Killer Chromis?

[yakk]

Forgive the novice questions and ridiculously long first post, but I am beginning to see I trusted my LFS too much. I am at my wit's end.

I started my first SW tank about 2 months ago.

55g, 22# of live rock, live sand, thermo/heater set to 79, all water parameters looked good. started with 6 chromis during cycling (per lfs recommendation) ended up with 2.

checked water numerous times and it stayed good. added a yellow tang. acclimated him by floating for 15 minutes, then adding 1 cup of tank water every 15 minutes three times before releasing into tank. he died within 5 days after what appeared to be him getting wedged into a crevice in a rock.

explained the situation to LFS, and added some blue legs, turbo snails, 2 clowns (1 larger than the other), blue tang and another yellow tang (all approved by my LFS guru), all using same acclimation process. blue tang died within 2 days, yellow the day after. smaller clown and one chromis a couple days later.

went back to LFS numerous times throughout process, and water parameters were fine.

added a carbon filter to my penguin 350 in case there was something not testable in the tank.

large clown was ok until i did a 15g water change several days later, and he began spending all his time near the surface. he died 2 days later, and i suspected he wasn't getting enough oxygen.

went to new LFS who recommended I remove the glass top and add a 450 gph pump to increase waterflow and surface agitation . I did both. The next day, I brought a water sample to new LFS, who said it looked fine and agreed we were ok to add two new baby clowns.

The one remaining chromis was very aggressive towards both clowns that day, and they hid in one corner. One died the next morning; the other two days later (today).

I never saw the chromis attack either clown after the fist night, but I can't figure out what else it could be.

is it likely i have a serial killer Chromis?

[gone fishin]

Yeah you got some really bad advice. A few things that jumped out

In the future do not use fish to cycle a tank. It is an outdated cruel method.

Do not add any more tangs your tank is not big enough for them.

I believe your a bit light on the live rock.

Actual test numbers are better than fine.

I assume your referring to blue green chromis. They tend to just kill each other off.

I would suspect your adding to much to fast for your biofilter.

That is it for now but I will reread the post. There is a sticky at the top of this forum called setting up, look for the big red arrow. Good luck just my two cents.

[Argo747]

I agree 100% with the points made by Tony. I would strongly recommend that you read the sticky post at the top of the forum as well. There are many opinions in this hobby and through study you can begin to pick out suspicious advice from the good. Good luck!

[gone fishin]

I forgot to ask, do you have any powerheads in the tank? What are your sources for water circulation/gas exchange.

How is your tank covered? screen, glass top or open

Never mind I saw it in your post. I think you may be a bit light on your water circulation as well. If your tank is open topped now I would strongly advise getting a screen type cover. It is just a matter of time before a fish goes carpet surfing. Bulk reef supply has clear 1/4 inch mesh screen to make one.

[uncleL]

You started too fast!!!!! Find another LFS!!!!!!!

[uncleL]

If you are impatient like I am in cycling a tank I always buy bottled bacteria once my water salinity and temperature are stable. I use RO water and I have an ATO to keep my parameter stable also adding kalkwasser to my reservoir. I let it run for 24 hours without any filters then I add two clownfish Nemo's. After 30 days I will add one Fish every month with live rock. That's my process and I have not killed any fish. Once I had the fish I start my skimmer.

[yakk]

thanks for the tips. it's frustrating as hades not understanding it

[JC Slater]

Hey, I'm still new to this also, but what's happening to you kind of sounds like what happened to 2 of my fishes I bought early on. anyways, when acclimating a fish, I think the add 1 cup of tank water is not a good idea, I did the same and the fish died 4 days later. This happened to me twice.

So, I researched and read the true reason for acclimating not just for water params like nitrate, etc but the main one IMO is salinity. I tested the salinity in a bag and it was low, really low like 1.019 or something like that, I keep mine at 1.025. The adding the 1 cup of water every so often and after the hour or so salinity in the bag was only around 1.021 or 1.022. My theory is that I dumped the fish in way too early and if I remember what I read about that, it can cause kidney failure or something like that after 2-3 days they will die. Since I did with the rest of the 3 newer fish j have, I made sure after the drip acclimation that the salinity matched my tanks 1.025 which took up to 2 hours on a couple of them. Since then, those new fish have made it and kicking several months later. So hopefully that helps. Also what others are saying, too much too fast. I added a new fish about every 2 months or so after the initial clown pair went in. I'm also running about 35lbs of large live rock pieces in my 29 gal biocube that I let initially cycle for 5 weeks. More rock surface area will give you a better bio filter but it will need time for bacteria to build up.

Best advice I got was 20 years ago in my marine biology high school class was to go slow, then slow it down and slow it down more and stop tinkering with the tank so much and let it be. That advice holds true today given by many members here.

Hope that helps! :)

[yakk]

thank you so much for that...makes a lot of sense.

[gone fishin]

A drip acclimation can work for fish that are bought locally from a LFS. These fish are not in the bags very long. If however you purchase fish online then a drip acclimation can be killer. What happens is while the fish are in the bag for the long period of time ammonium is built up in the bag. Once the bag is open and the slow drip starts the water is exposed to fresh air and the ammonium is quickly converted to ammonia, bad news for the fish. If your going to go this route I would suggest getting something like seachem prime to help with the ammonia.

[snorvich]

A drip acclimation can work for fish that are bought locally from a LFS. These fish are not in the bags very long. If however you purchase fish online then a drip acclimation can be killer. What happens is while the fish are in the bag for the long period of time ammonium is built up in the bag. Once the bag is open and the slow drip starts the water is exposed to fresh air and the ammonium is quickly converted to ammonia, bad news for the fish. If your going to go this route I would suggest getting something like seachem prime to help with the ammonia.

This.