I am a new marine hobbyist and have had a 60 litre marine tank set-up for approximately 4months now. When i set-up i put ~2 inches of coral sand as a base, and some ocean rock in and then ensured that the salinity, temperature and levels were all ok. ~2 weeks in i added some live rock and then waited ~2weeks for the levels of the tank to settle again.
I then took some water to my local fish supplier, which they checked and gave the "ok" to. I was then presented with 2 clownfish (1 normal and 1 black and white) as my first fish - ready to cycle the tank. The normal clown fish died within 1 week and i put that down to stress of moving and perhaps the tank cycling?! To ensure my tank was ok i then waited 6 weeks before going back to the store and buying another clownfish and some polyps. The clownfish died within 24hours of having it, but the polyps seemed fine. The next day i went back to the store and replaced the clonfish for a black and white variety, which seemed very happy for ~1 week at which time the original black and white clown started to develop white spots (well more smudges) on it's body and fins which would be there one day and gone the next and then come back and go again, later it started lying on the bottom of the tank and gasping for breath (It's gills looked inflamed and red). I went to my store for some advice and they said it sould either be Ich or Velvet disease and that either way i needed to treat my tank with Copper Sulfate?!
I followed the guidance with the treatement, removing active carbon filters, turning off UV lights etc but after a day the original black and white clown died! Since then i have found out that the Copper Sulfate has killed a lot of the inverts in the live rock and the polyps (which they did not tell me about!), but after water changes and replacing the filters they are steadily coming back... ~1week on and the new black and white clown has started displaying the same syptoms, gasping for breath on the bottom, white spots which appear, then disappear, then appear again, and becoming increasingly pale when the lights are turned off (takes longer to come back to full colour when turned back on).
If it was Ich or Velvet surely that should have been gotten rid of when i treated the tank? - Why is my fish dying again? - I don't seem to be having much luck with the tank so any help you could give me would be great. Thanks.
I then took some water to my local fish supplier, which they checked and gave the "ok" to. I was then presented with 2 clownfish (1 normal and 1 black and white) as my first fish - ready to cycle the tank. The normal clown fish died within 1 week and i put that down to stress of moving and perhaps the tank cycling?! To ensure my tank was ok i then waited 6 weeks before going back to the store and buying another clownfish and some polyps. The clownfish died within 24hours of having it, but the polyps seemed fine. The next day i went back to the store and replaced the clonfish for a black and white variety, which seemed very happy for ~1 week at which time the original black and white clown started to develop white spots (well more smudges) on it's body and fins which would be there one day and gone the next and then come back and go again, later it started lying on the bottom of the tank and gasping for breath (It's gills looked inflamed and red). I went to my store for some advice and they said it sould either be Ich or Velvet disease and that either way i needed to treat my tank with Copper Sulfate?!
I followed the guidance with the treatement, removing active carbon filters, turning off UV lights etc but after a day the original black and white clown died! Since then i have found out that the Copper Sulfate has killed a lot of the inverts in the live rock and the polyps (which they did not tell me about!), but after water changes and replacing the filters they are steadily coming back... ~1week on and the new black and white clown has started displaying the same syptoms, gasping for breath on the bottom, white spots which appear, then disappear, then appear again, and becoming increasingly pale when the lights are turned off (takes longer to come back to full colour when turned back on).
If it was Ich or Velvet surely that should have been gotten rid of when i treated the tank? - Why is my fish dying again? - I don't seem to be having much luck with the tank so any help you could give me would be great. Thanks.