hi every body

i have a nano aquarium .

i was happy with my aquarium everyhting was going ok .

but before two days i bought one coral and this coral was producing a strange things to my aquarium which caused the water to become white . then after one day i decided to take out and send it back to the shop i bought from because i dont want to make my aquarium dirty , but suddenly the butterfly fish starts acting strange like if it is exhusted then after 48 hours it felt down and died , i noticed her body was falling apart it is kind of skin problem. antoher fish is having the same problem . and i have one fish having white spot . all this happened after producing the white things into water form the coral .
would somebody help me and tell me if the the coral caused this , and what would be the solution

Is the tank cycled?

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I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!

yes it is cycled by the filter .

What he means is how long did the tank run before you put fish in the tank.

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20 days ,the water was cycled before i put the fish in .

the other small coral just dead .

i really dont know what is happening to my aquarium .

do i have to change the water since it is not clear and the filter can not clean to the maximum .

in case if yes , then can i change the water gradually , means can i take 2 liters every three days and so on , until the water become clear .

i am thinking if the water is poisoned by the coral .

regards

Can you give us the parameters of the water? Ph, temps, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings. Need the exact numbers in order to help.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
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Dear

i am biginner , i dont know how to make this . the only thing i can know is measuring the salt level it is 1.022

the others how i do it , is there a device which can do all this ?

thanks

Do a massive water change now, when in doubt change the water! Change at least 50% total volume in one go, then in 2 days change another 20%, and in another 2 days do another 20%, from then on out do a 10% weekly, I do a 20% weekly, but do a minim of 10% change every week. Give us some specifics on your tank, how big is it, what time of filters lights and heaters are you using. But go do a water change now.

i will do that changing the water , but how about the salt level ? do i have to adjust everytime i take the water . for example the first 50% after i take the water out and put the new one , ofcourse the salt level will go down . do i think i have to add more salt in order to adjust the salt level ? is this right .

now the next question is that , what happened to my aquarium ? is it poisoned and why ?

thank you very much for your help .

I am certainly not the best one to give advice regarding saltwater tanks as I don't have any. As such I can only give generalized info.

You need drop tests to determine the water quality in your tank. What you want is something called saltwater master test kit, which tests for the basics. Ph, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. If you don't know what those mean check here. There's also a lot more information on that page that may be interesting to you.

20 days sounds like a very short cycle. How did you cycle the tank? Do you have a themometer that you can use to measure water temperature. It would also help if you could tell us exactly what fish/inverts/corals are in the tank.

How large is your tank? I believe most butterfly fish need 75 gal+

I don't mean to sound out of place, but you've jumped in way over your head. I don't think there's a quick-fix to your problems. It sounds like your aquarium wasn't cycled, and now you're suffering results of high ammonia. You need a test kit to know for sure though.

You can't just put salt into an tank. You have to mix the water first and test the salinity & temperature to ensure that it's the same (or very close) to the tank you are adding it to. Are you just using tap water or well water, or what?

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29 Gallon Planted
1 Angelfish; 2 German Blue Rams; 11 Rasbora Boraptensis; 3 Khuli Loaches, 1 BN Pleco

20 Gallon Planted
2 German Blue Rams; 5 Corydoras Paleatus; 4 Otocinclus Catfish; Amano Shrimp

5.5 Gallon
Betta, Some plants.

mix the salt water before you put it in the tank, it needs to match the salt content and temp of the tank before you put it in.

What happened is you jumped ahead without the knowledge you need to keep the animals you purchased healthy. The coral died; when it died it started to rot and poisoned your tank. There was nothing wrong with the coral most likely but a dead animal is not good for your tank. A massive water change is an emergency stop gap to try to save what you have left but it is not a substitute for proper maintaince and husbandry. Post up what you have bought and we can help you set it up properly. What size tank, equipment, exe...

And the way to do a emergency water change is buy a NEW 5 gallon bucket, put water in it use your tap to try to get the water as close as possible to the correct temp, mix the hot and cold to accomplish this, dump in the salt mix, most mixes are 2.5cups to 5 gallons, mix the hell out of it with your CLEAN hand, or other utensil, let it sit till it is clear, Mix like hell again, let it sit 5 more min, and dump in. This is not the preferred method to do a water change but it is a fast and a hell of a lot better than the poison your fish are swimming in now. Once this is done we can start to teach you the correct way to take care of your tank.

