Tank Crash

[gplachy]

This may be a weird question, but how can a tank crash with only .25 nitrite and .25 ammonia? If that's true, all of my tanks should have crashed everyday for the last 5 years.

 

[puffcrusader696]

in a reef or really any saltwater tank... 0.25 ppm ammonia will kill fish and corals. 0.25 ppm of nitrites are also incredibly harmful

 

[marine_hawaii]

Sounds like your tank is out of balance. My guess would be the ammonia was from the dead fish. Possibly one died of natural causes, and that large dead fish in the tank killed the others.

I'm going to fall on the side of no-canister filters for a reef tank (occasional use of diatomaceous earth, if you're vacuuming). Carbon filtration could be used on the fresh water top off (better to use Reverse Osmosis thou).

I'd add more live rock (live sand if you can) and a good protein skimmer is a must. I prefer the ETS type).

Large fish tend to roam around the reef and thus are stressed if put in less water than they are used to living in. Small fish which hide in the reef are what should be kept in reef tanks. Tangs are good if you have algae for them to eat (ie strong lighting). Smaller ones are better than bigger ones. And eventually you'll loose them unless you maintain a really healthy diet for them (which is hard to do).

Sorry about your loss.

 

[Cheetah]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

As for the cainster filter in a fish only tank: it's not ideal, but completely doable you just require plenty of dilution. A pair of clowns and firefish in a 90 gallon with a Fluval 405, is more stable than a 30 gallon with 30lbs of liverock. But in a stocked tank with larger fish lr and a lot of flow is better.

I recently restarted the tank and picked up some more fish. My lfs, gave me 50% off, but were of no help as to the sudden death of fish.

 

[Finalfire9]

Fire her