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Pet Forum / Aquaria / Marine Reef / August 2003HELP! Why are my fish dieing
I have a 120 gal tank w/DSB, Berlin Skimmer, 20 gal sump. The tank has been set up and running for over a year with this setup. About 3 months ago I lost my first and only coral after that my water turned cloudy. My pH is 8.1, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, S.G. is 1.024 temp 82 F. When the coral died I had just lost a Purple Tang that had been living in the tank for 2 months I had a Banded coral shrimp which I just removed from the tank I did several water changes back in june totaling about 80 gals. and the water remained cloudy. I took a couple months off where I did nothing to the tank but keep everything running. during the entire time all test were as I mentioned above. The water is still cloudy but is clearing up slowly. This week I tried to add 5 fish 3 on 1 occasion 2 on another all fish died within 24 hrs. I slowly acclimatized the fish before introducing them into my tank. I am not new to the hobby and have been keeping S.W. fish for 15 yrs. The fish were purchased from two different stores days apart. dose anyone have any ideal what is going wrong what am I missing? Kelly, sounds to me like something might have got accidentally dropped in the tank. reminds me of a time when an ex-brother-in-law's 1 yrs old son dropped a stick of deodorant into his tank. as it dissolved and slowly escaped the tube the deodorant killed all life in the tank, and clouded the water. it was hide behind some rockwork and couldn't be easily seen, all test showed acceptable limits. (haven't seen a test for deodorant in the aquarium yet). might want to give the tank a very thorough look over for anything that might have got knocked in and is causing your problems. ALSO CHECK FOR ANY RIO PUMPS. they can/will do the exact things you describe. if you find nothing then try running carbon a few Weeks and see if you cloudiness goes away, if not might have to take the tank completely down and start anew with a thorough cleaning of all rock and sand. HTH kc > I have a 120 gal tank w/DSB, Berlin Skimmer, 20 gal sump. > The tank has been set up and running for over a year with this setup. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > The fish were purchased from two different stores days apart. > dose anyone have any ideal what is going wrong what am I missing? Nothin'' in the tank that don't belong. NEVER had a Rio pump never will Though I don't often post here I do often read what is said and try to learn from it. Thanks > Kelly, > [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] >>The fish were purchased from two different stores days apart. >>dose anyone have any ideal what is going wrong what am I missing? HI. Thanks for pointing out your expertise. I, like another poster, think you may have something toxic in there. Also I was thinking that you may also have a bacterial bloom, or pollution of some type. When you say cloudiness, what does it look like, say when you look through one end of the tank? Also, this may seem strange but is important, what does you water smell like? Say compared to a known "clean" tank. It may not be strongly aromatic but there may be some clue there. Just a couple of thoughts. Glenn > I have a 120 gal tank w/DSB, Berlin Skimmer, 20 gal sump. > The tank has been set up and running for over a year with this setup. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > The fish were purchased from two different stores days apart. > dose anyone have any ideal what is going wrong what am I missing? I am far from even having a clue about SW, but my FW tanks did the same thing. After running without Livestock for a while I had to cycle the tank all over. Is it possible that 2 months without Livestock or Coral, that the tank is dead and needs to be cleaned and cycled as if a new tank? JOhn :-) > I have a 120 gal tank w/DSB, Berlin Skimmer, 20 gal sump. > The tank has been set up and running for over a year with this setup. [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > The fish were purchased from two different stores days apart. > dose anyone have any ideal what is going wrong what am I missing? Did you check the water quality? Any surges of unexpected toxins in your water like an RO membrane malfunctioning? Wouldn't explain the cloudiness though? It seems some sort of toxin / pollutant has been released in your system. Just my 2 cents. Richard  Signature"..A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti..." Hannibal "The Cannibal" Silence Of The Lambs 1991 Thanks but my RO is working fine. I am looking at the toxin idea sounds the most likely. The only possible source for it would have been the coral that died. I'm going to add carbon to the filter and do some more water changes. The cloudiness is about gone looked sort of like when a power head gets pointed at the sand. > Did you check the water quality? Any surges of unexpected toxins in your > water like an RO membrane malfunctioning? Wouldn't explain the [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Richard Hi Kelly. I like your thinking on this, re the dying coral may have contributed. Anemones are known to seriously pollute a tank when they die and you do not detect it quickly enough, I am no expert on corals but I suspect dying corals can do a number as well. If the cloudiness has just about cleared up then we may be chasing a problem that no longer exists. Some organisms are more susceptible to toxins than others. I lost a few fish due to toxins once, including a hardy Damsel. My Humu-Humu is the only fish that survived as well as a cleaner shrimp. Go figger! Took me a over week to clear the tank up with 90% water changes daily then gradually scaling back the percentage and frequency. I did those water changes not only to clear the system up but also because I dumped the filter and media and hooked up another one; suspecting that my toxic problem was originating from something that got into the filtration system. Turned out I was right for that instance. Good luck. Glenn > Thanks but my RO is working fine. > I am looking at the toxin idea sounds the most likely. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >> >> Richard > My Humu-Humu is the > only fish that survived as well as a cleaner shrimp. Go figger! its a surprise that the cleaner shirmp survived with the trigger at all. kc Yeah. For some reason the humu-humu did not consider it as prey. It would not have lasted 5 seconds with my clown trigger. I "discovered" the shrimp in the tank, I did not put it in and was surprised to see it. I do not know how it got in the system nor how long it had been there until I saw it one day. I just left things alone and all went fine. Even stranger, the Humu-Humu did not like getting cleaned by the cleaner wrasse I had but it had/has no problems with the shrimp cleaning it. As I said, go figger. Glenn >>My Humu-Humu is the >>only fish that survived as well as a cleaner shrimp. Go figger! > > its a surprise that the cleaner shirmp survived with the trigger at all. > > kc Any pest/bug spraying near the tank? Recently had a die-off in an outdoor pond of my koi. After testing everything I could think of, cleaning totally 3 times, changing the water literally 10 times, I finally figured out what happened. Pond auto-fill malfunctioned and kept overflowing water into an area that had been sprayed for wasps nearly a year ago. Wasp spray then could get into the pond and is HIGHLY toxic to fish. When I turned off the autofill so that the pond could not overflow, solved problem. Just a thought. |
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