Dire need of help

[Reefer-begginer]

I need some help with this.

 

So Friday I had added 2 fish to my 125g tank, yesterday one of them died and today, my raccoon butterfly had died.

 

I had checked my water before a water change yesterday and my ammonia was high at 5 ml/L, after the water change of 40gs, it went to .25 ml/L.

 

Today my ammonia is back up at 1 - 2 ml/L and I have no idea if that was caused by the now dead raccoon butterfly, over feeding, or my tank is crashing again.

 

I need advice on what I should do and how I should approach this before I lose my other fish and just do a hard restart on my fish tank 

[farkwar]

Something big died in the tank

 

You already have a partial answer to how to fix

 

Water change worked, didn't it?

 

125g? That's a lot of water. Do you have roommates who hate you?  Someone who cleans your house for you?

 

If not, water change.  And bottle of MB7. Daily until the ammonia subsides

 

I have a bottle of Prime, for emergencies like this

[mcarroll]

5 hours ago, Reefer-begginer said:

I need some help with this.

 

So Friday I had added 2 fish to my 125g tank, yesterday one of them died and today, my raccoon butterfly had died.

 

I had checked my water before a water change yesterday and my ammonia was high at 5 ml/L, after the water change of 40gs, it went to .25 ml/L.

 

Today my ammonia is back up at 1 - 2 ml/L and I have no idea if that was caused by the now dead raccoon butterfly, over feeding, or my tank is crashing again.

 

I need advice on what I should do and how I should approach this before I lose my other fish and just do a hard restart on my fish tank 

It's hare to get too specific without tank details.  Can you add a bottle of Bio Spira?  (Do you already know the nitrogen cycle?)

[Reefer-begginer]

5 hours ago, mcarroll said:

It's hare to get too specific without tank details.  Can you add a bottle of Bio Spira?  (Do you already know the nitrogen cycle?)

I know about the nitrogen cycle but I'm just confused as to what may be causing the high ammonia, 2 fish deaths within 3 days is more of a concern as the other fish are fine. ( looks and eating fine ) but so was my raccoon butterfly before he didn't eat last night then dead within hours.

Also bio spira? Is that like seachem stability?

[Reefer-begginer]

9 hours ago, farkwar said:

Something big died in the tank

 

You already have a partial answer to how to fix

 

Water change worked, didn't it?

 

125g? That's a lot of water. Do you have roommates who hate you?  Someone who cleans your house for you?

 

If not, water change.  And bottle of MB7. Daily until the ammonia subsides

 

I have a bottle of Prime, for emergencies like this

I live with my parents so I don't believe they would add something to kill my fish, the only additive I've added recently to the tank was Red Sea AB+ but that i don't believe would of caused fish deaths.

I did dump the rest of my ACCR into the tank to help with the ammonia but testing it a few hours later did lower it to 1mg/L but still deadly and toxic nonetheless

[farkwar]

55 minutes ago, Reefer-begginer said:

Also bio spira?

Old school bacteria in a bottle

 

Nitrosomonas nitrobacter

[farkwar]

58 minutes ago, Reefer-begginer said:

I live with my parents so I don't believe they would add something to kill my fish

So that rules out a party with a drunk roommate pissing in the tank

 

Which happened, it was a betta tank though

 

Where is the ammonia coming from?

Ruled out

1) Drunk pissing in the tank

2) Large animal not accounted for, dying and rotting

3) Maria the house cleaner spraying window cleaner into the system

 

I'm out of ideas, sorry

[Reefer-begginer]

1 hour ago, farkwar said:

So that rules out a party with a drunk roommate pissing in the tank

 

Which happened, it was a betta tank though

 

Where is the ammonia coming from?

Ruled out

1) Drunk pissing in the tank

2) Large animal not accounted for, dying and rotting

3) Maria the house cleaner spraying window cleaner into the system

 

I'm out of ideas, sorry

I mean. That raccoon was being eaten by my hermits for probably a few hours ( atleast 2 ) 

[Reefer-begginer]

I may of also unintentionally overstocked my tank 

[Tamberav]

What fish are in there? 

[mcarroll]

22 hours ago, Reefer-begginer said:

I may of also unintentionally overstocked my tank 

It seems like we could use a more complete idea of what's in the tank.  

 

Were the now-deceased fish new additions to the tank?  Have there been any new fish additions?

 

Does the tank have a full complement of live rock?  How is the tank being filtered?

 

Are you sure the test kit is giving accurate results?  Check its expiration date.  Try testing another water source to see if it gives results that make sense....maybe tap water.

 

 

[Reefer-begginer]

10 hours ago, Tamberav said:

What fish are in there? 

