kempec98
New Member
Hey all,
Well it's been a pretty aggravating year and a half for me with getting new fish. I have an established FOWLR tank for going on about 3 years now with 2 Pajama Cardinals and a decent size clean up crew. The main tank is not the problem, its my QT. I have not been able to keep fish alive in it for more than 2-4 weeks at a time. I had finally decided to drain, empty and thoroughly clean the tank (with CitriClean) and start from scratch. I ditch my old Aqueon HOB filter setup and replace it with a Seachem Tidal 35 HOB. Instead of going with a bare bottom this time, I opted to use CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand, a couple of PVC joints and a live rock from my main tank. I did not add any nitrifying bacteria this go around as I wanted to use the live sand and rock to create that. I let the tank cycle for 6 weeks and tested the water after the 6 weeks (Nitrites: 0, Nitrates: 0, Ammonia: 0, Salinity: 1.025). Satisfied with the results, I purchased 2 clowns from my LFS and floated their bag for 15-20 minutes. After that I began to drip accumulate them for about 15-20 minutes. When that was done, I introduced them to the QT. Everything seemed fine with them for about 2 weeks and then I started to notice a little bit of labored breathing in both of them, nothing too excessive but was noticeable. They both had energy, were swimming around a lot, healthy appetite and doing clownfish things. I did the QT's first 10% water change 2 days ago (including vacuuming the sand bed). 2 days later (today) one of the clown's labored breathing really picked up and almost looked like it loss a lot of weight (zombie-ish) and looked faded. It was not swimming as well as it had been and was darting sporadically. It finally sank to the bottom and died. The other clown is fine, still swimming around and curious of things as well as still have it's appetite. This has been happening for sometime now when I get fish and put them in the QT and I really am at wit's end trying to figure it out. My water parameters for the QT are as follows:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 22ppb (Hanna ULR)
Nitrates: 1.8ppm (Hana HR)
PH : 6.8 (Hana)
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78 F
All saltwater and RO water is purchased from the same LFS I get my fish from.
I have also attached pictures of the current clown alive and post mortem. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Well it's been a pretty aggravating year and a half for me with getting new fish. I have an established FOWLR tank for going on about 3 years now with 2 Pajama Cardinals and a decent size clean up crew. The main tank is not the problem, its my QT. I have not been able to keep fish alive in it for more than 2-4 weeks at a time. I had finally decided to drain, empty and thoroughly clean the tank (with CitriClean) and start from scratch. I ditch my old Aqueon HOB filter setup and replace it with a Seachem Tidal 35 HOB. Instead of going with a bare bottom this time, I opted to use CaribSea Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand, a couple of PVC joints and a live rock from my main tank. I did not add any nitrifying bacteria this go around as I wanted to use the live sand and rock to create that. I let the tank cycle for 6 weeks and tested the water after the 6 weeks (Nitrites: 0, Nitrates: 0, Ammonia: 0, Salinity: 1.025). Satisfied with the results, I purchased 2 clowns from my LFS and floated their bag for 15-20 minutes. After that I began to drip accumulate them for about 15-20 minutes. When that was done, I introduced them to the QT. Everything seemed fine with them for about 2 weeks and then I started to notice a little bit of labored breathing in both of them, nothing too excessive but was noticeable. They both had energy, were swimming around a lot, healthy appetite and doing clownfish things. I did the QT's first 10% water change 2 days ago (including vacuuming the sand bed). 2 days later (today) one of the clown's labored breathing really picked up and almost looked like it loss a lot of weight (zombie-ish) and looked faded. It was not swimming as well as it had been and was darting sporadically. It finally sank to the bottom and died. The other clown is fine, still swimming around and curious of things as well as still have it's appetite. This has been happening for sometime now when I get fish and put them in the QT and I really am at wit's end trying to figure it out. My water parameters for the QT are as follows:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 22ppb (Hanna ULR)
Nitrates: 1.8ppm (Hana HR)
PH : 6.8 (Hana)
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78 F
All saltwater and RO water is purchased from the same LFS I get my fish from.
I have also attached pictures of the current clown alive and post mortem. Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
