Failed Again

[yankit3@hotmail]

Just got a Coral Beauty died of ICH in late March during quarantine. Tried a Banggai Cardinal this Thursday. Proper acclimation for an hour+ dripping with the display tank water. Q her in a 10 g with the display water +HOB filter running for about 3 weeks in the sump. No feeding/eating since then. Changed 1/4 water in morning. Returned from work this afternoon and the poor fish was lying flat on the bottom. Tested the water with PH & Ammonia OK but not the NO3 which was deep pink/purple in color (HAGEN Kits). Verified with the display water. Its color was light, very light or unnoticeable pink which said the test kits were valid. Just wouldn't believe a little dead body could shoot the NO3's level so high. Is there anything from behind? May I have your experts, please. BTW, have I missed something with the Q set-up? Currently having 1 Yellow Tang, 1 hippo, 2 clowns and a firefish in a 48" x 24" x24". Dare not get anything home until advices are recived.

Thanks!

Jimmy WONG
from Hong Kong.

 

[reedman]

Did you add the store water to the QT when you added the fish? This could be the source of the NO3.

Are you feeding the fish in the QT within teh first 24 hours? you really shouldn't as they should spend their energy on recovery, not eating.

Any uneaten food will quickly rot and add nitrates to the water. In a 10 gallon tank it doesn't take much to push teh nitrates up.

Finally you make no mention of Nitrites. These can be a problem in QTs much fatser than NO3. I would get a test kit for Nitrite and see if that is the issue. How healthy were the fish in the store tanks? Was the 10 gallon tank sterilized prior to use? Maybe something in the tank is causing a problem.

 

[fishermann]

Reed id right on and also ammonia is really not tolerated at all by most fish.

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Fail Again

Thanks Red & John. Actually I handheld to the fish to the Q-tank after the acclimation, and I think I didn't have any LFS water transferred. I didn't feed until the morning of Saturday with a few frozen worms. Seeing it didn't touch the food I siphond them out and did a 1/4 water change. May be in future I'd put my blue damsel who is living in the sump for year+ in the Q-tank for a week or 2 fo building up the good bacteria before the arrival of the new guy(s). Do you think it works?


Best wishes,

Jimmy

 

[NaH2O]

IMO, you really should have your QT water separate from your display water. Before your next fish purchase, set up the QT and allow it to run, but don't use water from your display. How many, and what species of fish are in your display? Are the fish you purchased coming from the same store?

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Fail Again

Thanks NaH2O. I've got 1 yellow Tang,;1 Hippo Tang, 2 clowns & 1 Royal Gramma in the 24" x 24" x 48" which has been set up in late April 2005. I'm running bare bottom with LR growing pink/purple algae. I think the water in th display tank should have no problems. The fish mentioned were purchased one by one in different LFSs. So far they're living happily. BTW if I don't use the dispaly tank water & the HOB filter running therein, how could I attain the "Biological Filtering" in the Q-tank? OR I have to cycle the Q-tank again?


Best wishes,

Jimmy

 

[fishermann]

You definently should not be running the tank water through the QT and then back into the display tank, am I reading you wrong? If the fish in QT were to get something then it well pass onto the display tank. You should have your QT up say a week or two before needing it. I use some of my tank water for seeding and the rest fresh mixed. You can run a sponge filter with a little air pump to drive it if you can't buy a little hang on unit. Just be very careful about overfeeding a QT. Clean you sponge filter frequently. Put a few pieces of 1 1/2" or 2" pvc pipe say 3 or 4" long so the fish has some where to hang out. You want no substrate, a small piece of LR doesn't seem to hurt and helps with bio system. If you ever treat with any chems especially copper never put that LR into any tank that has inverts or corals.

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Fail Again

Thanks John. I've followed exactly what you mentioned in setting up the Q-tank. That is : (a) get a clean 10 g tank; (b) run a HOB filter for 30 days in the sump in advace; (c) float the fish bag in the Q-tank with water drawn from the display tank; (d) acclimate the fish for an hour+ and release it. (e) wrap up the tank with paper so as to give the fish sense of security; (f) no feeding for 24 hours; and (g) do a 20% water change. Have I missed anything?
But running a QT for 1 week or 2 fishless could achieve the goal of a well biological cycled Q-tank? Please do correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks again.

Best wishes,

Jimmy

 

[NaH2O]

Jimmy - I would not add a fish from your display to the QT for a couple of reasons. First, you have the potential of introducing a parasite/pathogen to the QT (if none of your display fish were ever QTed), and secondly, when the new fish is introduced (provided the first fish is still in the QT), it could be stressful on the new arrival.

There is a good discussion going on in the Advanced Topic forum regarding QT. Here is a quote from steve-s in regards to freshly made saltwater vs. display saltwater:

Personally I prefer newly made synthetic SW that's been aged/aerated for at least a day. Personally I make my water days in advance. The largest concern with display tank water is if infected, you can/will potentially reintroduce problems currently being treated or introduce new problems. The display tank water will also have a level of DOC/contaminates in the water that can lower already hard to maintain QT water quality. The newly made water also has a much stronger chemistry that makes it easier to maintain pH.

From the thread: Quarantine Procedures: What's the Scoop?

 

[fishermann]

Jimmy you don't have to maintain a fish in the QT tank for the bio system. Just drop a small flake of food in say once a week and that well feed the bacteria and keep them alive. You want to add the water from the QT tank to acclimate the fish not from the display tank it is different water even if it was origanlly taken from the display tank once it has sat in the QT tank for a length of time, it well change.

 

[mavgi]

one more important simple things when you buy new fish from the lfs store always check the salinity in the bag because the store keeping different salinity then we have in our QT and i think this is the first reason to have one because it is easy to reduce the salinity in QT and to match the same salinity to the bag like that you reduce the stress from the fish normal the lfs keep the salinity between 1.012 to 1.017 and if the salinity in your QT it's 1.025 it will be very hard to the fish to acclimate in this case it's very easy when it's small QT to match the salinity for the fish and like that you save stress from the fish.

 

[yankit3@hotmail]

Dear All,

Thanks very much. I'll be careful in handling the water once I've got new arrivals.

Bets wishes,

Jimmy

 

[BTTRFLYGRL]

One more thing....Was the Bangii tank raised? If not, it probably would have died no matter what. Many carry internal parasites and unfortunatly many are cyanide caught.
They are also pretty mellow...probably not a good mix for your tank anyway

 

[moortim]

For the most part it seems you are doing things right, maybe you just got a couple of weak fish which is always a possibility. You mentioned the Cardinal didn't eat at all during the first feeding, that makes me think he already had something wrong.

Tim