Apologies friends, this is going to be a lot of info thrown at you, the story’s at the bottom. I have a dead mimic tang, fish scratching, and rapid breathing.
Aquarium type reef, barely any coral yet.
total system volume 128 gallons
Filtration - sump with socks, RS 300 skimmer thats been off last two days, 140 lbs of dry live rock cycled.
2 readsea reef 90’s + 4 48” t5’s
first fish added ~ 3 months ago.
Temperature 80 f
PH 8.2
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia 0 - 0.2
Nitrite 0 - 0.05
Nitrate 5 - 10
Phosphate 0.4
KH 10.5 DKH
Stock list,
Powder blue tang
mimic tang - now deceased
2 clownfish
1 green chroma
longnose butterfly
6 line wrasse
firefish
4 engineer gobies
cleaner shrimp
2 fighting conchs
serpent star
4 turbo snails
lost of hermits, cerith snails, asteraea snails,
Feeding - SA hatchery pellets, freeze dried miss and brine shrimp, smoked in selcon and Lipo-garlic (alternating), frozen brine and mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and nori.
Problem,
All inverts and pods are looking and acting fine.
I haven’t quarantined any of the fish. I’m setting up a quarantine tank ASAP and before I get anymore fish.
From the get go the powder blue has been aggressive to the mimic tang, but no injuries noticed.
A week ago I added the 4 engineer gobies, didn’t see any noticeable signs of illness.
I also added a carbon reactor with matrix carbon, ran 3 gallons of DI water through it to rinse the carbon. Mimic tang got HLLE two days after adding reactor and it progressed rapidly. I removed the carbon at first sight and filled the reactor with filter floss to try and get any carbon fines that may have escaped into the water and did a 30 % water change.
HLLE got worse and was soon followed by rapid breathing. (3-6 gill beats per second)
Powder blue showed no signs of HLLE but started breathing rapidly.
I figured I mush have gotten flukes from the engineer gobies and did the smart thing and started treating with ruby reef rally pro without checking first. (that’s why the skimmer has been off for two days.)
Two days later, my mimic tang was found dead. I inspected the body including gills, didn’t notice anything and placed he body in a black bucket of fresh water. After 20 minutes nothing but some of the slime cote came off or appeared on the body.
The powder blue is still breathing heavy and scratching, I also see the engineer gobies occasionally scratching.
Any ideas friends?
Should I turn my skimmer back on and work to get the rally pro out of the system?
Pictures to follow.
Aquarium type reef, barely any coral yet.
total system volume 128 gallons
Filtration - sump with socks, RS 300 skimmer thats been off last two days, 140 lbs of dry live rock cycled.
2 readsea reef 90’s + 4 48” t5’s
first fish added ~ 3 months ago.
Temperature 80 f
PH 8.2
Salinity 1.025
Ammonia 0 - 0.2
Nitrite 0 - 0.05
Nitrate 5 - 10
Phosphate 0.4
KH 10.5 DKH
Stock list,
Powder blue tang
mimic tang - now deceased
2 clownfish
1 green chroma
longnose butterfly
6 line wrasse
firefish
4 engineer gobies
cleaner shrimp
2 fighting conchs
serpent star
4 turbo snails
lost of hermits, cerith snails, asteraea snails,
Feeding - SA hatchery pellets, freeze dried miss and brine shrimp, smoked in selcon and Lipo-garlic (alternating), frozen brine and mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and nori.
Problem,
All inverts and pods are looking and acting fine.
I haven’t quarantined any of the fish. I’m setting up a quarantine tank ASAP and before I get anymore fish.
From the get go the powder blue has been aggressive to the mimic tang, but no injuries noticed.
A week ago I added the 4 engineer gobies, didn’t see any noticeable signs of illness.
I also added a carbon reactor with matrix carbon, ran 3 gallons of DI water through it to rinse the carbon. Mimic tang got HLLE two days after adding reactor and it progressed rapidly. I removed the carbon at first sight and filled the reactor with filter floss to try and get any carbon fines that may have escaped into the water and did a 30 % water change.
HLLE got worse and was soon followed by rapid breathing. (3-6 gill beats per second)
Powder blue showed no signs of HLLE but started breathing rapidly.
I figured I mush have gotten flukes from the engineer gobies and did the smart thing and started treating with ruby reef rally pro without checking first. (that’s why the skimmer has been off for two days.)
Two days later, my mimic tang was found dead. I inspected the body including gills, didn’t notice anything and placed he body in a black bucket of fresh water. After 20 minutes nothing but some of the slime cote came off or appeared on the body.
The powder blue is still breathing heavy and scratching, I also see the engineer gobies occasionally scratching.
Any ideas friends?
Should I turn my skimmer back on and work to get the rally pro out of the system?
Pictures to follow.