90 GL marine only, ick now amonia, NEED HELP STAT!!

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Froggyhonkey

AC Members
Apr 17, 2006
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I went away for a weeks worth of job training. (First mistake) and my father was watching my tanks. I had bought a beautiful passer Angle about 2 weeks before I left(second mistake) The fish died and whet behind a rock. My father didn't notice it was missing and it decayed for a full week. Naturally I came home pissed!! My other fish were, a 5 inch blue line grouper, a 9 inch red emperor snapper, and a 6 in lion fish.

When I came home I noticed right away, the snapper had ick. Then I noticed the grouper had it too. the lion was fine. I immediately cleaned the tank and did a 35% water change. I checked the levels, ph low, put in buffer, nitrates were through the roof. Nitrites were normal and ammonia was about .25.

I am doing water changes almost every other day. My grouper died. Lion has ick now, snapper looks horrible. I lowered the salinity to 1.14. ammonia seems to be going up. Nitrates still horrible 80-90. By the way, I am using RO water. So I can’t understand why it isn’t going down with all the water changes.

I have set up 2 sterilizers in the sump to get rid of the ick, I made a DIY refugium with an old hang on filter, and used some refugium algae from my 40 gl reef tank. Desperately trying to get rid of the ick, and nitrates

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. I AM LOOSING MY TANK. Do I keep doing water changes, or do I let it cycle? Why won’t things change?

Please help
 
Ugh. I'm sorry you're going through this.

For the ich, read here (there are other links off of that thread too):

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100872

The above thread and links talk about UV sterilization, QT tanks (do you still have your 40-gallon?), medications, hyposalinity, garlic extract, daitom filters, freshwater dips, etc.- should be able to help you out.

For the hyposalinity method, 1.014 is still too high. If you want to bring it down for this method to work, the average is ~1.009.

As far as your nitrates- water changes are the best. Have you tested the nitrates from your RO water? Do they come out as 0?

Since you have a refugium, you can grow caulerpa or some other macroalgae in there to absorb the nitrates as well. When you start getting overgrowth you can trim them back and dispose of it, or feed it to your fish. For reference:

http://www.aquacon.com/vip.html

What kind of clean-up crew do you have? Some snails and crabs will eat any uneaten food and debris so it's not lying on your sandbed, which will raise your nitrate levels. How much and often do you feed? If you can cut it down at all, the nitrates shouldn't keep going up. For food = more fish waste (and possibly more uneaten food waste).

Do you use bio-balls? Bio-balls = nitrate. I'm guessing not since you use a hang-on filter. If so though, I would slowly switch them out and replace them with live rock.

As far as the ammonia- how new is your tank and is it fully cycled? It could either be a short mini-cycle from adding a new fish or from the decaying Angel you had in there for a while (probable). Sorry about the loss of your fish- never fun. While it should really be at 0, I would't be seriously concerned unless it rose above .25. Again, water changes.

Can you tell us more about your tank? Age/live rock/livestock/equipment, etc.? I know it's a pain but you will get through this.

Edited to add- sorry if I suggested things you already know.

I also forgot to add, your lower pH can really stress fish- I would try to keep it above 8.1 and stabilized (another refugium, with light, benefit).
 
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going crazy

Thank you for replying. 2 uv's going, I have had it up for a year and a half. I am not a newbie. Tryed snails, my snapper must be french because he loves them. I have a big brittle star, and a pencil erchent, but regardless since I have been home, I have cleaned the bottem like company was coming. I have a sump, all liverock, did the move about 4 months ago. Going to check the ro water now, but why on earth would the nitrates be hi? Just checked my 40 gl reef and everything is perfect, same water. protien skimer,

Amonia will not go down, Nitrates will not go down,

What the F

Make the bad stuf go away!! Please
 
No, even cured live rock will likely have a mini cycle and could even raise ammonia levels in the short term. For a quick fix to high ammonia levels your best bet is regular small water changes, like 20% every few days until your levels are out of the red and adding temporary use poly filters such as this one:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=PB1111

It will darken in color as it gets used up and should be removed after it turns brown. You may also want to run a bag of activated carbon in your sump for a few days to help absorb any nasty stuff left in your water from a week old decaying fish.

Best of luck.
 
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Also, don't medicate your main tank for ich. If you have a quarantine tank you could do it there. If not you could try freshwater dips to help treat your fish. Make sure freshwater is airated well with an air pump and same or slightly higher temp than tank. PH should be the same. Freshwater dips should last 3-4 minutes. If fish shows excessive stress, remove after the first 1-2 minutes. Best to use a weak antibiotic agent mixed in with the freshwater dip. Freshwater dips may help a strong fish fight off the ich and recover but in an all out infestation, ich will still be present in your tank unless you can remove fish to QT for 3-4 weeks.
 
Lost the tank

I have mylast fish, My Lion fish in my quarenteen tank. My 2 year old snapper died this morning. I am f'ing pissed. I can't believe I am attached to fish. But he was so cool. He would eat out of my hand, let me pet him and got excited like a dog when I got home from work. OK, moving on.

So I am going to start my 90 gl from scratch. My idea is to drain the tank from top to bottem cleaning everything, then having it run for a month, hopfully totally getting rid of the ick, then damsels, then some snails, and put my pencil erchant and brittle star back in the tank, (also in the quarenteen tank) Dont' worry no copper, I know about inverts.

Any sugestions? I figure all fresh water and getting the levels right is the best start. I know you need Damsels for the cycle, but I don't want to keep the Ick alive. What do you think?


This goes to show you, know matter how good of a job you are doing, one false move and it is all gone!!!
 
Dont use any fish for cycling the tank...you DONT need damsels to cycle a tank. This is a very inhumain and cruel way to treat fish..

Please review the cycling sticky in the newbie section..This will list various different ways to achieve the same results. Yes, cycling with fish is on the list, but is merely there as a way to do it, i bu no means endorse this route..

I agree with what you have said about starting up from scratch if that is your chosen route, but, scrub anything and everything..anything equipment wise, use white vinegar solution..rock wise, either jet wash if possible or scrub in some RO water...

Please dont think i am having a go at you for using the damsel route to get the tank cycled, i am not, not at all..I just wanted to merely point out the fact that it is a common missconception that people NEED to use a fish to cycle the tank...No offence intended by this post matey...

Keep us informed about how you get on with cleanup process and start posting some pictures when everything is back together again so we can see the new tank grow..

Any questions whatsoever, please just shout up mate...

Good luck with all second time around..It does happen all to often in this hobby that when people have what they percieve as a major problem, they just leave the hobby and think why bother....I am really glad your staying with it mate...

Niko
 
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