Currently the tank has the following fish ( 125g tank at 6ft by 3ft wide )

1x scopas tang

1x blue eye kole tang( still can't tell if its a blonde kole tang or something else )

2x tomatoe clownfish ( paired )

2x pajama cardinals ( paired )

1x komahara blenny ( new addition )

1x FoxFace rabbitfish 

1x exquisite fairy wrasse ( i think. Either that ot a crescent fairy wrasse )

1x long spine urchin

1x arrow crab ( 5 inches )

1x coral banded shrimp ( 4 inches )

1x cleaner shrimp 

3x common hermit crabs.

 

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

It seems like we could use a more complete idea of what's in the tank.  

 

Were the now-deceased fish new additions to the tank?  Have there been any new fish additions?

 

Does the tank have a full complement of live rock?  How is the tank being filtered?

 

Are you sure the test kit is giving accurate results?  Check its expiration date.  Try testing another water source to see if it gives results that make sense....maybe tap water.

 

 

The raccoon was in the tank for 2 months while the black spot blue blenny was a new add-on as well as the komohara blenny.

I have 100Ibs of live rocks, and a 40g sump

[Reefer-begginer]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

It seems like we could use a more complete idea of what's in the tank.  

 

Were the now-deceased fish new additions to the tank?  Have there been any new fish additions?

 

Does the tank have a full complement of live rock?  How is the tank being filtered?

 

Are you sure the test kit is giving accurate results?  Check its expiration date.  Try testing another water source to see if it gives results that make sense....maybe tap water.

 

 

Also, regarding parameters.

Before I did the water change ( Saturday ), my ammonia was around 2, after the water change it went down to .25/.5 + added some ACCR to help detoxify it.

Sunday when the raccoon died, the ammonia went up to 5.0 which i have yet to ever really see in my tank, I've seen more high nitrite + nitrates vs ammonia in my tank with my crashes into the tank.

[Tamberav]

The stock looks okay to me. You have live rock and such, correct? 

 

 

[Reefer-begginer]

21 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

The stock looks okay to me. You have live rock and such, correct? 

 

 

Yes 100Ibs of LR

[farkwar]

1 hour ago, Reefer-begginer said:

Before I did the water change ( Saturday ), my ammonia was around 2,

Now we are getting somewhere, where I don't know.

 

Why was it 2?

 

And why were you testing for it in a cycled tank with a ton of animals in it?

 

Is that live rock(wet from the ocean), or dry live rock(like Marco rock)?  What bottled bacteria did you use to cycle tank, how much?

 

Can you post pics of the tank now?

[Reefer-begginer]

11 minutes ago, farkwar said:

Now we are getting somewhere, where I don't know.

 

Why was it 2?

 

And why were you testing for it in a cycled tank with a ton of animals in it?

 

Is that live rock(wet from the ocean), or dry live rock(like Marco rock)?  What bottled bacteria did you use to cycle tank, how much?

 

Can you post pics of the tank now?

I always test my parameters before a water change. Just a thing I do in general with all my tanks. And its live rock ( not Marco, not ocean rock, just rock thats been in a saltwater vat for 6 months with plenty of algae, Coraline, etc ) on it 

[Reefer-begginer]

13 minutes ago, farkwar said:

Now we are getting somewhere, where I don't know.

 

Why was it 2?

 

And why were you testing for it in a cycled tank with a ton of animals in it?

 

Is that live rock(wet from the ocean), or dry live rock(like Marco rock)?  What bottled bacteria did you use to cycle tank, how much?

 

Can you post pics of the tank now?

And I'm guessing it was at 2 because of the dead blenny before the water change 

[farkwar]

1 hour ago, Reefer-begginer said:

And I'm guessing it was at 2 because of the dead blenny before the water change 

I wouldn't guess that

Spoiler

 

There is just no way a single blenny has the body mass to make enough ammonia to kill in a 125gal tank with a 40gal sump, in a cycled tank.  10 pounds of live rock could process a blenny

 

Even in a tank with just new salt water, without a bio filter, that seems implausible that it could make toxic levels,  a blenny

 

 I am confused

 

To say the least

[Reefer-begginer]

19 minutes ago, farkwar said:

I wouldn't guess that

  Reveal hidden contents

 

There is just no way a single blenny has the body mass to make enough ammonia to kill in a 125gal tank with a 40gal sump, in a cycled tank.  10 pounds of live rock could process a blenny

 

Even in a tank with just new salt water, without a bio filter, that seems implausible that it could make toxic levels,  a blenny

 

 I am confused

 

