What am I doing wrong???!?

[Wildreefs]

pretty close to sticking with birds and giving up , but out of curiosity, what could I be doing wrong.

Having lost a slew of fish in my display, I started a qt tank. 29 gallon, new water , took one piece of live rock from display , for two reasons, a golden dwarf moray who wouldn’t come out, after I had drained all but 3 inches from the tank, and two, a little bit of bio filter, more the former.

With the eel in qt, I acquired 3 small fish from reputable lfs, who had these fish for a while, and within 3 days dead. (Caribbean blue tang, tiny blue ring angel, and small tomini tang. None of these fish were bigger than an inch and a half.


Tested water, nothing wrong, no nitrite, no ammonia, temp 78, nothing wrong.

In qt there’s 1.75 copper power, metroplex in between general cure in the days suggested by Humblefish. There’s a large aqua clear hang on back filter breaking water surface, two big air lines blowing big bubbles, and a 250 gph power head, heater, and that’s it. Check ammonia with api kit and brand new Seachem ammonia alert, zero ammonia.

Lost a bunch of fish after 3 days from live aquaria, hooded wrasse, flame wrasse, mckoskers, Banggai cardinal.

Yellow tang I got over weekend, seemed health, within one day Popeye, freshwater dip today, didn’t help, dead tonight.

At any one time, the most I’ve had in tank we’re 9 small fish, with piece of live rock, and 5-6 pieces of 1 inch pvc. Never saw any ammonia, the entire time, plenty of water movement gas exchange.


Right now have the eel, 2 chromis, and a Xmas wrasse (2 inches) (eel is golden moray, about 5 inches long)

At a total loss, can’t keep fish alive period, in display or quarantine.

 

[Kinghugo5]

What’s the salinity? I’m almost done with 3rd week of QT with Cupramine and Metro and haven’t had any issues with a CBB, kole tang, two clowns, royal gramma and tail spot blenny in my 29g.

I did a 10% water change every other day while treating with the metro. My temp is 77 salinity 1.025. I wouldn’t trust the api while using medication. Something seems toxic in the water to have that many fish die.

Also - I ramped my copper up gradually to treat for ich. Metro I did half a dose first day then full does after and a little more than full dose for the last two treatments.

 

[Big G]

The best piece of advice I can give you is that when I'm setting up a QT for incoming fish, I completely cycle the QT for about 30-35 days using Seachem Stability and pure ammonia for the cycle.

The main tank also was up, cycled and running for 76+ days before I added fish from the QT. I had added live sand, so there was the possibility of Ich/velvet encysts in the sand, so 76 days to be sure they were starved out.

Start out with a small number 2-3 fish in the QT and transferred after complete 30 days of copper and about 20 more days of General Cure with observation. This is for fish that show no evidence of disease or injury.

Let these fish acclimate into the DT for about a month before adding more fish. It's good to give the display tank's biological filter time to adjust to the new bioload of these new incoming fish.

Nothing good happens in this hobby quickly.

That being said my first and second attempt in QT was wiped out by velvet & secondary bacterial infections. Was not happy. But reread all of Humblefish and others advisories and finally had some success. Keeping a written journal of everything you do helps. The learning curve in this hobby is rather steep and unforgiving. And I had decades of experience with successful freshwater tanks where the vast majority of fish died of old age. If I can do this, so can you. Be of good cheer.

 

[Kinghugo5]

+1 to cycled QT. Mine was up and fishless for two and a half weeks with a bottle of bio spira and then a couple of days before fish I added a 75 gallon filter sponge soaked in api quick start over night.

I also check my copper levels every day.

 

[Wildreefs]

Think I may have found my issue. Although I’m using a Seachem alert for ammonia, tested ammonia with api kit, along with a saltwater sample with added ammonia to it, .5 reading , and it was nearly the same color as my quarantine tank. Not sure if copper power can give you a false reading, but the Seachem badge isn’t resistering any, bit sure I trust the badge .

 

[Wildreefs]

The best piece of advice I can give you is that when I'm setting up a QT for incoming fish, I completely cycle the QT for about 30-35 days using Seachem Stability and pure ammonia for the cycle.

The main tank also was up, cycled and running for 76+ days before I added fish from the QT. I had added live sand, so there was the possibility of Ich/velvet encysts in the sand, so 76 days to be sure they were starved out.

Start out with a small number 2-3 fish in the QT and transferred after complete 30 days of copper and about 20 more days of General Cure with observation. This is for fish that show no evidence of disease or injury.

Let these fish acclimate into the DT for about a month before adding more fish. It's good to give the display tank's biological filter time to adjust to the new bioload of these new incoming fish.

Nothing good happens in this hobby quickly.

That being said my first and second attempt in QT was wiped out by velvet & secondary bacterial infections. Was not happy. But reread all of Humblefish and others advisories and finally had some success. Keeping a written journal of everything you do helps. The learning curve in this hobby is rather steep and unforgiving. And I had decades of experience with successful freshwater tanks where the vast majority of fish died of old age. If I can do this, so can you. Be of good cheer.

I’ve had a tank since the 90s. I’ve typically treated in tank for fish only tanks, and had fish live up to 10 years. Something has changed drastically, before I would lose 1 or two fish out of every 10, now I can’t keep them more than 3 days. Heck not even 6 years ago, before I moved, I had an Achilles tang for 3 years before I had to rehome him..

 

[Scotcheggs]

I always start my QT with water from my DT.
I do large water changes each week and use my DT water to the change my QT and top up if required.

I know it's a bit more work but it keeps my QT perameters the same as my DT for when they go over.

I also dont like live rock or media in my QT as it will absorb and leach the copper / meds and if the fish are hiding in it then I think it could be detrimental, just my opinion though.

Also are you aclimitising the fish to the copper in the QT or putting them straight in ?

Also how are you testing the copper range is it with a hanna tester or with kits?