Angel dieing - please help!

michelleandbrett

Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = .25
Nitrates = 160

All other fish in the tank seem fine. This morning when I turned the lights on I noticed angel was doing horrible. He's at the bottom of the tank breathing heavily and has what looks like a cottonball in his gill on one side. Is this ick, velvet or something else and how do I cure it? Can the other fish catch it? We just bought the tank with all the fish a week ago from someone who had it setup for 2+ years and everything seemed fine until this morning. Was told nitrates have always run high without a problem. Please help!!

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seba

A week ago, what did you do to set up the tank in your house? Did you use the same water from guy that sold you the tank or did you add new water? With your nitrites being at .25 that tells me that your tank is cycling. Your nitrates are through the roof too 160 is a very high count.
Need a little more info on your setup
size of tank?
filtration?
what kind of fish?
phosphate levels?
ph?
are you using r/o water?

michelleandbrett

Ahh, I'm so stressed right now...the angel died shortly after posting but now the Heniochus has a huge bug eye. I'm almost certain its the water quality now and them getting stressed out. The lady we got it from had at least 5 more fish in the tank than we do now and less filtration. Theres a bunch of different fish in there...another angel, clown, several tangs, hogfish, 2 wrasses, chromis, rabittfish, and i think thats it.
We kept about 1/2 her water and added about 1/2 of our own.
We have an RO filter we used for the new water
The tank is 300gallons.
filtration we have two sumps with a protein skimmer in each, two fluval fx5 canister filters running (rated up to 400gallons each) and my husband is setting up the UV steralizer right now. Also working on making more RO water for a large water change.
ph test is hard to read but looks like 8.0. I don't think we have a test for phosphate.

I've been reading that nitrates are hard to get down fast and water change is about the only way. Is that true? Its so frustrating because everything was fine yesterday and just went downhill fast.

Cody

Your nitrates and nitrites are the problem, as stated already. Since your tank looks like a FOWLR, it can tolerate a bit higher nitrates, but even 40ppm is high. 160 is extreme. And nitrites are toxic.

You need to do a lot of water changes to get it down.

Pasfur

Honestly, it sounds like there is a learning curve that we need to get past very quickly. Can you post pictures of your entire tank? Wide shots, up close shots, equipment & chemical pictures. All of this would help us tremendously. There is simply to much to discuss. We need quick solutions to help, and pictures tell more information than any comments you can possibly post.

ajmckay

One other thought... How old are your test kits? Obviously there is a problem, but sometimes old test kits can return strange results.

I really hope that you are able to remedy the problem without having to lose any more animals.. I wish I could help more, but my experience is limited to about 3 1/2 months.

I do, however, like to look at things objectively and rule out possible causes. I'm interested in the symptoms of your fish. You said that the first angel was breathing heavily? What is the oxygen level in the tank? Does it have a cover? Also labored breathing could possibly be a reaction to a fungus (the cotton ball) or bacteria which compromises the fish's gill function. Does anyone know if a toxin could cause this? Do you have any possibly poisonous animals in there such as anemones? Does anyone know of an ailment which might affect angelfish before other species listed?

You also said you used an RO filter to fill the tank, how old is the filter? Is it removing the chlorines? Since you had to run 150 gallons through it do you think the capacity might have been exceeded? I'm just wondering, but I know that traces of chlorine can cause heavy breathing and other problems.

In the end I agree with Pasfur, you should probably post pictures (big, clear ones), and try to describe anything and everything you can... Are any of the fish acting strange now? What's the temp? Is it fluctuating?

Keep us updated....

michelleandbrett

I guess it does kind of sound like we're new at this but we actually had a 180 gallon for 2-3 years about a year ago. We had far fewer fish (with invertebrates) and cycled the tank ourselves instead of getting all the fish with it - much easier! We just never had any problem with nitrates or anything else before.

All equipment is pretty new since we got them all with our other tank. RO filter was used only 3-4 month with our old tank and we bought it new when our other one broke. Testing kits we got probably around 2 years ago and I tested RO water to make sure and it showed 0 nitrates. Temp is at 79 with little fluctuating.

We did just under a 1/3 water change last night and almost ready for a 1/2 tank water change this afternoon so we'll see how that goes. It did improve the nitrates some but they are still just above 100 so hopefully this one were about to do will get it down into a safe zone. Otherwise I guess we'll do another 1/2 tank change sometime tomorrow.

We do have 2 possibly poisonous fish in there (naso and rabbitfish) that could have stung the Heniochus but I really think its the water (he's swimming around and acting fine, just has the puffy eye). I read if the water quality is good his eye should clear up but there is also a medication we can give for an hour a day for 5 days. Anyone have experience with this? Sounds pretty powerful if he can only be in it an hour...if the water quality is good how long should I wait for it to clear up or should I just do the medication right away???