Nitrate / Ammonia Spike.

[Allen]

Yesterday my readings where as follows.
PH 8.0, Temp 24'c, Salinity 1.021, Ammonia 0 ppm , Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 10ppm.

I added 2 clownfish yesterday morning who have settled in well despite me stiring up all manor of crap in the tank moving live rock about (I did stir up a LOT of crap)

The water is back to crystal clear today, but today I took my readings and now have this.

PH 8.0, Temp 24'c, Salinity 1.021, Ammonia 0.50 ppm , Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 40ppm.

The clowns seem OK although they are not swimming around very fast and one has a very feint white skin/slime peeling off his sides.

I got 50 litres of mixed RO water ready to do a 33% partial water change.

Any other suggestions ?

 

[Allen]

Photos of the slime/skin.

View them full size and you can see it near his dorsal fin.

 

[BigIan]

judging by the huge rise in nitrate aswell, you`ve caused a mini cycle, when you disturbed all the LR. knocked loads of half decomposed crap into the water thats now being broken down, looks like your over the worst of it, though, i`d just do a 15% water change, keep the RO coverd and test again tomorrow if it needs another do it then,

 

[Allen]

thanks for the reply Ian - have done the water change, and will see what happens overnight.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, what Ian said was exactly right. The markings on the clownfish are most likely a very mild outbreak of brooklynella aka clownfish disease. Its a parasite similar to ich in life cycle but not quite in virulence. When stressed, most clowns will show these irritated patches where the parasites are living on them. The good news is that your stress levels seem mild and your clownfish will very likely recover with feeding and the removal of ammonia when your bacteria catch up. Try and keep them fed, but make sure no food goes uneaten or decomposing

 

[Mr Miagi]

Might pay to replace FW top up with small amounts of SW until you get your SG a little higher too. 1.021 is pretty low. Be careful doing it, and do it gradually. Congrats on the new fish. As you descovered (as did I at the start) dont mess with your aquascape too much. Do all that before you put in stock!

 

[Allen]

The reason i moved it was i bought a small leather that looked crap wherever I put it.

So a quick rearrangement of the rock was needed - probably 3 hours all told - i was getting really frustrated not getting it looking right.

What gets me even more is I had loads of feather algae and others growing really well, this seems to have been destroyed moving it about.

Also, I have scratched off all the fingerprints on my left hand - next buy is a pair of gloves methinks.

Fish doing ok this morning, all white stuff has gone but nitrate and ammonia level still the same.

 

[Allen]

Both clowns died last night.

One I found sucked into the powerhead inlet and the other was dead on the rocks this morning.

I knew this was going too easy - have I destroyed my setup stirring up all that crap then filtering it out with the fluval ?

 

[Mr Miagi]

3hours is a bit long, but IMO you just got really bad clowns. In the first image, the clown looks like it has a really shrunken stomach. Add poor/no diet, to disease, then a nitrate/ammo reading, and your chances of keeping them alive is going down hill drastically. Keep your tanbk as is, or now youve got no stock, re-arange until your finally happy with it. Make a rule (I had too, because I too was screwing up my tank with constant re-arranging) that once stock is in, no more fiddling, but you can re-arange to your hearts content before stock goes in. Sorry for your loss BTW.

You havnt destroyed your set-up BTW, just monitor your params, once there right, and your happy with your aquascape, buy clowns or another fish from someone REPUTABLE. Look for full bellies, and NO disease (dont make excuses or exceptions).

 

[Allen]

Thanks for the reassurance - I was ready to quit at 3am this morning and close to tears - literally.

The clowns were from a reputable LFS who order from TMC Marine in the UK.

I had them reserved at the LFS for 4 days to get over shipping.

I never saw them eat ONCE in the 3 days I had them - not frozen krill, flake or anything I offered.

Do I need to modify my powerheads - the intake has a small grille at the bottom - would the clown have been dragged in alive or do you think it was current that took it when it was dead ? Id hate to lose a healthy fish in a powerhead through suction it couldnt fight against.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Powerhead would have caught them when they were dead or dying. I actually prefer to buy my fish straight from the shipping bags, saves them acclimating twice, and some stores dont have adequate holding tanks, up to the standard I like.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Oh and BTW, ask your LFS to feed the fish, so you can se them eating! I do it with ALL fish purchases now.

 

[Allen]

Is this breakdown going to affect my cleaner shrimp, hermits, turbo snails, mushrooms, zooanthid and leather ?

Im really panicing now.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Because you removed the fish, it should be fine. Leathers, Shrooms, Zoas and CUC (clean up crew) should be ok. Monitor you parameters, do water changes (small and frequent) only if need be, and things should be fine. What are the params BTW?

 

[Allen]

PH 8.0
Temperature 24-26 - difficult to get it stable since sump installed.
Salinity 1.023
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0.50ppm
Nitrate 50ppm