loosing fish and cant figure out why

[card16969]

ok my tank is only a couple months old so im still suffering new tank syndrome but i cant figure this out. In the last 2 weeks ive lost a kole tang, 3 reef chromis and now a 3 stripe damsel. Only fish left in my tank are 2 clowns, desjardini sailfin, foxface, pink spot goby and lawnmower blenny. ive been doing water tests and it comes back maybe .05 amonia its somewhere between at max .05 and 0, 0 nitrate, 0 nitrite, 8.3 ph. Ive been getting cyano and a diatom bloom but all my tests are showing zero anybody got any ideas?

[Sir Patrick]

12-14 fish in a couple months is alot of fish, especially for a fairly new tank. Maybe you stocked too fast? Maybe your system couldnt handle the load yet? Also- could be many other things...

How old are your test kits, and what kind are ya running? No matter what, I would get a water test from an outside reliable source, just in case.

[card16969]

12-14 fish in a couple months is alot of fish, especially for a fairly new tank. Maybe you stocked too fast? Maybe your system couldnt handle the load yet? Also- could be many other things...

How old are your test kits, and what kind are ya running? No matter what, I would get a water test from an outside reliable source, just in case.

have tested with my test kit and the shops test kit

[ReeferRob]

12-14 fish in a couple months is alot of fish, especially for a fairly new tank. Maybe you stocked too fast? Maybe your system couldnt handle the load yet? Also- could be many other things...

How old are your test kits, and what kind are ya running? No matter what, I would get a water test from an outside reliable source, just in case.

Awesome suggestions!

Hows your oxygenation in the tank? Are you getting good surface ripples and stuff? Temperature comes to mind, no heaters issues of anykind?

[card16969]

Awesome suggestions!

Hows your oxygenation in the tank? Are you getting good surface ripples and stuff? Temperature comes to mind, no heaters issues of anykind?

water drops 8' to the sump with great turn over, major ripples across the top of the tank, temp is pretty consistant varries 1.5-2 degrees across the day and no issues with the heaters that i know of, have a ground probe and only had 4v b4 that

[igot2gats]

I second what Chris said - you stocked too fast. Were all of your params at 0 when your tank was done cycling?

[stunreefer]

Yes, your system wasn't established enough to handle the load.

Ammonia at 0.05 is toxic to fish (literally burning them) not to mention that NO2 isn't at 0 (where it should be).

Right now your best bet is to literally become the filter. Make up a bunch of water and begin doing water changes, 25% at a time, until your ammonia drops to zero. Do you have a QT set-up? I would recommend moving the fish out of the system in order to take them out of that water, but since they're already stressed this would likely lead to even more bad tihngs (disease break out, etc.). Add some bottled bacteria of some sort to help seed your tank more. Feed fish well in order to keep them fat and healthy (to fend off disease), but be extremely mindful about waste - do not let any food whatsoever hit the ground, if it does siphon it out (otherwise it will go against your problem). Keep up the water changes and feeding and hope for the best. Do not make any drastic chenges regarding heating or anything as that will only induce more stress and likely lead to a disease outbreak.

Even if the tank was done "cycling" the stocking was much too fast (not trying to bash at all, just help out here). When a tank has "cycled", it has enough sustainable beneficial bacteria to convert NH3/NH4+ (ammonia) into NO2 (Nitrite) then eventually into the less toxic NO3 (Nitrate) for the load at hand, which in a freshly cycled tank is little to nothing (regarding fish, inverts, etc.). We can add a fish, and the biological filtration will reproduce enough to handle the waste produced by this fish and potentially produced by our lazy feeding (too much food ). This is a process that doesn't happen overnight. Wait a couple weeks, then add a fish or two more, and the same process of establishing sufficient beneficial bacteria begins. Over and over we go. Unfortunately you found out the hard way that your system was by no means ready to handle a bioload that large. Step back, take it slow, perform water changes while keeping your existing fish happy, and let everything stabilize before you consider adding anything else. GL!

[ReeferRob]

Again awesome feedback Austin, but the tank was completely wiped out I think a week or so ago!

[stunreefer]

Again awesome feedback Austin, but the tank was completely wiped out I think a week or so ago!

Looking at the dates of the posts might have helped, eh? ... I just looked at the date of the post prior to mine, LOL.