My small clown is swimming at the surface, looks very skinny. My other clown is big and fat.

Any ideas ?

I am about to do a water test but last weeks was fine.

Do clowns just die ?

when did he last eat? has he been eating? any other symptoms? everyone else in the tank ok? any changes to the tank recently?

its always sad when your fishies start to get a bit sick

i find my clowns are hardier than my goldfish! so no, clowns do not just die.

everythng else is fine, the only chamge is a Phosphate remover a week ago. everthing else is eating fine. Poor little thing is having trouble swimming stright.

bugger, i dont know. wheres the other guys (pies, layton etc) when you need them? :roll: how long have you had him?

Do you no which country it came from?

Has it ever eaten well?

When it was in the shop did you see it eating well?

Do you no how long it was from being shipped in to you buying it?

How long have you had it?

It could be cyanide, they all claim not to use it but alot still do.

When they are posioned there system slowly shuts down, they can last for over a month it depends on how much they had.

good questions control. will be interesting to see if we can figure out whats wrong with the poor little guy. one more question to add.... how long has he been acting this way?

I have had the little man 3-4 months... gone now rest well little friend.

He was laying on a rock, also lost a cardinal (today)only lasted a week. Lost a bi-colour blemmy a few weeks back. Never found him.

The cardinal was missing an eye and some flesh off its side.

Could my BIG boxer shrimp be the hunter from hell?

Phospate 0.25

Ph 8.1

Ammonia 0

nitrate 10

kh 10

nitrite 0.1

I do a water change every week, just done 10%

DUKE - is it a reef or fish only setup? How old is the tank (ie how long has it been running)? Did the other fish 'disappear' or did you observe signs of illness in them first? Do you run a UV at all?

Sorry about the clown fish

The tank is a reef tank, no it just disapeared. Was eating fine but stayig out of the way of my stark damsel.

Tank is 5months old, 4ft with sump

yes I have a UV

Deltec 1250 skimmer etc

Several leathers and they look fine.

Other clown is fat and healthy looking. Blue tang has a couple of white spots on one eye.

I obsereve this tank twice a day and noticed the small clown stright away.

has the nitrite only just risen? any possible causes for this? a dead fish could still be hidden away decaying, maybe this could be causing some problems?

yes the nitrite has just risen from 5... dead fish maybe.

i dont know. usually it takes awhile for nitrite to affect fish, dont know whats caused your poor little clown to die. there must be something wrong for so many of your fish to have died. i hope you find out whats going on soon. and hope your tang gets better soon.

bonnie

If you are running UV you are createing ozone.

Are you controlling the UV with a redox controller, your redox level could be to high.

You could have ozone in the tank.

Do you run the output from the UV straight to the skimmer and then through carbon to remove the ozone.

Please discribe the layout around the UV, what goes where.

Get an O3 test kit Red Sea makes them, it must read zero

Aaron

Aaron - this is something we have discussed, and I am keen to understand the chemistry of a UV steriliser creating Ozone. Do you know the relevant reactions that occur to do this? OR does anyone else? Layton perhaps?

First I have ever heard of UV creating Ozone in quantities that could effect water chemistry. Not saying it not true, but have never head of this before.

Also what would carbon do to remove the ozone in the water collum? after all Ozone is just air with a stability issue (o3 as opposed to o2).

Pie

UV sterilizes are generally used for the purpose of killing bacteria and viruses. It does this by a photochemical reaction which causes parts of the DNA molecule to dimerise (forming a sort of "plastic") this stops it from reproducing.

Ozone breaks carbon - carbon double bonds. These occur in many nasty organics you don't want floating around your tank, and can sometimes make them easier to skim out.

In air, UV light with a wavelength of less than 240nm causes photodissociation of oxygen:

O2 ---> O + O

These O atoms combine with oxygen molecules to form ozone:

O + O2 + M ---> O3 + M

M is an inert substance (N2 gas) which absorbs the extra energy created by the reaction, and prevents the ozone from spontaneous decomposition back to oxygen.

I guess this would apply to dissolved oxygen within water as well. But there may well be other factors which inhibit it, so it's hard to say really.

Also what would carbon do to remove the ozone in the water collum? after all Ozone is just air with a stability issue (o3 as opposed to o2).

Stability issues is not necesarily true. Ozone is stable, it's just that it is a powerful oxidiser, which means it reacts quickly. This is what the carbon is for, it provides a surface for the ozone to react with, to produce CO2 and O2.

Layton

I have in the past used alot of aeration as the water enters the sump to disperse the ozone with great success and I also use carbon with no problems.

An O3 test kit will tell him if he has a problem with ozone.

I think he may have more of a problem with his redox level if it is not controlled, anyone using UV and/or ozone should have it controlled, without it it's like having a hammer without a handle which is pretty much useless if the redox is to high it can be lethal.

We need to no more about his system because this is just a posibility at the moment.

Aaron.

Sounds like some bullying going on in the tank, its supprising what happens when the lights go off.

maybe we need some more background info on the tank. ive looked at some of your previous posts duke, youve removed some bioballs recently? were these in the same tank as the clown and other sick/dead fish? also you say youve lost about 20 shrimp? thats alot of waste breaking down somewhere. some more info on your setup would help duke.

I have again checked the water conditions and everthing is fine. All my other fish are fine, but I will be saying good bye to my Stark Damsel.

I think this may have had some thing to do with it.

SIMPLE.....Forget the ins and outs, you say you have NITRITE.

This is more than likely the issue. Find the dead stuff if you can. 50-60% water change immediately.

feed lightly for one or two weeks and keep your hands out of the tank for two weeks.

JUST DO IT.

NITRITE IS NOT FINE.

IT MUST READ ZERO 99% of the time, or perhaps under.05 for a day or two...thats about it.

Good luck.

What part of Auck? I could come and have a nosey if you like.

021 717 021

Craig