Fish and snails dieing for no reason!

yogoshio

yogoshio

New member
Ok, so as many of you know I had my 55 gallon up and running a few weeks back, with most of the water from my established 20 gallon system. I recently purchased a purple firefish and a gragon sleeper, and both died, along with two shrimp and a few snails. I tested my water, and nitrites and phosphates were 0, and nitrates very low, with temp and salinity stable. So what could be the problem??? Water source is a RO unit, with new filters (about two months old) and save for the new sand, all 70 lbs of rock were not only pre-cured but also COVERED in coraline algae. What the heck is going on???
 
How low were the nitrates?Any ammonia in the system?Sometimes there's just unexplained deaths in newer systems with no explainable reason,nothing to check for,numbers might be ok yet livestock will still die.Any huge temp swings?stray voltage?Heave metals in water?Think outside water quality.Hope i gave you some ideas.
 
Ammonia was at 0. And my clownfish was acting strange but now is normal. The temp has been constant, even my water top off is the same temp as the tank. I don't have a ground in the system, which I was going to pick up next week. And no metals in the water, its coming out pure.
 
I don't think your tank has "cycled" yet. You used old tank water but 2 weeks isn't enough time for that tank water's bacteria to propagate enough to the increased water volue and recolonize on your rocks/sand etc. I would have started small with 1 hardy fish... then 2/3 then some inverts over the course of several weeks to build that bioload up.
 
You should check for any stay voltages in the tank also...sometimes you can feel the lil shock when you put your hands in the tank, and sometimes you don't.
 
just wanted to share my 20g long reef setup
When I setup my 20g long I used 10 lbs of Nature's Ocean Aragonite Sand(dry good)
with RO water, I let the tank run about 1 week then I added 10 lbs of live sand and live rock in it..I added one blue damsel. In the second week I transfered about 5 gallons of saltwater from my 10g tank to the 20g long, and took out 5g from my 20g long..I keep doing that for a couple time in the second week..after the second week I tested the water and everything are good nitrates 0, ammonia 0, PH 8.2..then I started transfering all my corals over(acclamated and dipped first b4 put them in the tank) after 2 weeks I transfered all my fish over and adding few more..now my tank is about 2 months old and it looks clean, healthy and clear. done cycled in 2 weeks.. no problem..
Thanks
 
Irrespective of any other recommendations/comments in this thread.

Used tank water DOES NOT speed/help/change your cycle time. As it has been mentioned beneficial bacteria does not populate the water column, they stick to the rocks/sand. Studies have shown that the amount of bacteria in the actual water is negligible. The reason people still subscribe to this fallacy is because of old school freshwater LFS employees telling you to add the bag water to make sure the fish "keep some of their home bacteria" when moving to the new tank. This is obviously no longer the preferred practice.

In fact all you are doing is adding unnecessary dissolved nutrients to your new tank. Just thought that it was an important fact to reinforce since more than one person has mentioned using this method.

The only time I would ever put water from my existing tank into another tank is if I had to set up a holding/isolation tank ASAP and that would just be because there wouldn't be time to acclimate the animal to the new water parameters.
 
Just because you use your old tanks water you may still have a cycle and you still have new sand and rock sounds like so my guess would be "new tank syndrome" I know... I hate that answer too, but until a tank is a few months old it really isn't that stable. It's possible too that the fish died from stress or were sick and the inverts did too. My 150 ha been set up since march and I still kill snails. I am just getting to the point now where I feel my tank is truly stable. I wouldn't stress too much as long as all your parameters are stable and have stayed that way. Keep reading, trying your best and answering questions and don't give up and you will have a beautiful reef someday!
Best
Heidi
 
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