To say the least

You and me both, I dont think i overfeed but even if I did, id think 2 cubes twice a day wouldn't cause a ammonia spike 

[ReefGoat]

Didn't you post a couple weeks ago about some unknown stuff growing in your sump? You posted pictures of it but now i can't seem to find them. Then around the end of October you said yourself your api kit was registering .50 ammonia. You also had posted a picture of your tank and rock that I can't seem to find anymore. I'll be honest here......... That didn't look like "live rock cover in coraline algae". It looked like white new rock to me. Ill apologize if I'm wrong and you post a full tank shot with coraline covered rock. But I feel like I remember you posting a full tank shot. I think whats going on here is that you started with dry rock and seeded with a little bit of live rock and didn't let that tank cycle and you quickly loaded it down with all that livestock and your bio filter couldn't handle it. 

[Reefer-begginer]

3 minutes ago, ReefGoat said:

Didn't you post a couple weeks ago about some unknown stuff growing in your sump? You posted pictures of it but now i can't seem to find them. Then around the end of October you said yourself your api kit was registering .50 ammonia. You also had posted a picture of your tank and rock that I can't seem to find anymore. I'll be honest here......... That didn't look like "live rock cover in coraline algae". It looked like white new rock to me. Ill apologize if I'm wrong and you post a full tank shot with coraline covered rock. But I feel like I remember you posting a full tank shot. I think whats going on here is that you started with dry rock and seeded with a little bit of live rock and didn't let that tank cycle and you quickly loaded it down with all that livestock and your bio filter couldn't handle it. 

The stuff in the sump was a bunch of algae of different types.

The rock is pretty much algae covered rock at this point ( changed lights to a more reef type light )

I dont believe its Coralie algae as I dont keep my calcium/magnesium/strontium etc within acceptable ranges for Coralie to even grow within my tank, just brown and some green algae here and there 

[Timfish]

I like API for alkalinity and pH but I don't like it for ammonia.   In your original post you said you did 40 gallon water change which is roughly, depending on volume displaced by rock and sump volume, about 30%.  You ammonia level should have only dropped about 30% so after the water change it should be about 3.5 not .25.  So something might be going on but I would get a different test kit first (check around and find one you find easy to use).

 

As far as the fish dying even though they both died close to each other it could be completely unrelated.  Especially with hte blennie, being so close to when you got it it I would think the most likely cause would be stress from shipping and handling and not anything wrong with your system.

[Reefer-begginer]

1 hour ago, Timfish said:

I like API for alkalinity and pH but I don't like it for ammonia.   In your original post you said you did 40 gallon water change which is roughly, depending on volume displaced by rock and sump volume, about 30%.  You ammonia level should have only dropped about 30% so after the water change it should be about 3.5 not .25.  So something might be going on but I would get a different test kit first (check around and find one you find easy to use).

 

As far as the fish dying even though they both died close to each other it could be completely unrelated.  Especially with hte blennie, being so close to when you got it it I would think the most likely cause would be stress from shipping and handling and not anything wrong with your system.

I dont use API, I use Sera

[mcarroll]

9 hours ago, Reefer-begginer said:

1x scopas tang

1x blue eye kole tang( still can't tell if its a blonde kole tang or something else )

2x tomatoe clownfish ( paired )

2x pajama cardinals ( paired )

1x komahara blenny ( new addition )

1x FoxFace rabbitfish 

1x exquisite fairy wrasse ( i think. Either that ot a crescent fairy wrasse )

That's a lot of fish.   Maybe not "too many".  But it's a lot.

 

9 hours ago, Reefer-begginer said:

125g tank at 6ft by 3ft wide

It's not a standard 125 Gallon, which is 6 x 1.5 x 1.5'T?

 

If it's 6 x 3, then it's only about 1' thick?

 

Is it possible to post a whole-tank photo that shows your lights as well as your flow?

 

9 hours ago, Reefer-begginer said:

The raccoon was in the tank for 2 months while the black spot blue blenny was a new add-on as well as the komohara blenny.

This was even more fish.  I'd definitely put a cap on adding new fish.

 

7 hours ago, Reefer-begginer said:

And I'm guessing it was at 2 because of the dead blenny before the water change 

The ammonia hanging around in a tank with growing algae and mature live rock doesn't make any sense IMO.

 

Either...

...the rock isn't as live as you thought and it's not handling the ammonia load

...the test kit isn't working (eg expired)

...something you're adding to the tank is interfering with the test kit (eg. ammonia detoxifier) and causing false positives.

...or something else basic is off that is missing from the thread so far.

 

(Since the fish were all new there is a chance that there is something pathogenic going on to explain the fish death.)