dead fish.

[Hajra]

the six line wrasse dies sometime this morning and i cant seem to stabilize my tank. its about 7 months old and still has two yellow tailed damsels. the ph is 7.4 the ammonia is .25 abd the no3 is 20 and the no2 is .25 i added ph buffer and done a ten gallon water change but fish are still gulping. please help if you can

[psykokid]

the goal is to test 0 for nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia. ph should be around 8.0. what else do you have in your tank other than the damsels? what are your tank specs? what filtration and how much live rock do you have?

[Hajra]

full details on my tank are inthe intro section the only thing that is not there is that i have about fifteen pounds of live rock. there is also a picture

[Bergy]

Hajra,

Post your tank info in this thread...


Im going to try to be gentle here cause i am not sure how you willtake this advice..

Im thinking you really have to lose the castle.. sorry.. it's got to go..

couple of issues involved.. didnt want to say stuff before cause i didnt want to jinx or get you all paranoid...

but, that type of stuff isnt made for saltwater aquariums.. thre could be issues with paints, and chemicals inthe porcelin... and the objects need constant cleaning and then you are putting stuff into the water column

the purpose of the live rock is for many reasons, but cleaning isnt necessary... any food or algae or detritus that gets on it is digested from withint and from the fish and critters...

all the castle does is collect and store nutrients.  (nutrients arent good)

also, not sure what gravel you have onthe bottom, or sand?   but it needs to be aragonite sand... it doesnt have to be live, it will become live but that takes time...

your tank is cycling, constantly.. lilke a pendulum that swings back and forth. and only when it is in the middle is it good, which is only 30% of the time..  usually pendulum slow down, (for different reasons.. a real one slows due to friction and gravity... a chemical one can be more wild and more 'free swinging' and can swing for long periods of time...

ammonia is why your fish are gulping.. they are breathing poison.. just like if you were to breathe clorine... same affect.. burning, and no ability to saturate o2


I would remove the castles immediatly.

i would do a 75% water change, asap..

If yo udont have aragonite sand, then get that other stuff out.. that is probably why your pH is so low...  aragonite is a natural pH buffer..

btw:  aragonite sand is not silica sand/playground sand...

you need more live rock...they have some nice stuff, costs more but nice looking and can give you a lace/open look, which i think you might like, (kinda like the castle in that there is plenty of swimming in and out stuff)???


Anyways, im hoping you are comfortable with the suggestions so far..

I would also like to get more info on your filter setup...  again, i fyou post in this thread i might review it easier

[Hajra]

the castle is made for aquariums. it is made by penn plax. i think that is how it is spelled. i just left a new post on the water test. one fish is out now and his gulping is reduced by about half but he is still gulping. i just changed ten gallons and the LFS where i get my water is closed. they are more than happy to help me out but now i really dont know what to do. do you still say to lose the castle. i love it though its is one of my favorite things. i been cleaning it off. and the sand is live sand. the ony thing that this seems to be affecting is the fish. the castle  has one of my featherdusters attached to it and i dont want to just pull him off but if its what is makin my aquarium do this then i will be glad too.
PH     8.4
NO2     0
NO3     40
Ammonia     0

[Bergy]

i wouldnt take the castle out until you got more water...  you will be low water immediately due to the castel being removed, but you will be stirring stuff up when you yank it out too. so you wnat to do a big water change

btw: im guessing you are understanding the need to have a couple 5gallon jugs of water in the closet, huh??? and rotate them, so when you do a water change, grab the jug from the closet and replace it with one from the lfs...

im thinking you need to just let time take it's toll on this... tomorrow grab as many jugs of water and do a huge water change.. as big as you can... you had ammonia and it just doesnt disappear like that... it went somewhere...

Other then that, i cant think of anything...

but, im pretty sure that you will needing clean your castle so often that you will be wiping or knocking stuff off into the wwater column all the time...

btw:  is this going to fish only... or if corals, will they be sps or softies, or what???

and if you are going to keep the castle, i am guessing zoanthids and maybe a softy/leather or two... im guessing sps and lps not going to do so well

[cruzincaril]

so ooooo are castles ok or not??

[Bergy]

Im not saying that either...

There maybe a way to have 'castles' but it should be in proportion to what you actually NEED to keep a good tank...

the amount of space the castles were taking up were displacing the amount of live rock and live sand he needs to have a well balanced biosphere...

the castle itself was negatively contributing to the need for more live rock and live sand.. as it creates more surface for algae and stuff to grow on...

maybe when his tank is more mature, he might be able to put some of the castle back, but again, in proportion to the amount of live rock and ls

[Hajra]

locked cause no posts in 30+days