all my fish died
- Thread starter chargher
- Start date
- Location
- Flushing, NY
Like mentioned above, ammonia and nitrite can kill a fish. You should be testing for those instead.
And next time mix the water in a separate container before adding to the tank so you can make sure the salinity is correct. undissolved salt can burn corals flesh off and with salt actively melting in the tank, it causes a huge imbalance of salinity all over the tank
And next time mix the water in a separate container before adding to the tank so you can make sure the salinity is correct. undissolved salt can burn corals flesh off and with salt actively melting in the tank, it causes a huge imbalance of salinity all over the tank
- Location
- Flushing, NY
nitrates are not important at this stage. we can usually assume this did not cause your fish to die. it would be ammonia or nitrites or other toxic stuff like oil on your hand or deodorant.
and you used the test kit wrong. the directions should say to use less tank water when testing for high range.
on the phone with kathy she allowed me to call her at 2 am, I did what I can at the moment well have to wait in the morning see what happened, my tang has calmed down alittle bit. Ming and azt thanks my salintly level is stable 1.022 ( see if this changes in the morning)
- Location
- Queens
I hope your fish made it man.. How are you measuring your salt? Did Kathy help you figure out what went wrong? Throwing salt into a tank is never a good idea.. You should always try to match the temperature, ph and salinity levels in the new water with the water in the tank.. Hope you're fish are well..
The salt mix was my first thought too, you must have just pour in a cup of salt in to the main tank. The will shock and probally kill everything. Yuo had the tank up and runnning for 6mo? when did the fish start dying? was it after you put your hand in the tank?
I suspect that it's a collaboration of things.
-It was improper salt mixing
-High Nitrates (he said 165....)
-Possible elements from his hand
-Improper usage of the test kit
-Probably ammonia and nitrite are present as well
-It was improper salt mixing
-High Nitrates (he said 165....)
-Possible elements from his hand
-Improper usage of the test kit
-Probably ammonia and nitrite are present as well
I woke up this morning and saw nothing moving in my tank, as i looked under the rocks I saw my peppermint shrimp (who last night was on his side with no sign of moving) cleaning my tang!!!! My Temp, sal was good at the moment, I was so glad to see that my tang was still alive. This couldnt be possible without you guys especially kathy. I threw salt in there without mixing which was extremly dumb but the levels turned out ok, I also put tap water kathy told me to put stree coat which im sure help +++.
Again thank you so much guys I felt that if all was dead i would quit the hobby it took so much time and effort to get this thing going, I have to start over but not from the begining,
My coral bandit made it and so did mos tof my snails, hermit crabs, my zoa are out so Im guessing there ok. The superman coral not showing simular colors and my green plate( not sure exact name) has some hairy possibly slimy stuff on it so does my anemone should I pull these guys out of the tank?
After school im going to pet store whats my next big move I know I need kits, nitrite and ammonia, also should I get something to control nitrate?
Again i lost so much but gain knowledge, tang was feed and he ate so thats +....:snail:
Im going to add more rock sometime this week and just let the tank settle with one fish and the corals i have remaining until I feel its ready to get more fish and corals.
Again thanks guys..
Again thank you so much guys I felt that if all was dead i would quit the hobby it took so much time and effort to get this thing going, I have to start over but not from the begining,
My coral bandit made it and so did mos tof my snails, hermit crabs, my zoa are out so Im guessing there ok. The superman coral not showing simular colors and my green plate( not sure exact name) has some hairy possibly slimy stuff on it so does my anemone should I pull these guys out of the tank?
After school im going to pet store whats my next big move I know I need kits, nitrite and ammonia, also should I get something to control nitrate?
Again i lost so much but gain knowledge, tang was feed and he ate so thats +....:snail:
Im going to add more rock sometime this week and just let the tank settle with one fish and the corals i have remaining until I feel its ready to get more fish and corals.
Again thanks guys..
- Location
- Vernon, NJ
if the salinity is stable Leave it alone! remove the dead or dying livestock and leave it alone let everything stabilize.
from what I read you are moving way too fast blindly, nothing good happens fast in a saltwater aquarium! good luck
from what I read you are moving way too fast blindly, nothing good happens fast in a saltwater aquarium! good luck
- Location
- Vernon, NJ
retired SCUBA TEAM
how is the tank doing today?
the key to a successful tank is stability. good luck!
