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

First if your water changes have not had any afect on the ammonia levels you test kit maybe bad. you should see a deffinit drop in the ammonia level exspecialy if you have done a 25% water change. you could do anouther 10% water change today and every 2-3 days till you find out what is happening. What snails do you have in your tank?
I am asking you this because I have white disk like snail eggs on my glass and rocks and they apear almost over night. I'll try and get a good pic of some and post in this thread. you also said that you have afilm on the water top this could be from the snails sponing and you have extra ditris that is being suspended in the water colume try and redirect your power head so it disterbs the water surfaces see if this helps to clear it up. I get this on my kids tank once in a while you can scoop as much of the floating stuff off the top.
If you have too many snails or there spon is dead it will rase your ammonia level.
don't panic go slow.

I'll check back in a while as I have to go get some shrimp and maybe my fish came in also.
Bill

[Salty_Hobby]

I have a skimmer fit for the size of tank and a filter on it, it was ok before with some die offs if I didn't do frequent enough water changes but I've been good about them lately.

The ammonia kit should be ok, I've done tests in the recent past that were zero for ammonia. I don't have any film on the water surface, just the glass and stuff inside the tank under the water. I don't have any snails, other than 2 tiny ones that came with the live rock way back in Feb.

I will keep up with the water changes every few days, the ammonia levels have come down but not by much I'm only panicked because I feel terrible I am killing my fish!

Thanks everyone, I will update in the morning with how the increase salinity, temp and Stability additive for ammonia works out.

Originally Posted by Salty_Hobby

I have a skimmer fit for the size of tank and a filter on it, it was ok before with some die offs if I didn't do frequent enough water changes but I've been good about them lately.

The ammonia kit should be ok, I've done tests in the recent past that were zero for ammonia. I don't have any film on the water surface, just the glass and stuff inside the tank under the water. I don't have any snails, other than 2 tiny ones that came with the live rock way back in Feb.

I will keep up with the water changes every few days, the ammonia levels have come down but not by much I'm only panicked because I feel terrible I am killing my fish!

Thanks everyone, I will update in the morning with how the increase salinity, temp and Stability additive for ammonia works out.

I took another look at the pics you posted and they look very similar to the white spots I have and the ones I have are snail eggs. Can you see from the out side of the glass is there a bit of yellow in the center of the disks on the glass if so they are eggs. If your white spots are eggs some maybe dieing off and that could give you a higher ammonia level. Hay everyone lets solve one problem at a time Bio load maybe on the demanding side of things but you have to take in to consideration the depth of the sand bed and how often he does water changes in the first place. And yes you can do a larger water change but not this often.

You have stated the ammoinia is droping with the water changes you have done alreadyand you have not done many water changes. With your bio load you should be doing water changes every 7 -10 days. I would get about 30 - 40 pounds more rock and sell 2-3 fish this will balance your tanks bio load out.
I still think the white spots maybe snail eggs, are they all about the same size and shape?
I have snail eggs every where, they hatch out and in a mounth or so there is a new batch on the glass and rocks and it only takes about 2 days for then to appier every where. As I said if they are not fertile they maybe decaying where they were layed, that will rase your ammionia


take your sample in and get the resualts and post them here.

Bill

[fishytime]

[quote=bvlester;471374 Hay everyone lets solve one problem at a time Bio load maybe on the demanding side of things but you have to take in to consideration the depth of the sand bed and how often he does water changes in the first place.[/QUOTE]

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...

[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!

Could it be a caliume buildup as in to much ca as your pic kind of looks like a ca buildup or even anouther scailing type of substance. get the test results they will tell you more than we can guess at. You should not have to tare your tank down and re do it, if it is something realy bad and needs a host it will die off it may take some time Ie velevet take 3 months I believe. I don't know if there is anything else that take that long. You see you have to kill any eggs that are in there also.

I don't think at this point that it is any thing that bad, it realy looks like scailing of some type even ammonia will cause scailing if it is from the ammonia then scrape and sphifon at the same time. Ammonia scail will keep your tank levels high, I was up late last night thinking about your problem.
I did take anouther look at the eggs in my tank and your pic, no not eggs looks more like how coriline algea dose when it starts but with no color to it.

See when your over tired and you are thinking about something you can be pulled back to your original thought and be wrong. Not eggs...

Bill

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Salty_Hobby

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)

What type of skimmer are you using? What type of filter? How often do you change the media and carbon?

Considering you only have 10 lbs of live rock, and good quality live rock is a better filter than most protein skimmers can claim your bioload IS fairly significant. Don't fool yourself.

FYI, you won't remove any significant amount of bacteria doing water changes. The beneficial bacteria mostly colonize the live rock and sand. You could (in theory) do a 100% water change, and not remove any significant amount of nitrifying bacteria.

[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