I don’t mean to be rude but your tank is getting worse by the minute

Dont be offended but there are many aquarists here that still wont attempt the feat of a nano tank even after years of reefing in a standard tank. The nano tank is definitely no place for a newbie to begin. Start out a bit larger so you have a more stable water column. Also I would recommend some more reading on water testing as well as the nitrogen cycle. No need to kill the fish for 2 reasons, 1.) its sad and cruel, and 2.) they aren't cheap. I know as a child i was the first one to toss the goldfish into the bowl without any sort of cycle or any idea on what the heck a cycle was for that matter. Dont get myself and the others wrong we dont want to chase you away its just that we dont want to watch you or your tank inhabitants to suffer, as we all like to live through each others tanks vicariously. As I dont want my tank all mucked up and foggy and bad water parameters, I dont want yours to have those issues either and we all have a strong opinion about this.

Start out with a test kit and if there aren't any fish alive in that nano make sure you just tear the tank down and start fresh with a nice cleansing and a new cycle with test results to show for it. Then get into the fish and corals.

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If its not broke dont fix it!!! If its broke save yourself the time and buy a new one!!!

my dad mixes salt straight into the tank, and uses tap water for top-offs so those might not be the problem even if they're in a nano. The cycling is the problem. for a Sw tank, cycling should never be less than 1.5-2 months, depending if any additives are used.

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I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!

Dear scribbles thanks alot for you help .

for my tank size it is 24 , i made the change as you said before and good news my fish is getting much much better , it is very clear they are happy now , more moving more active . before it was as if it is disy or sick. thnak you for your help .
the full testing kit is not vailable in the shop in which i bought the aquarium from (out of stock) , but it is going to be available soon

the water is clean now , the fish is ok they playing arround . the only think i know is that i will neverr buy any corals again unitl now i dont know why the croal did this , the strange thing is that i sent the coral back to the chop and it is doing ok . very strange but i am thinking that the water in my aquariumwas not ok for the coral .
what is the parameters of the coral aquarium?

parameters of a reef tank should be:
less than 5ppm nitrates
0ppm nitrites
0ppm ammonia
0ppm phosphates
8.0-8.4pH
8-12dKH
1.023-1.027sg
1250-1350ppm magnesium
380-450ppm calcium
72-78 degrees fairegnheit

__________________
I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!

Nahda

I am very glad you’re able to save your fish; I have stopped many tanks from crashing with the method I recommend to you. I have saved tanks bad enough that I did 3-4 80% water changes daily to get things stabilized.

The problem I think you had is most is corals are just very hard to take care of. You need very good lighting, not stock, either Metal Halide, or good T5's. And essentially perfect water, your water can be crystal clear and still have two much waste, nitrates and nitrites, these are the byproduct of fish waste breaking down. An established tank with plenty live rock and good filters will have enough established bacteria to breakdown the waste and convert it to co2.

I had a salt water tank for 2 years before I tried to keep corals.

Start a new thread with some pictures of your new tank, and welcome to Aquarium Forum

I use tap water as well but it is not the correct way to do things, I am setting up a RO unit now sense I am keeping more inverts, and never mix salt in the tank that is just not good.

i use a 30g Brute trash can especially for mixing my water. I got it on sale at HD. its convenient too since it has wheels I can cart it right into the room when i do my water changes - ps these trash bins are cheap, invest in one.

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If its not broke dont fix it!!! If its broke save yourself the time and buy a new one!!!

well my dad has been using this technique for at least 25years and he's still sucessful. only with the recent addition of a few pounds of live rock-i convinced him to get some, after many of the members here advised me to, and the tanks been in a bad state ever since! everything in my dads tanks works backwards!

__________________
I'm so sorry I haven't been on the forum in so long! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten this lovely website! I moved to a different county back in May 2011 and started high school in a totally different school district. So I'm still adjusting and studying hard, and don't presently have any aquariums. But once I do, I'll be right back on this forum!