Bad Salt? No Survivors

[Danno]

Having a very bad day. I'm not sure what happened. I have a 45 gal FO /w 45lb of live rock. This tank has been running w/o problems since 2001. I have always used Instant Ocean salt. Saturday I made up a 10 gal batch like I do monthly only with new box of salt. I had the water temp at 80, salinity at .021, aerated for 24 hours. Monday AM I siphoned off 9 gal and added the new water. Turned one of the aerators up on one of the circulation pumps and watched everything for 10 min. Everything appeared fine. I went outside and came back in 1 hour later and every fish is DEAD!
I keep my mixing pails clean and are not used for anything else EVER! I did a water test for what I could. PH normal, Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, ammonia 0. I am both devastated and lost as to what could have done this. The only thing I changed was the water. I find it hard to believe the salt was bad but I did nothing else but change the filters in the filter like I have every other time. I have been doing this same routine for the last 5 years and these fish have all been in the tank for that time. Any advice welcome.
I can not trace back any contamination. I'm lost.

 

[SnowManSnow]

obvious question,

but.. are you sure your salinity was correct? Were you using a swing arm or a refractometer?

Just somthing to consider.

B.

 

[Anonymous]

hmmm, fish usually have a little more constiution than that, even if it was a swing arm, if it was +/- .005 then you got hyposalinity conditions which shouldn't kill the fish, and the other end you have a nice reef tank (although the fish won't like that switch).

1) Did you have any "dangerous" type inverts? Cucumbers, sea apples, other things that release toxins when they die/stressed?

2) Any fish that release toxins? Boxfish are known for this

3) Was it tap water? Did you add dechlorinator?

Something other than bad salt might be the cause

 

[Danno]

I was using a swing arm. I have 2 one is 8 months old the other is 2 months. I ran into that problem when I first started. Now I buy a new swing arm every 6 months. throw the oldest one out and always test using both. I can always see the difference with the older one. Even with good cleaning after every use the older ones seem to read lower than what the new one does. That was the first thing I thought of. I am going to take a water sample into the LFS tonight to see if they can find anything diff. I'm thinking of selling all the LR and pulling the plug on this. It just bummed me so bad. I just dont get it.

 

[SnowManSnow]

no!

get back on the horse! let's lean and be better for it!

You can do it man!

sorry bout the loss btw

 

[Danno]

I use tap water with a decorticator like I always have for the last 5 years. I always let the new water aerate for at least 24-48 hours for everything to evaporate and mix well. I had a Coralbeauity, 2 Yellowtail damsels, and a Yellow Tang. I know before everyone goes blasting me for having a yellow tang in that small of a tank It was a rescue case. Better than dieing at the local petco. He had live well for 5 years and enjoyed playing with the coarlbeauty. He was partially why I kept the tank population to 4 fish.
I have still some Green Metallic Mushrooms that’s it for softies. I haven't seen my 4 reef crabs ether. Not good.

 

[Anonymous]

Have you mixed up any of this new salt and tested it to make sure something was in fact wrong with the salt?

Do you have any kids? I think you know where I am going with that one. Pissed off the wife/girlfriend last night 8O ?

 

[Danno]

Not the wife or kids. Wife likes the tank but has no interest and Kids were gone. The first question I asked if someone had used one of my pails for anything. No guilty looking faces there. I rinsed everything with hot water before I used it and let air dry. The salt is the only "new" thing in my routine. I am sure I'm missing something and have no one to blame but myself but I cant figure out what. All your suggestions help and keep me looking at something I missed.

 

[jusreefin]

I use tap water with a decorticator like I always have for the last 5 years. I always let the new water aerate for at least 24-48 hours for everything to evaporate and mix well. I had a Coralbeauity, 2 Yellowtail damsels, and a Yellow Tang. I know before everyone goes blasting me for having a yellow tang in that small of a tank It was a rescue case. Better than dieing at the local petco. He had live well for 5 years and enjoyed playing with the coarlbeauty. He was partially why I kept the tank population to 4 fish.
I have still some Green Metallic Mushrooms that’s it for softies. I haven't seen my 4 reef crabs ether. Not good.

Call you local water co. maybe they had a spike in something in the water that day. Also by a Refractometer rather then wasting money on a new float arm every six months!

IMO it sounds like your water had some type of poision in it that was deadly to your fish!

 

[ChrisRD]

I agree - sounds like it could have been something in the water. Are you on a well or a public water system?

I had a friend have the same thing happen to him once. He also used tapwater to do a water change on a fish-only system. He was on a public water system and in the end, that was all we could come-up with (possible contaminant in the water).

Sorry to hear about your loss.

 

[Danno]

Yes we do have public water, which has never been a problem in the past. I will call them today and see if they did something different. Usually letting the water sit for 2 days airating gets rid of all the crap they put in it. I did RO for a while but our water bills were just off the wall so I quit. Having second thoughts now. That was 4 years ago though. W/o the RO running we pay over $200 every 3 months. Its nutz.

 

[jusreefin]

I hear ya. My water will be metered starting next year and it's something I'm not looking forward to. It already cost me at least $100 mo in electricity to run the tank and if water is going to be expensive I may have to find another hobby or get a smaller tank!

 

[saltank]

Just a thought; but I know there have been times when we have been on a very poorly communicated "boil water" alert due to water main breaks or leaks (usually hit during construction of some sort).

Also heavy rains or flooding can cause a backup in the sewer system and create the "boil" alert for public water - don't know if you have had any of that in your area.

The last time we found out about the "boil" alert 2 days after it was in effect; needless to say we don't drink tap water any more.

Sorry for your loss!

 

[jusreefin]

Ya water companies suck at notifying the public. We got a letter from the Agency that does the testing of our Public water stating are water district had not submitted the required # of test and had been fined for this. COme to find out there were excessive levels of some sort and we were never notified until we got this letter. Needless to say we have been drinking bottled water ever since!

 

[saltank]

Any house cleaning/ use of household chemicals lately? Perhaps near the tank or the waterchange buckets?

 

[Danno]

I received a private message from beaslbob and he asked if any flee repellent could have come in contact with the water......My reply:

Oh my God I wonder if...when you said flee repellent. I put a new tick and flee collor on my dog 2 weeks ago and have not done a water change since then. I might not of washed my hands when I was mixing the salt. I rember telling the dog to stay away from the pails, She is a 2 year old Golden and very helpful, too much so at times. If I probably even petted her wearing her tick/flea collor I bet I contaminated the water when I mixed it. I was very carful to wash myself and all cleaning tubes and pails before I started. But the damage was already done. I knew I was missing something right in front of me but couldnt see it. Danm now I really fell dumb. Things we do everyday seem so non-important can be deadly to a closed system like that. Thanks for helping me figure it out.
I will post a rebutal and warning so some one doesnt have to go through what I did.

I'm not 100% sure this is what happened but it is the only other change.One little over site is deadly. Thanks for all the suggestions I knew something would trigger me to what went wrong. All the different questions really helped. Thanks all. I guess its time to drain and wash the tank, rinse all the rock and start the cycle all over. (With ou the help of the dog) . Thanks all. Danno

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry Danno! Insecticide could do that...another idea I had would be to check and make sure you don't have a piece of equipment malfunctioning and putting current into the water.

Did your inverts die as well?

 

[gregx]

Hair spray in the air doesnt help either. Id take a closer look at your wife.

 

[bubblepuffer]

sound like the whole tank got poisoned... normally aquarium test kit will not able to detect any poison in the tank...