20g Nano in League City (1 Viewer)

[RevRich]

Starting getting some diatoms but wasn't too worried about it as it's still a fairly new tank and I knew they were coming eventually. Grabbed a sailfin balloon molly and slowly acclimated him to the saltwater and as soon as I let him loose in the tank he immediately began cleaning my sand bed and picking at rocks. Between him and the Astrea snails they are making quick work of it.

 

[RevRich]

So I did something dumb again. Something I knew better than to do and did it anyway.
I went to my FIL house and brought him some green discosomas from my tank and grabbed some purples from his. While I was there I scraped off some xenia from his glass and made a couple little frags with some super glue and rock rubble I brought from home. He had some neon green hairy mushrooms and I wanted some but instead of pulling them from the rock I took a whole rock .....big mistake and knew better.
The next day I noticed my big clown laying on the sand and not interested in food. The molly was lazily floating at the top and couldn't be bothered to eat either. I knew something was up so I immediately tested for Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. Ammonia 0 nitrites basically 0 but nitrates through the roof at 80. I assume I started a new cycle with my new rock and my poor fish were paying the price. I immediately did a 25% water change and dosed with prime. The next day, more of the same with nitrate levels now down to 40 so that evening another 25% water change and a dose of prime. I have added some purigen in the hob filter and bought a skimmer. But honestly don't think I'm too heavily stocked or overfeeding. I'm assuming it was probably just dumb me starting a new cycle. Either way, the fish are currently still not doing great but seem slightly better. The YWG and the little clown seem unaffected.

 

[RevRich]

Also, bought a duncan.

 

[soymilk]

nitrates doesn't generally go away during a cycle, at least at the rates in which ammonia turns into nitrite or nitrite turning into nitrate. So you'll almost certainly slowly accumulate nitrate. 80ppm is generally high for me for corals. Depending on the corals, I generally like to keep nitrates below 40ppm if possible. But for fish 80ppm isn't really going to affect them. Some people have mentioned having nitrates as high as 400 and not seeing a problem with their fish in fowlr systems.

Nitrates only goes away from -
macro algae consuming it as fertilizer
export via water changes
anaerobic bacteria ( these guys work alot slower than the aerobic bacteria that ate the ammonia, and nitrite )

If your fish are still not well after a water change. You could try activated carbon if there you think there are chemicals that could be negatively affecting the fish. Otherwise, its could be fish illness or diseases.

 

[RevRich]

nitrates doesn't generally go away during a cycle, at least at the rates in which ammonia turns into nitrite or nitrite turning into nitrate. So you'll almost certainly slowly accumulate nitrate. 80ppm is generally high for me for corals. Depending on the corals, I generally like to keep nitrates below 40ppm if possible. But for fish 80ppm isn't really going to affect them. Some people have mentioned having nitrates as high as 400 and not seeing a problem with their fish in fowlr systems.

Nitrates only goes away from -
macro algae consuming it as fertilizer
export via water changes
anaerobic bacteria ( these guys work alot slower than the aerobic bacteria that ate the ammonia, and nitrite )

If your fish are still not well after a water change. You could try activated carbon if there you think there are chemicals that could be negatively affecting the fish. Otherwise, its could be fish illness or diseases.

Thank you. I've been doing water changes daily to reduce and am now down to 30ppm. I knew that the Nitrates are usually exported best through water changes. Wow 400 I thought would for sure kill the fish.
I will try some carbon tonight. Otherwise it may be time to start treating them for something else.

I'll need to research what these symptoms could be other than ammonia and nitrate poisoning.

 

[soymilk]

any time a clown is in the sand is usually a bad sign. Watch for labored breathing. If its breathing hard, you might want to take it out to QT in a separate tank. Also be on the look out for weird skin abnormalities. Slime coat coming off, red patches, white spots on fish, fish swimming into current.

Methylene blue is usually used to help with ammonia burn and considered a first step in most initial fish treatments. Its nice on keep on hand in case of fish issues. It stains everything so keep that in mind.

Fish Diseases

This thread contains links to commonly encountered saltwater fish diseases. Click on the blue links below for more detailed info. :) Bacterial Infections Bacterial Tufts & Viral Nodules Black Ich (turbellarians) Brooklynella hostilis Clownfish Hyper-Melanization Eye Problems Flukes...

humble.fish

Humble fish has a pretty nice website on fish diseases.

 

[RevRich]

any time a clown is in the sand is usually a bad sign. Watch for labored breathing. If its breathing hard, you might want to take it out to QT in a separate tank. Also be on the look out for weird skin abnormalities. Slime coat coming off, red patches, white spots on fish, fish swimming into current.

Methylene blue is usually used to help with ammonia burn and considered a first step in most initial fish treatments. Its nice on keep on hand in case of fish issues. It stains everything so keep that in mind.

Fish Diseases

This thread contains links to commonly encountered saltwater fish diseases. Click on the blue links below for more detailed info. :) Bacterial Infections Bacterial Tufts & Viral Nodules Black Ich (turbellarians) Brooklynella hostilis Clownfish Hyper-Melanization Eye Problems Flukes...

humble.fish

Humble fish has a pretty nice website on fish diseases.

I just ordered some. I went home for lunch and clown was looking much better. Still not interested in food though

 

[RevRich]

Clown has fully recovered and is eating like a pig again. After a couple consecutive days of water changes and running carbon. Unfortunately the Molly didn't make it. I almost wonder if the flow in my tank was too high and was stressing him out or maybe he was fatigued as he never did find the calm area of the tank like i had hoped he would. I tried turning off my power head for most of the day for 2 days and isolated him in a breeder box but nothing changed. I ordered Methalyne blue but by the time it showed up 2 days later it was too late. YWG and little clown were fine throughout.

 

[RevRich]

So much for taking it slow. I was introduced to "live sales"....it was not good for the wallet and probably not great for the tank or the corals I purchased. I have also been doing some trading of corals that I didn't think were a good idea at this early stage. I do all this research and all this planning on when I'm gonna add this and when I'm gonna add that and it all comes crashing down in a moment of weakness. I picked up some beautiful coral and a spotted hawkfish. The tank is beautiful imo but I guess we shall see how long it lasts.

 

[Cody]

Clown has fully recovered and is eating like a pig again. After a couple consecutive days of water changes and running carbon. Unfortunately the Molly didn't make it. I almost wonder if the flow in my tank was too high and was stressing him out or maybe he was fatigued as he never did find the calm area of the tank like i had hoped he would. I tried turning off my power head for most of the day for 2 days and isolated him in a breeder box but nothing changed. I ordered Methalyne blue but by the time it showed up 2 days later it was too late. YWG and little clown were fine throughout.

I don’t think flow was the issue. I think that Molly’s don’t exist on the reef because they’re not cut for that water.

 

[soymilk]

acclimating mollies for saltwater is weird.

i've heard of stories of people slowly bringing them to 1.025 in like 2 weeks, and other people just dropping them in. ymmv