I doubt low sality would have caused massive die off (I think corals would've melt down before fish died off) and neither the high nitrate. I do agree with the fact you should let the tank reestablish on its own.
I do have few questions though trying to see if i can help pinpoint the problem(s) (not that I can for sure) in order to avoid from happening again..
How deep is your sand bed and how often do you disturbed the bed if at all (maybe Hydrogen sulfide)?
Do you have good amt of Cyano/slimy algae growing in large amt which are known to produce toxic Gas?
Was your tank overstocked to point maybe high amt of CO2 accumulated overnight ?(I doubt if have sump/protein skimmer running).
I hope your tank stablizes soon w/o further loss!
I do have few questions though trying to see if i can help pinpoint the problem(s) (not that I can for sure) in order to avoid from happening again..
How deep is your sand bed and how often do you disturbed the bed if at all (maybe Hydrogen sulfide)?
Do you have good amt of Cyano/slimy algae growing in large amt which are known to produce toxic Gas?
Was your tank overstocked to point maybe high amt of CO2 accumulated overnight ?(I doubt if have sump/protein skimmer running).
I hope your tank stablizes soon w/o further loss!
I believe Mo is at school at this point..so I'll try and fill in a little info that might help out with some of the questions...
First off..all of his fish had not died when he originally posted. His tang (no idea what kind) and at least a couple of damsels were still alive when we were speaking at 2 am. I know the tang is still with us
)) though I have doubts that the damsels made it due to how they were acting (they were spiraling).
There is some indication that there may be ich in the tank, but at this time I have suggested he not try and move any remaining fish.
I also have serious concerns that he had an elevated ammonia level from the get-go, and if so, a high nitrite level as well. I think he still has some of that original water saved and hope that he tests it when he gets back home tonight with the new test kits.
I had traded messages with him briefly yesterday when he posted (he was at school at that point) and suggested he run the tests when he got home and then do a 'water change as large as you can' based on my belief that he had high ammonia...and post the results. Unfortunately (and I give him credit for admiting this on the boards today), he made 2 massive errors..he used untreated tap water and he forgot to add the salt.
Hence our 2 AM phone call.
His salinity was at 1.019 when I reached him, but of more concern to me was the chlorine from the tap water and the huge PH swing (what I expect was affecting the damsels and inverts)
Luckily he had Stresscoat in the house and I had him add the appropriate dose immediately to get rid of the chlorine (his skimmer did not go beserk for those wondering). I also instructed him to pull out any dead animals, inverts. He had already started to add the salt directly to the tank (I know, and so does he!) so I had him remove 5 gallons and bring that up to 1.025 and add it back into the tank. That brought the tank to 1.022 and I told him to leave well enough alone for the overnight as it might continue to increase from whatever salt still hadn't melted.
We spoke about some of the things that he needs to do at this point and I applaud him for taking in as much info as he did at 2 in the morning.
He is picking up test kits today..and on his list he also had a refractometer, and the requirement to only use rodi water from here on out. He is also going to leave the tank to stabilize at this point and make no other changes other than to remove dead items asap and to get back in touch if he has more questions. I'm also hoping to stop over there this weekend..and if I can't I'm going to ask Nanoreefer if he can since he is nearby
I'm sure the MR community will step up and help get him where he needs to be to become a successful reefer :grouphug:
So Mo...my questions..
How did the anenome make out?
Damsels?
Didja get the test kits ..we want to see the results!
Tang still doing ok?
Hope you don't mind that I added the info above
First off..all of his fish had not died when he originally posted. His tang (no idea what kind) and at least a couple of damsels were still alive when we were speaking at 2 am. I know the tang is still with us
)) though I have doubts that the damsels made it due to how they were acting (they were spiraling).There is some indication that there may be ich in the tank, but at this time I have suggested he not try and move any remaining fish.
I also have serious concerns that he had an elevated ammonia level from the get-go, and if so, a high nitrite level as well. I think he still has some of that original water saved and hope that he tests it when he gets back home tonight with the new test kits.
