[firefish]

Hi everybody,

I am new to the forum and its greate to be here. I have 36 gallon tank saltwater, with fluval filter, protein skimmer, power head. Everything was going well untill about 3 days ago, the fish started dying and they were covered in slime and had bruises on the body. The nitrates are high, i do water changes but nothing helps. Please, any suggestions .
Thanks

[Reef-Daddy]

How old is the tank? What are the other water params? How much volume are you changing out? 10 - 20 % Any LR?

Sorry about the questions, but need more info. I don't think you can see bruises... probably a parasite or something. Do you have a U/V filter?

[jcarroll81]

THE bruises are probably ammonia burns. i had the same problem.

your nitrate and nitrite are prob over 100ppm.

i had 10lbs of live rock and it was running for 3 1/2 weeks when this happened. blue tang died with quater sized spots on it ..... my ammonia had just stablized but nitrite and nitrate off the chart. did water changes but nothing was working.

added 30lbs of more live rock and used store bought water and not mixed water from my tap with conditioners the next day all levels at 0ppm. 3 months later still at 0ppm.

there is nitrite or nitrate or both in tap water so get your water from the store.

if the above referenced doesnt' work you could buy that azno3 takes about a month but will bring you levels down. don't recommend it though....LFS claims it works