Wade Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 A friend of mine started having trouble with a tank he recently set up. He set up a 55 corner with dead rock, cycled it with bottled bacteria of some sort, and transferred everything (2 clowns, 1 cardinal, 1 shrimp and some crabs) from his old smaller tank to the new tank. This was about a month ago. He has since added a small tang, a chromis and two more clowns effectively doubling his livestock). He came home Monday to find 2 fish dead (Kole eye tang and a clown). Three more died on Tuesday and another today. He says there is no visible signs of disease, at least none that he knows to look for. No spots, no velvet, eyes look good. The fish were fine and eating the day before they died. I'm thinking his ammonia spiked due to bio-overload. He can't find his ammonia kit so will go get one today. Here's a picture of today's casualty. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Agreed with ammonia spike. If his rock was dead to begin with, make me wonder if it ever really cycledSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 check tank parameters. you shouldn't add fish (well, anything except maybe snails) until its cycled paste ammonia/nitrite stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted June 21, 2017 Author Share Posted June 21, 2017 agreed. I think the bottle bacteria gives people the idea that you can fill the tank with stock right away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted June 21, 2017 Author Share Posted June 21, 2017 So he just measured the parameters with the following results: Ammonia - .25 - .50 range Nitrite - 0 - ,25 range Nitrate - 0 I told him that the tank is cycling now and most likely never did cycle as Juiceman suggested. I recommended that he now add some bottled bacteria to aid in the cycling but the tank will need to cycle. Will multiple small water changes help at this point or does the ammonia need to stay in order for the cycle to complete? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neon Reefer Posted June 21, 2017 Share Posted June 21, 2017 Dead rock, cycled with bottled bacteria is a recipe for disaster as is most likely with this case. Cycled rock is teeming with bacteria as is the water column and very surface in the tank including pumps hoses water lines sump etc... Using bottled bacteria places a miniscule of bacteria in the tank and still takes weeks to months to grow into a tank teeming with bacteria. both nitrifying and denitrifying. Nothing beets time. When transferring inhabitants to a bigger tank you can only use cycled rock and always utilize as much of the previous rock and water as possible A lesson he will never forget Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted June 21, 2017 Author Share Posted June 21, 2017 So is there anything to be done at this point other than just letting it go through the cycle? Would adding some bacteria help it along at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 Adding more bacteria certainly won't hurt but I would do try to do a 20% to 30% water change with clean water from an established system. What's the timeline everything was done? Trying to put 4 clowns together is iffy. The chromis has a blemish that could be an internal bacterial issue but chromis have a high death rate anyway so I wouldn't necessarily use it as an indicator of a problem. Did he QT the fish before adding them? Was anything else besides from the original system added besides the clowns, cardinal, shrimp and crabs? What kind of shrimp? If it was a cleaner shrimp I would consider it more sensitive than fish to ammonia which should have only taken roughly a week to spike and disappear so if it's still alive and the new fish were added later it's more likely a pathogen and social stress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wade Posted June 22, 2017 Author Share Posted June 22, 2017 No QT unfortunately. He's fairly new to the hobby and I was having such success with his biocube that he rushed a bit moving stuff over to his new tank. He has learned the painful lesson of having patience. The shrimp is a fire shrimp. I'm amazed it's still living. yeah I hadn't considered what the social climate could have been in the tank with 4 clowns and two tangs especially since the two tangs were not introduced together and that it's a 55g corner tank. really small for 4 clowns and 2 tangs. The chromis could have just got caught in the cross fire. Great input Tim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted June 22, 2017 Share Posted June 22, 2017 We can't rule out some kind of bug so I would definitely set up a qt and tbe first couple fish probably should be considered "canaries" to see if it really is a bug that got into his system. So long as corals keep looking good keep adding them. they're the most important part of your filtration Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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