Dead Fish

[socutemolly]

I brought my water to LFS for testing. Everything came out very good except pH (pH = 7.9) and the guy from LFS recommended me to use Marine pH buffer to bring the pH up. Is it the main reason why all my fishes can only survive for 3 days. Do I really need to bring the pH up? If I do, does it kill corals and inverts?

[dorkfish]

I doubt it, last time I tested the PH on my reef it was close to that, and the fish have been living for months, and some corals have been slowly growing (I blame the lighting). Marine buffer is safe for inverts/corals, but I wouldn't use it until you can test your calcium and alkalinity, this way you know what needs to be done to get a better PH anf your not just throwing chemicals blindly into the tank.

How did you acllimate your fish? I suspect it was either yours or your LFS's aclimation that did it to them, or your LFS's fish may have been caught via cyanide.

Also, what were the levels? very good means nothing to us, we need numbers. And, more questions:

How long has the tank been up?
Is it cycled?
What were the fish that died and/or are in the tank?
How big is the tank?

[socutemolly]

I have 30 gal tank with built in filter and skimmer and 35 lbs LS, 30 lbs LR for over 2 months. I use ocean mix salt and RO. Currently, I don't have any fish in the tank except 12 hermit crabs, 1 band shrimp, 1 branch tree coral, and 1 polyp (I think) coral. The water parameters are: am = 0, nitrite = 0, nitrate = 5, calcium = 400. I never test alkalinity. I had damsels, tomato clown, CB butterfly. I used to float the bag in the tank for 25 min. Opened and added a cup of tank water for every 5 min until the bag was full. Emptied half of the bag and repeated adding a cup of water for every 5 min until the bag was full. Net an put the fish into the tank. They were happy for first 2 days. The third day, ich appeared on the body and died the next day.

[Fishieness]

well if they caught ick, then it is in your system, i would stop buying fish for quite some time. esspecialy with your load. a CB butterfly needs a much bigger tank than that, and then with a tomato, which get pretty big, and a few damsels....well.... you probalby shouldnt be stocking any more. but definatly get rid of the copper. Were these fish bullied by the cb or tomato? they can do this often. also, you aclcimation method isnt too good. Use the drip method. jsut buy some airline tubing, tie a knot in the end so a few dripps come out a second. do this for 2 hours You want the water colume to at least quadruple. Then temp acclimate and add the fish. leave the lights off for the first 24 hours.
as far as you pH, that level is perfectly fine as long as it is stable, iw ould recomend you get an ALK test kit however.

[jasonpc]

If you add anything to the bag you should consider adding tablespoons instead of cups. The drip method is much more effective. Remember to not add the water you dripped out back into your tank. Try to stay away from putting the LFS water into your tank. Just to be on the safe side. Of course its a matter of preference but a little detail to ponder when bored watching the water drip into your bucket.

:- )


I second the motion to stay away from buying fish for a while. When your water stabilizes add creatures in one or at the most two at a time. This is really important to keep the bacteria balanced.

How did you cycle your tank and how long has it been running?

[dorkfish]

fieshiness, he said the fish are DEAD, so I think he's already gotten rid of them....

But ya, wait atleast a month and the ich that's currently in your system will be dead (becuase they need a fish host to survive). Also, I would consider getting a quarantine tank, becuase once a disease gets into a reef system, there really isn't a safe way of fighting it and your fish will either have to fight it off themselves or die. Thus, a quarantine tank is your ONLY control of disease.

[USCavalry19d]

if you netted the CB butterfly that would be a main reason he died. Copper-banded butterflies DO NOT LIKE BEING NETTED. also the copper-banded butterfly is a relatively hard fish to keep to begin with. by putting such aggressive fish into the tank with him he might have just stressed out. Copper-banded butterflies are a peaceful fish if you put them in with aggressive fish he will be chased to death most likely. a tomato clown is one of the most aggressive clown fish out there. and a damsel is the worst mistake of a fish to buy for a community tank seeing as when they get big they get really really mean. i would recommend starting off with some beginner fish since your just getting into the hobby. something pretty cheap, its not worth paying 30 something bucks for a fish like a copperbanded butterfly just for it to die. if you start off with something cheap and that is easy to care for you will learn alot more i think. as time goes by and the more experiance you get then try taking on a more delicate fish like the copperbanded butterfly. and if you do buy the copperbanded butterfly again do not net him...simply get a bag that your fish come in from the LFS and place that on the frame of your net (removing the net that is).