param's spiked 1 fish died! help plz

[glaze888]

ok first i off i have a FOWLR setup for about a year now and recently i bought a coral beauty and a nice sized mythrax crab but about 3 weeks apart. i drip for about 1-2 hours. my params have been great with SG of about 1.023-1.024. when i brought the coral beauty home and got him in the tank i noticed ick or maybe some other parasite on him but when back out and bout some meds to give him but only gave half the doseage due to i have a small choc star and condy anem and very small horseshoe crab( oldest tank inhibitant ) and thats what directions called for. so anyway i brought the mythrax home and dripped and then put him in and the coral beauty was starting to look good with no visible signs of stress and me, i guess having a brain fart, poured the water from the drip into the sump!!! i thought it wouldnt be bad but 2 days laterthe params spiked a little and coral beauty croked overnight and went to get him out and noticed that horseshoe crab went belly up too! would that little 16-20 oz of water throw my tank off enough to kill? i cant remember all my params ill post them tomorrow i have them wrote down, but i do remember ammonia was at 1ppm... oh by the way i switched all tankmates over to a 30g long until i fix this been in there all day and they dont look stressed i hope like hell i dont lose another lil buddy! any help greatly appreciated!

 

[jennm]

Please tell us more about your tank, size, age, all inhabitants.

What are your parameters, and what spiked?

While it's not a great idea to put store water in your water, a small bag shouldn't make a huge difference in the big picture.

What medication did you use? Please be specific about the brand.

Let's start with all the basic info and go from there.

Jenn

 

[glaze888]

ok lets start with the tank 50g tall with 15g sump 500gph return pump, coralife 65g (ithink) skimmer, koralia 3, 4 t5's (2actinic and 2daylight) roughly 40lbs or so of sand and roughly 40 lbs of tonga branch.

-about 1 year old
-as far as inhibitans we have a red hawkfish, domino damsel, condy anem, mythrax crab, 2 large snails, 1 small snail, small star (1"), coral beauty(rip), horseshoe crab(rip), and 4days b4 all this i had a choc star(6")and a perc clown, but i was holding those last two for a friend for about a month.

-ammonia 1.0-2.0ppm cant tell on the color chart looks like 1 tho i guess
-nitrite 0.25ppm
-nitrate 10ppm
-phosphate 0ppm
-ph 8.2
-kh 11 (api says should be 8-12)
-SG 1.023
all api test kits

-api liqiud super ick cure
-also forgot to mention b4 that i have been treating tank with api algeafix to get rid of some of this green algea that has been growing.

 

[smoothie]

Was there a spike from the dead/dying algea after using the algaefix? Did you do the upped water changes recommended?
Take a water sample to the closest sponsor or member and let them use their test kit to get a really accurate reading

 

[rolo65]

looks as though you had a spike from the algeafix....the dying algae would spike the ammonia and nitrites....honestly (this is just my opinoin)...i would never put a chemical in my tank that is supposed to kill something such as hair algae....i have used chimiclean before for cyano....so maybe thats slightly contradictory...but algaefix regardless of it saying its is marine safe IMO it is not.....basically it seems it caused your tank to re-cycle...and you nitrifying bacteria coudnt keep up with the deathrate of the algae....since you have moved the living ihabitants to another tank i would leave them there until you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite...a small amount of nitrates can be tolerable but usually try to get them as close to 0 as possible as well....and you may need to do some daily water changes....at least every other day until the bacteria can catch up with the spike....i would think that in a at most 52g system(taking into acct the LR and sand for water volume).....doing 15g water changes over the next week or so would help quite a bit....any ammonia or nitrites in the system will kill just about anything....so before re-adding the fish to the 50.....test and do WCs and make sure you have 0 on both of those readings.....(and maybe get some different test kits.....api works to an extent....but can be harder to read at times....<just my take on api kits)

 

[glaze888]

thanks for the insight makes alot of sense! and will take your advice. but one more thing how do i get rid of the algea it grows way too fast?

 

[jennm]

You've received good advice and suggestions so far.

If you're growing a bumper crop of algae, something is wrong. Could be over-feeding, old lights, inaccurate test kit and parameters aren't what you think... you didn't include a phosphate reading so that might be part of the problem.

Keeping your Magnesium level up or slightly elevated can help too.

And I agree with Rolo - chemical "fixes" aren't the way to go. They usually cause more problems than they solve.

Jenn

 

[coolsurf]

Taking a phosphate reading might give you a false reading of "0" since the algae is feeding off itself.

As Jenn stated, raising the Mag will assist in eliminating HA while causing little or no effects on the rest of the tank. I believe Kent's is the preferred product and Brightwell's works also. You'll need a decent test kit for this as well.

Algae is generally caused by something..usually overfeeding.

 

[ivegotcrabs]

in my opinion api test kits are way off on the nitrates
my kit always read 0-10 but when i had someone use a salifert test kit it read 60
get your water tested with a decent test kit