease. What do you think I should do from here. I don't plan on getting any fish any time soon since I wasted about $100 and innocent fish lost their lives. I am kinda waiting to see what might happen to the snails. Right now they are fine or so it seems. Help is requested though. Thanks

Greg

[BigAl07]

Hmmm doesn't sound to promising on the fish side.

What type of circulation?

What's the water temp?

What's the salinity (SG) of the tank?

What are you using for Salt Mix on your water changes?

What is the source for your Fresh Water for top offs?

Sorry to hear about your loss. I'm sure we can get to the bottom of it though.

[sasquatch]

hi Greg, and Welcome to RS! Moving and reestablishing a tank can be upsetting, not clear on how you did this. i would stop the lugols unless you have a very good test kit for it, its toxic at minimal levels. The white film is on the fish is probably a stress related illness, clowns are notorious for being infected before they get home and why we strongly recommend quarantine procedures before ever letting them loose in your display. I would have your water checked by your local shop to be sure your kits are good, as for what to do? set up a quarantine tank, find a shop that will let you put fish on hold for a few days, visit often and go read the stickies here http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/...es-treatments/

good luck! Steve

[Frankie]

Welcome to rs!
First lesson would be, don't dose anything you aren't testing for. What gave you the the idea to dose iodine?

[AQTCJAK]

Welcome ABoard & I agree with all that has been said

[Emperor559]

Well I was dosing iodine for two reasons coraline algae and also the inverts. I realize dosing iodine you have to be careful but I was told that the coraline algae would suck it out of the system at a faster rate than I was putting it in. I also read that is where the coraline gets its color from. My water is r/o water from the lfs ,salt is instant ocean salinity is 1.025. Circulation is the standard biocube pump not sure what it is right off hand maybe a rio 600 not sure though. Water temp is 78-80 throughout the course of the day.The water was tested by my kit and the lfs

[BigAl07]

No need to dose for that unless you have some EXTREME reasons. Your water changes (if done in a timely manner) will provide most of your trace elements. I'd do a heavy W/c (maybe 50%) and then see how things look tomorrow. Don't dose anything else unless you can test a KNOW it's needed. Your salt mix will go a long way to help you in that regard.

good luck buddy

[rlcline76]

I concur with the guys, no dosing. Start over, arm yourself with a QT tank. If there are any remaining fish, moved them into QT. Leave the display fallow for at least 6 weeks to rid yourself of possible pathogens, and take that time to clean up the environment through water changes. Your parameters look fairly decent, get the KH up a little. I wouldn't have minded seeing a iodine test result. You could have been seeing results of poisoning for all we know.

Good Luck!

[tippMANn98]

thats also 4 fish in a DISPLAY AREA size about 24-25 gallons too....thats a little much for fishwise in a BC29

[BigAl07]

Daniel is right. Let's start off from scratch and go really really slow this time.

Take some time and look through this thread. It's a wealth of new information and could save you a lot of heart ache and $$ in the long run. Just keep in mind we ALL started at the same point so we know how you feel. We're here to help

Life is GOOD

[Emperor559]

What would you suggest I do with the mushrooms, frogspawn, and zoos. It looks like the frogspawn is now receding actually.

[Rcpilot]

Just stop messing with it!!

STOP dosing the tank.

STOP putting new corals in the tank.

STOP putting new fish in the tank.

Just slow down!!

Do a 25% water change now and then start doing 10--15% water changes EVERY WEEK. Don't skip. EVERY SINGLE WEEK change about 3g of water.

Just kick back and let it mature a little. You shocked the hell out of it when you moved it from the previous owners home to yours. Thats a MAJOR shock to the fish and the live bacteria. MAJOR SHOCK.

Give it time to settle down. Just do your weekly water changes for 3 months and report back to us. I'll betcha $1 million dollars you'll be better off in 3 months, than you are now if you don't add any fish or corals and just do 13 water changes between now and then.

If you want a fast paced hobby, I can lead you in the right direction.

Reefing is SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW. Not for the adrenaline junkies of the planet.

Hate to be the mean guy in the group, but you kinda did it to yourself by not being patient and following established rules of reefing. You're a newbie with a tank that was transported and you added fish and started dosing it with IODINE!! when you don't even know what Iodine does, what concentrations it should be in the tank, or how to test for it.

SLOW DOWN!!!

[Emperor559]

Rcpilot go back to wherever you came from. I don't need people like you trying to help me. You assume too much. I don't think that adding 2 fish and a coral after a month of the tank being set up is unheard of. One fish came with the tank and a couple of soft corals and everything was transported so there would be minimal die off of bacteria. Everything was kept in water and wet. As for the iodine I was following the advice of people like you who think they know what they are talking about. I had already decided not to dose iodine or anything else for that matter before I posted on this forum. So I am not rushing like you may think but concerned that something may be happening to the frogspawn and I don't want it to die too.

[sasquatch]

frogspawn are funny sometimes, health wise look under the head at the white part attaching to the stalk, if its plump its good, if its thin and very short its not happy,they will open and close at their wish, the big trouble is brown jelly and thats "usually" after an injury, I think your procedure in the move was good but it will take some time to "reset" the shrooms and zoo's will be fine the water changes will help froggy and where do you have it for flow and height. Steve

[tbittner]

Welcome to RS, Greg.

I agree with rlcline. Let it sit without fish for 8 weeks or so. Ich requires a host in order to survive. Without fish, that particular disease will die off and you won't have to worry about that being the cause of death. When you get a new fish, please do QT it for 3 weeks or so before introducing it to your display tank. Then you'll know that it's not bring Ich into your clean system.

Also, if you want clowns, make sure they are tank raised and bred in captivity. Wild caught clowns are notorious for bring all sorts of bad diseases into a captive system.

Just start a regiment of water changes. Don't give up on them. They will resolve what's ailing the corals. I would do at LEAST 10% every day for 10 days. With the salt mixtures now a days, there is very little you'll need to dose except for maybe calcium and alkalinity. Even then, you probably won't need to dose. Unless you get into keeping SPS, you're current corals aren't huge consumers of calcium.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Never give up. The rewards are truly breath taking.