Josh

Just to make sure I understand what everyone is saying, if my fish has an internal bacterial infection I still need to wait a few weeks to let any remaining bacteria in my tank die off. Can bacteria live off of the live rock, in the sand or off any of the crustaceans? In addition, just for future knowledge if I do have a bacteria infection and I have no fish in the tank the only way to kill the bacteria is wait a few weeks and hope that the bacteria dies off since it cannot find a host. Lastly, would daily water changes help remove the bacteria from the system or should I not do any water changes for next week or two?

If it is Vibriosis what do I need to do for my tank. The fish had already passed away. Will this parasite die if I do not put anything else in my tank.

I wanted to thank everyone for all your great advice on how to run a successful saltwater fish tank. My tank has been running successfully for now 10 months and had no issues with the tank and any of the critters that live in it. I love waking up in the morning to see what is new that is growing out of my live rock. It

hank you everyone for replying to my question. After reading all of your posts, I had gotten a test kit to see what my parameters are and compared it to lfs results. My parameters are pH 8.2, NO2 is 0.08-0.1 ppm, NO3 is 200 ppm, ammonia is 0 and salinity is 1.021. As you can see my NO3 levels are quite high. Everything in my tank is alive and doing well. There is very little algae growth on my glass and sand bed, but I do have algae growth on my rocks. For the last two weeks I have been removing and replacing about 10% of my saltwater, but the nitrate level will not drop. I can not find anything that is dying that might keep the level this high. I had asked my lfs what could be spiking my nitrate and they said my NO3 kit could be expired or I am overfeeding my watchmen goby, but I had ran a test against RO water and it showed no nitrates, also my kit does not expire till 2010 and I only feed my watchman goby about 3-4 pellets of food a day and whatever he does not eat gets eaten by the hermit crabs. I was wondering if my refugeem is causing high levels of nitrates. I have a 3 chamber refugeem in the back of my tanks. One chamber is filled with live rock (which was recommended by my lfs) with a filter pad sitting over the live rock (this is where my tank water enters the back). From this chamber the water then goes into my middle chamber which has a bed of live sand (3/4") with my live algae that has light shinning on it 24/7. From that chamber the water than gets pumped back into my tank. Also, someone suggested that I should put a cleaner clam in back of my refugeem to help lower my nitrates. Would anyone suggest doing that or have any other suggestions in what I can do to lower my nitrates. My tank has been running about 3

Thank you everyone for responding to my question. This is great group of people with extensive knowledge on how to run a successful saltwater tank. Thank you. I was thinking in the back of my head though, could I be having a lack of oxygen issue in my tank. I see the fish gills moving very rapidly and was wondering if there could be a lack of O2. Even though I have a powerful pump in the back of my system the outtack is pointed downward and is not creating enough surface tension. Could this be one of my problems.

Thank you for the great advice. If there is a diease in the tank is there any way of figuring out the diease if you can't see it and then coming up with a cure.

I had actually had my water tested at two lfs after I had added the fish and both water tests came out normal. I still plan on buying a test kit. I will do the daily water replacement and see if that helps. Is there anything else I should be checking for beside nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, pH and salinity that can be causing this issue?

Thank you for the prompt reply. There was never chunks of my fish missing, except when they died and the hermit crabs and emerald began eating it. All my shrimps, crabs, snails and starfish are great. The fish wouldn't die until 3 days later. I do not believe my fish have ick since I did not see any white spots or discoloration on their bodies when they had died. With testing my water, I haven't bought a kit yet and I take my water to lfs to test it weekly. They said all my ammonia, nitrite, pH levels were normal and when I test my salinity its in right range. Is there something I am missing? I know I should by my own kit, I just haven't found the right kit and trusted the lfs just to help me in the beginning.

They did not do an alk test. The only test they did was salinty, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite and they were all normal. I have never added any alk/calcium to my tank. Could alk be the cause of my problem?

I was wondering if anyone can give advice in helping me figure what can be killing my fish. Basically I have my 12 gallon nano tank (CAD light nano tank that has 4T5 32w w/ full Refugium with a 250 gph pump) running for over two months and it has gone through its cycles. I keep my lights on my tank for about 8 to 10 hours and keep the temperature around 77*F. About three weeks ago I began adding some critters (snails, hermit crabs, sand sifting star fish, emerald crab and brittle star). All the critters were doing awesome. Then a few days later I had added a cleaner shrimp and he is running around the tank like it

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone might have an answer for me on this issue. I currently have a 12 gallon jbj nano reef tank (with live sand and live rock) and I believe I have a sulfur dioxide problem. Over the last 3 months (after I moved to a new house) my tanks water becomes cloudy and a white slime begins to grow all over my glass and rocks. In addition, my tank begins to produce a rotten egg smell. At first I thought it could be that something that is dead in my tank that is causing this smell. So after doing a few water changes and trying to find what could be dead (I had found nothing dead in my tank) I was able to remove the rotten egg smell and get my water to not become cloudy. In about 2 weeks my tank decided to do this again. I had taken this issue to a few of local aquarium stores in the DC area and everyone said that I need to do a complete water change and replace my live sand. Once again, after doing what everyone said my tank decided to cloud up again and the rotten egg smell began to develop and now any live critters I had in my tank (snails, one serpent star fish and one peppermint shrimp) has died. I am extremely baffled and not sure what is causing this issue. I have checked all the nitrate, pH, salinity and ammonia levels and everything is great, nothing out of whack. I have been putting in a lot of money into getting my tank up and running again, but it keeps flipping on me. Does anyone have any suggestions on what is causing this issue? I thought maybe my live rock could be dead? The sponge in back of nano tank needs to be replace even though I ring out my sponge on a weekly basis and do water changes on a weekly basis? I look forward to anyone

Hey Everyone! Just became a new member here. I had just moved from Maine and living in Arlington and work in Washington, DC. I look forward to meeting everyone at one of these events. Josh