Help - Can't keep clownfish alive

[ben]

JennM;1080934 wrote: How much water flow is in the tank?

IMO you have a bit too much sand - how thick is it? Place live rock directly on the bottom glass, and a bit of sand no more than 3/4" to 1" deep and vacuum it at every water change.

I don't see a benefit to putting ammonia in the tank (ever... but that's another post) you definitely do NOT want to do that if you have livestock of any kind in there now because that will kill them for sure.

It sounds to me like it could be low dissolved oxygen and/or a low pH or pH swing. I'm guessing you've got a Koralia Nano that does 240 gph - which should be sufficient if it's placed properly. Is water moving at the surface where you can see it agitate? If not, is there any scum/film on the surface? If there is scum, that needs to be addressed.

I wouldn't feed but once, every other day - in a tank that small, overfeeding can foul the water quickly.

Are you dosing anything? If so, I'd stop - except for maybe some Stability when adding new fish and either Prime or Alpha when adding new livestock in case of ammonia/nitrite.

pH can drop at night - so can dissolved oxygen, especially if the water movement is less than ideal. The combination of the two could cause fish to perish.

Even if there was a small ammonia spike from a new tank - clowns are usually super hardy and while they shouldn't have to tolerate foul water, they usually do just fine. With no symptoms other than not eating right before they die, that's where I'm leaning as a theory, especially when the inverts are OK - they need less oxygen to respirate.

Jenn

Thanks for the response! I was actually feeding very small portions once or twice a day. From what I've gathered, that appears to be way too much for my tank size. I will cut that back going forward.

As far as sand, it's probably 1.5" at its highest point. I'd say the rest of the tank is around 3/4" of sand.

In my unprofessional opinion, there seems to be plenty of water movement. There is a lot of surface agitation, I don't notice any spots where detritus is collecting. I have the main return pointed towards the surface, aimed towards the middle of the tank. The powerhead is below the return, facing the opposite side of the tank. I attached a picture in my first post. There doesn't seem to be any scum or film accumulating.

I have been dosing with 8.4 and calcifier because alkalinity and calcium seem to be pretty low otherwise. The alkalinity and PH drops seem to lend a lot of credibility to your theory.

Since talking with all of you, I've added a few more snails and hermits to the cleanup crew. I added the biocube protein skimmer in chamber one. I've also lowered the temperature on my heater from 80 to 78. My plan is to wait a few more weeks, while monitoring water quality, and attempt adding one ocellaris back to the tank. If he does well, after a few weeks, I would add another.

Do you think this is an okay plan? Should the skimmer help oxygenate the water? I want to do everything I can to make sure the fish are healthy and comfortable. If you have any comments or suggestions regarding my plan above, I am definitely interested to hear them.

 

[jennm]

Those are right answers Sand is a bit thicker than I like, but that's literally 'just me'. Keep it clean and it shouldn't be an issue.

Sounds like you had good flow too - so that shoots a hole in my theory - but that's OK it's all about learning, right?

Not sure how effective those tiny skimmers are in skimming, but they DO add to water flow and oxygenation so that's a good move too.

A pH swing alone shouldn't have killed those fish. I'm stumped. Sometimes just bad luck comes into play - from what you're telling us, I don't see any AHA! as to why they died.

I'd still be inclined to introduce 2 if you want to keep 2 because even a couple of weeks between introductions can allow the first one to become a territorial brat.

Jenn