I am having problems with most of my livestock dying in my saltwater aquarium. It is a 150 gallon FOWLR tank and has been running for about 5 or 6 months. We do not use a quarantine tank, and I do not believe we will be using one anytime soon :(. My 2 Tomato Clownfish and Longnose Hawkfish have been doing fine for about a month since we've added them. They do not express any odd behavior, whatsoever.
I have had the following 6 fish die, most after about 1-2 weeks of tank-life:
I have checked my water parameters; ammonia and nitrite readings show no traces of either, the pH level stays around 8.2-8.4, and the nitrate is at 20 mg/l. I realize that the less nitrate you have the better your tank is, but I also heard that 20 mg/l is not enough to kill most fish. I change 10% of the water every week, and I use saltwater that has been sitting for a day. The salinity is fine as well.
I am new to this hobby, but after a little research, the only possible solutions that make any sense to me are either increasing the tanks aeration, or lowering the salinity to get rid of any parasites. I would really appreciate insight anybody could give me.
I have had the following 6 fish die, most after about 1-2 weeks of tank-life:
- Raccoon Butterflyfish (after 1 week)
- Longfin Bannerfish (1 week)
- Sailfin Tang (1 week)
- Sleeper Goby (4 weeks)
- 2 Green Chromis (4 weeks)
- Raccoon Butterflyfish (2 weeks)
I have checked my water parameters; ammonia and nitrite readings show no traces of either, the pH level stays around 8.2-8.4, and the nitrate is at 20 mg/l. I realize that the less nitrate you have the better your tank is, but I also heard that 20 mg/l is not enough to kill most fish. I change 10% of the water every week, and I use saltwater that has been sitting for a day. The salinity is fine as well.
I am new to this hobby, but after a little research, the only possible solutions that make any sense to me are either increasing the tanks aeration, or lowering the salinity to get rid of any parasites. I would really appreciate insight anybody could give me.