My maroon clown is not looking healthy. He is acting ok, but he has developed a thin, whitish, mucus looking film on his fins. I noticed this about 2 weeks ago when I came home from a vacation, I did a water change, and the next day he was fine, but now it is back and covering much more of his body, fins mostly. My tank is in awful shape, hair algae on everything, all testing of all parimeters are where they should be, most corals also in bad shape. Except the anemone, xenias and colts, they are thriving. Any idea on what this is, and how should I treat
it?

what are the chances of getting a pic of the clown ??

How old are your bulbs?

I wish it were that simple. My lights were new in late Sept. , they are T-5's and everything I have seen on these lights say they should last 12-18 months. I am really starting to worry about something being terribly off in the tank, but I don't know what else to test. Water changes are not doing anything. This has been a continual downward spiral for months now, and it looks like it is finally takiing a toll on the fish.

unfortunately, I don't think my camera would pick it up clearly.

Can you remind me of your tank size and stocking list? How long have you been having problems? What are your specific parameters? Are there any you have trouble maintaining? What's your water change routine? The first thing I do when things look off is a water change or multiple water changes for problems that won't go away.

This could get long. I started with corals about 14 months ago. My tank has been set up since 1995ish, I had the standard old T-12s, CC, nitrates at about 40, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, low calcium. All my corals thrived.
I started reading all the forums and just HAD to have all the new "stuff", but of course I didn't have thebudget, so I didn't buy thebest.
I now have T-5's, over a 90 gal tank, 15 gal wet/dry, basically sump with a aqua skimmer (probably the best thing I have bought), I use to feed once a week, flake or frozen. Now I feed all the fancy this that and the other thing, about 2 times a week, with the selcon and sometimes fresh garlic. I have cut that back from about 3-4 times a week.
I bought the T-5's in Sept., my 14 year old pump quit in Oct. , now I am running a quiet one 6000, which I do not think is pumping nearlly what the old one did, but it was so old I had no idea what it was so I couldn't replace it with the same thing. I have 3 power heads running for more water movement, I have cheato in the sump, no filter material, I have tried running phosphate remover and carbon, both kent, for the last several months, but things look even worse when I do, so I have removed them last week. ( Yes I did replace them often), and I was using some filter material for about a month, to see if that would clean things up, removingand replacing it after every cleaning, which for the last 2 months have been about 20% wc weekly, no improvements.
I house one blue devil damsel, one maroon clown, one cleaner shrimp, I had 3 peppermints that have disappeared slowly over the last 4 months.
For corals, I have 3 hairy mushrooms (one is a large rock with 9 mushrooms) all of these look terrible, and the green striped mushrooms I had, were spreading but have all died in the last week. A sebae anemone that was purchased with the clown in Sept. was bleached and tiny, now is the size of a basketball and a nice tan, brown. A success for now anyway.
All my zoas have been closed for months now, after more then tripling in size. I have green star polyps that are still spreading, but can hardly open with all the hair algae. My yellow poylps have spread then close up and die back. My colt coral is spreading like wild fire and is now about 20 from the mother I bought back in Dec. of 06. The xenias I traded at Christmas of 07 have more than tripled and are starting to cover my tower/overflow. My frogspawn I bought in Nov, opened beautiful for about 3 months and over the last 3 weeeks is just about done for, it doe not expand anymore, I have moved it to a qt, no improvement.
I don't have a ton of hermits or snails, I never had a ton, but I think maybe they are dwindling too.
I think about 3 months ago I started to slowly switch out the cc for a sand bed, but not deep, the cc wasn't either though, I have bb under my rocks and just had the cc, now sand up front about 1-2" deep just for looks.
My tests are temp 75-76, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 13 nitrates,(which were 0 for the last year when I had the cc), 400 calcium, mag, not sure my test kit is really hard to read, but according to the tests it is way high 1400-1600 and has been for months, which should actually help my algae, ph seems low 7.8-8,0, alk and kd are in the range they should be have been consistant for the last 3 months or more. phosphates test 0, on tab water, tank water, RO water.
I have even switched my salt to the expensive tropic marine pro, (after seeing very, very successful tanks that run only this salt), I thought at this point anything was worth trying.
I have now used a whole bucket of salt and the tank still looks BAD.
Now that I have wrote a book, what to you think? This is hair algae, it is slimy and on everything, it gets icky air bubbles all over it within minutes of blowing them off. Sure do appreciate any advice or help.

I replaced my R/O unit about 6 months ago(the expensive filter) and all the other filters in Jan.
I have just now replaced carbon and micron filter last weekend and added a DI unit.

My goodness! You must be really frustrated, especially since you are doing the right things. I was recently reading something and it suggested that the slimy HA is actually a cyanobacteria and can actually produce its own food. So even if there are not nutrients in the tank the algae does not starve.

