HELP ME! No one seems to know what is killing my fish!

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fishytime

10 pounds of LR simply does not have enough surface area to biologically filter out that many fish, no matter how deep the sand bed is....I would suspect this is your issue....the way I see it you have a couple options, 1) you could do 10-20% water changes every couple days to keep ammonia down, 2) you could (and probably should) pick up some more LR( if you do add it slowly...a couple pounds at a time), 3) reduce your bioload( I would start with the tang...shouldnt be in a tank that small)....in the meantime pick up a bottle of Prime, it can be used to reduce ammonia in an emergency and run carbon if you have the means....hope things turn around for you...

I'm in agreement with Doug.

Personally, I have seen white slime/film appear when ammonia present in a tank. I think that is a direct result from the ammonia, and is a bacterial film. I wouldn't change the temperature or salinity at this point...neither are at a point of causing damage. If I was in your position I would follow these steps:

Find a new home for the tang asap.
1. Do a 50% waterchange today, with water that has been mixing for at least 6 hours (in emergency), and matches the temperature and salinity of your tank.

2. Use Prime to neutralize the remaining ammonia. Add the tank's full dose to the water change water.

3. Do a 25% water change tomorrow.

4. Buy 30 lbs of live rock, and put it into a Rubbermaid container with a powerhead and a heater and allow it to cycle in the tub for several weeks. After the cycle is over you can add it all to the tank without worry.

See where you're at after that.

[Salty_Hobby]

I will try and answer everyone's Q's here...

They are not snail eggs, I've seen those before and this doesn't look like them.

The white spots are small flat circles, adhering to the surfaces like my glass, thermometer and shelf. Unless I scrub the sides of the tank there is no white junk to siphon off (I don't know if I was clear but it is not free floating in or on the water surface)

Anyone have space to take my Tang? Obviously it would require isolation until we're all sure it's healthy.

I do run a skimmer and a filter (including carbon), my hermit crabs and snails are smaller than nickles so I don't want to give the wrong impression that I have lots of bioMASS, all my fish are relatively small except the tang.

I have been doing water changes twice a week of no more than 25% (as I didn't want to remove beneficial bacteria)

This is where I'm at now: this morning the ammonia levels were still causing my fish stress. I have relocated them for the time being, they should be ok in my reserve tank for now. I will buy more live rock, get a better testing kit and take in a water sample.

As for my Bio load, I think with more live rock the ammonia levels won't be an issue, however, I still don't know what this white junk is or how to get rid of it! So my last option unless anyone has any ideas about irradicating the white stuff... is to entirely clean out my big tank and establish it again (I'm not a big fan of this idea, putting my old live rock back in might reintroduce this white stuff and we're back to square one)

Please let me know if I missed anyones questions!

[Funky_Fish14]

25% of 1ppm is still .75ppm = still rounds up to 1ppm. Test kits are not very accurate (when you really think about it), and I dont think the small water changes will be making much of a difference. I would try doing a 40-60% water change. 10% water changes wont really get you too far. As long as you let the fresh saltwater mix long enough(at least 12hrs) a 50% waterchange should be no problem. I know a guy who does a 50% waterchange on all of his salt tanks every 2 weeks and does not use a skimmer.

Good luck.

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

To accentuate - Do much bigger water changes, and suck out as much of the 'white stuff' as possible.

Chris

[Funky_Fish14]

Also try not to swing your salinity too much during the waterchanges - this will stress out your fish/inverts alot, especially if it is an upward swing. Bring your temp up a tiny bit as mentioned.

Sorry for the triple post.