I had traded messages with him briefly yesterday when he posted (he was at school at that point) and suggested he run the tests when he got home and then do a 'water change as large as you can' based on my belief that he had high ammonia...and post the results. Unfortunately (and I give him credit for admiting this on the boards today), he made 2 massive errors..he used untreated tap water and he forgot to add the salt.
Hence our 2 AM phone call.
His salinity was at 1.019 when I reached him, but of more concern to me was the chlorine from the tap water and the huge PH swing (what I expect was affecting the damsels and inverts)
Luckily he had Stresscoat in the house and I had him add the appropriate dose immediately to get rid of the chlorine (his skimmer did not go beserk for those wondering). I also instructed him to pull out any dead animals, inverts. He had already started to add the salt directly to the tank (I know, and so does he!) so I had him remove 5 gallons and bring that up to 1.025 and add it back into the tank. That brought the tank to 1.022 and I told him to leave well enough alone for the overnight as it might continue to increase from whatever salt still hadn't melted.
We spoke about some of the things that he needs to do at this point and I applaud him for taking in as much info as he did at 2 in the morning.
He is picking up test kits today..and on his list he also had a refractometer, and the requirement to only use rodi water from here on out. He is also going to leave the tank to stabilize at this point and make no other changes other than to remove dead items asap and to get back in touch if he has more questions. I'm also hoping to stop over there this weekend..and if I can't I'm going to ask Nanoreefer if he can since he is nearby
I'm sure the MR community will step up and help get him where he needs to be to become a successful reefer :grouphug:
So Mo
...my questions..How did the anenome make out?
Damsels?
Didja get the test kits ..we want to see the results!
Tang still doing ok?
Hope you don't mind that I added the info above
I can not see NH3 and NO2 spikes unless something disturbed bio-activities, especially with decent amt of LR. Only time from my eperiences with many s/w tanks is when too many were added and/or massive water changes were performed.
Whatever it may be, i just hope thing recover well!
Whatever it may be, i just hope thing recover well!
- Location
- Long Island
Ive been on this site for a year now, and just wanted to commend everybody for pitching in as much as they did ( especially you Kathy, even though we never met ). You once helped me out with my Black Tang that had ick.....remember ? This is what reefing is all about. ......and this is what Manhatten Reefs is all about ! Bravo !
Not enough live rock, high bio-load, I can't answer about the water changes but the skimmer had only been on the tank for 2 weeks, the prior skimmer (5 1/2 months maybe?) did nothing. I wasn't aware of the skimmer info until we had things partly stabilized. Overfeeding also leads to ammonia accumulation if filtration is insufficient
Hi Sandy
..yes, I recall..I rarely forget a fish, and I remember you did all you could too! One of these days, we'll have to make a point of meeting - Location
- Long Island
Definately.............either at the frag swap or at Wonderful World of Fish ( If you ever go there )
Ok guys sucks I get home form work so late, here is the deal I did not get a chance to get the test kits I know I really need them but school was rough today. my yellow Tang and bubble tip ( two things I thought were most sensitive) are doing ok. My tang still seems weak but he is swimming around and eating. I keep some zoa and super man coral since they seemes ok, my green plate coral was removed so was my haitian anemone ( i was not sure if it was alive i debated to keep it or not but the stuff on it made me get rid of it) my damsels are ok. So I have rock, tang, bubble tip and a few zoa and my coral bandit and pep shrimp who all made it.
Thanks again guys, Kathy told me about the swap comming up in april Im def down seems like an experience I cannot miss and I want to hug all you guys
PS: I was so happy to see my pep shrimp was was basically upside down walking around!
Im def getting test kits tomorrow around 12pm I will test asap and post, I also kept the old water im going to test that, Im still curious what happened!!!!! Could of been my hand, could of been my lack of testing, not sure but a lesson was taught here.
Thanks again guys, Kathy told me about the swap comming up in april Im def down seems like an experience I cannot miss and I want to hug all you guys
PS: I was so happy to see my pep shrimp was was basically upside down walking around!
Im def getting test kits tomorrow around 12pm I will test asap and post, I also kept the old water im going to test that, Im still curious what happened!!!!! Could of been my hand, could of been my lack of testing, not sure but a lesson was taught here.
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