That doesn't sound good! But your reply did make me laugh for just a second, thanks:agree:
Actually I read a thread, I think it was in the general section about someone who had a green flim algae, after reading that, my problem seems minor. That poor person really has tried everything and it comes back within hours:wow:
I just did a 30 gal water change about 3 days ago and I think I see a ever so tiny patch of stone showing, could it be I have tipped the scales in my favor? One can only hope. The clown still has some of the whitish slime on his fins, but does appear to look slightly better and still is eating well.

.I'd keep on with the water changes at least weekly.

ok, left field here we come!


HA is prob consuming your nutrients, giving a normal parameters perception. any slip in maintanence? besides the obvous...lol

secondly fish, just like use, can sometimes have different emotion states based on whats happening around them. example - large base from the party music last weekend, plenty of close attention, fish gets abit stressed, scuffs a rock, loses some of its slime coating, gets stung & all the whilst your at the glass saying whats that white looking stuff! I know what your saying though, you weren't home & came back to find him this way - so i was just using this as an example ok.

If your tanks just getting an attack of the ugly's, your other tank mates are looking ok, then its prob a product of the environment, your doing everything correct, new carbon ect, uping the water changes, basicly corrective action!

Unless it shows signs of destinct desease or parasite characteristics ect ect, then without seeing a pic, i can from a distance say your fine! ;)

just as a side note, keep in mind that it could be a bi-product of hosting in the anem, chemical changes or reactions between these to organisms havn't been fully explained yet!

THat is interesting. THe anemone and the maroon, that is. THe anemone has been acting differently lately, because of the decrease in lights, he closes up at night and doesn't open as big all day long like he did before, and that is confusing my maroon. sometimes he just hangs out below the anemone instead of in it. Something was strange yesterday. The damsel and the maroon stuck side by side ALL day, with in inches of each other, right under the anemone. You would have thought they were a mated pair protecting their eggs. Very strange.

Carmie, I read up on the cyano, scarey stuff, if it is as progressed as mine, it can actually give off harmful ammonia, nitrite and organics that become unmeasurable, because it is stored within itself! Until it releases it.
Probably everytime I blow off all the bubbles so goes all of these nasties too! Stressing everything in the tank.

i will keep up with the water changes, I have increased the lighting a touch, for the anemones sake, and I have a 38 QT I just set up, that I might start pulling out some of the rocks and see if they will clean up in this tank. It might be worth a try, especially if they are releasing harmful things into the main set- up. It might make more sense to remove the fish into the QT, but that can be stressful too. I am at a toss up at this point.

Thanks guys for your support.

I think that I would QT rocks instead of fish, being mindful that you will have reduced the carrying capacity of the aquarium and may need more water changes. I am going to be lazy and not read back through the thread; have you tried scrubbing the rocks in a bucket of change out water?

.
I HAVE DISCOVERED THE PROBLEM!!!!!!!!:D
I tore my main pump out, a huge job. I have been complaining about it not being as good as my old one, no wonder, it was completely clogged with chaeto. I can not believe ANY water was
getting through it at all. :eek:
Seems like a no brainer to check something like that first, but my husband was fighting me every step of the way on tearing it out. He kept insisting it was fine and I was crazy!
Lessoned learned ALWAYS go with your gut instinct.
Everything looks better this morning, including clown, I hope he makes it, he is now in the anemone, which looks awesome this morning. They are a happy pair again.:up:

:dance: Hooray! :dance:

OK , now it looks like the clown is definitly in trouble. He no longer has any whitish film on him, but his eyes are still cloudy and his fins are now fraying! So, it looks like I need to do something quick. I have furan 2 on hand ( for fin rot), but I hate to use medicine if I don't have to, any suggestions or experience with this??

Do you have a QT tank? Fin rot is often a water quality problem. I'd pull him out of the DT and give him a place of his own with great water quality. You may not need to treat if you improve water quality.

Sorry, I have been not at the computer.
I have been watching him to see if doing wc in the dt tank would stop the fraying. It is hard to tell. His eyes seem to be not cloudy any more, both his fins are frayed on his pectoral fins, but none of the others.

I do have a 38 gal that I set up about 2 weeks ago. This is where I was QT some of the live rock probably about 35-40 lbs of it, with coral, on it. The tank reads 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrites, but the corals really do not seem to have improved since I put them in their about 5-6 days ago, which makes me wonder if the fish would even like it, or if the stress of catching and moving him would make him worse. This is fresh saltwater with ro/di water, lights, 2 power heads, heater and about an inch of sand in the bottom, and 2 snails and 2 hermit crabs.

Do you think it is worth the risk of transfering him or should I keep watching him in the DT tank for another couple days? If any other fins start to fray then transfer him?

I think that the fact that his eyes have cleared up is a very positive sign. Frayed fins are often a water quality issue so I'd probably keep doing water changes and monitoring him in the DT.

Thanks Carmie, your advice is greatly appreciated.