Everything is dying!!!

R

radtech1976

New member
Ok I've had my 60 gallon salt water tank for about 3 years. And everything has been great for the most part. Until yesterday. I don't know what's going on but in the last 24 hours I've lost 80% of my fish. The water test came back perfect. The fish showed no sign of distress before they died. Salt level was a little low but I corrected that. I have no idea what's going on so I have no ideas how to fix it. Please if anyone has any info please help.

Thanks,
James
 
Watch the fish carefully. Is there signs of mucus on the skin? What about the gills, are they moving fast? Any sign of distress to their fins? How are the invertebrates doing, if you have any?

What exactly are your water test results and what brand are you using? Have you added anything new to the tank recently? Light settings? Do you have kids (or friends) that might have added something without your knowledge? There are so many variables.
 
No signs of mucus or anything goi on with the fish. And there gils didn't appear to be movin faster than before. The first thing that died was my blood shrimp. But I have a few emerald crabs, a couple hermits and snails and they are all fine (as far as I can tell) the last thing I added was a sand shifter about 2 months ago but nothing since. I've had the same light for the past 18 months and my son loves the fish and he can't reach the top of the tank to add anything. I just have the marine land master test kit you can get at any fish store.
This has totally come out of left field and I hate not being able to fix the problem.
 
Can you post your parameters? Look at the fish and other animals very carefully, is there any redness around the gills? I know this is hard to do and you are panicking but you need to take a deep breath and watch them carefully. Usually the first advice given here is to do a massive water change. There might be something that somehow got into the tank and that will help dilute whatever it may be.

How many fish have you lost?

If you have a UV sterilizer now might also be a good time to turn it on. In my book every little thing helps.

something else just came to mind, if you have live rock, have you re-arranged it recently?
 
Ok I'll give a massive water change when I get home. Sadly I'm at work now. I've lost my blood shrimp, a coral beauty, flame angel, sand shifter, 4 green chromis and a goby firefish. My yellow tang orbit bat fish and 2 clowns are still living. I haven't really rearranged the rock other than just setting one back up if it fell. No UV sterilizer but if it helps I'll add one. Thanks
 
If you don't have one I doubt you need one. Some people use them, some don't. I have two for the tank here at work because we have kids reaching into it several times a day to touch the animals and who knows what they are carrying on their hands.
 
was anything sprayed near the tank, like a smell goo spray, or did pest control come spray in your house. Just some ideas to think about. My buddy lost his 40B livestock from his teenager cleaning the house and sprayed cleaner and smell goods around the tank.
 
scooter31707 said:
was anything sprayed near the tank, like a smell goo spray, or did pest control come spray in your house. Just some ideas to think about. My buddy lost his 40B livestock from his teenager cleaning the house and sprayed cleaner and smell goods around the tank.
Click to expand...

Yeah some type of aerosol contamination sounds possible. Considering both inverts and fish are effected. I would do a large water change and put in new carbon.
 
If you've got a multimeter test the water......... Take an extension cord run to another socket and put your ground probe into the ground receptacle.... the place your red probe into the water. It should read 0... anything higher and you've got current in the water.
 
I didn't think to check the voltage. I do have power heads and heaters in the tank so that is possible. Thanks. I'm terrified to see what I'm coming home too. I pray that nothing more has died
 
Why are you not answering the question? What was the salinity that you said was a bit low? What did you correct it to, and how quickly? This could be the cause. Although fish can handle a drop in salinity, any increase must be done SLOWLY - often over days.
 
I would bet on the electrical issue myself. That was my first thought. I had that problem once and lost a fish or two and two inverts before I figured it out.
 
radtech1976 said:
Ok I've had my 60 gallon salt water tank for about 3 years. And everything has been great for the most part. Until yesterday. I don't know what's going on but in the last 24 hours I've lost 80% of my fish. The water test came back perfect. The fish showed no sign of distress before they died. Salt level was a little low but I corrected that. I have no idea what's going on so I have no ideas how to fix it. Please if anyone has any info please help.

Thanks,
James
Click to expand...

radtech1976 said:
No signs of mucus or anything goi on with the fish. And there gils didn't appear to be movin faster than before. The first thing that died was my blood shrimp. But I have a few emerald crabs, a couple hermits and snails and they are all fine (as far as I can tell) the last thing I added was a sand shifter about 2 months ago but nothing since. I've had the same light for the past 18 months and my son loves the fish and he can't reach the top of the tank to add anything. I just have the marine land master test kit you can get at any fish store.
This has totally come out of left field and I hate not being able to fix the problem.
Click to expand...

thelawnwrangler said:
how low was your salt level and how fast did you correct it?
Click to expand...

radtech1976 said:
Ok I'll give a massive water change when I get home. Sadly I'm at work now. I've lost my blood shrimp, a coral beauty, flame angel, sand shifter, 4 green chromis and a goby firefish. My yellow tang orbit bat fish and 2 clowns are still living. I haven't really rearranged the rock other than just setting one back up if it fell. No UV sterilizer but if it helps I'll add one. Thanks
Click to expand...

It could have been any one of many things, more likely a combination of things cascaded out of control to the point where you are now.

Actual water parameters would help a lot, but just going by your stocking list, your tank was hopelessly overcrowded and it was just a question of when something was going to happen.

The sand sifter (a starfish I assume?) undoubtedly decimated the fauna in your sandbed, greatly decreasing it's ability to stabilize your tank.

As for fish - A Coral Beauty, Flame angel, 4 Chromis, Firefish, Yellow Tang, Obicular Batfish and 2 clowns. The Batfish alone can hit 20" in length, and is taller than it is long. The Tang needs a longer tank to keep from stressing. Two Dwarf Angels might get along in a 120. Maybe. And 6 members of the Clown family.


I really don't want to sound like I'm bashing you, but my best guess is that something got picked to death and the ammonia it gave off as it decayed triggered the rest.

Test your water, do a HUGE water change (or 2), run a bunch of carbon and change it out is a few days, and whatever is left might make it. If you have a Hospital or QT tank, you might want to mix up fresh water and move the survivors there until things are under control

Good Luck, and please do keep us informed!
 
Thanks for all your help everyone. I checked the voltage and instead of it being zero. It would spike for a moment to .4 it turned out the power head I had had a short that was causing the issue but at least I have now fixed the issue and managed to save 4 fish. :sad1: It sucks but thank you I would've never thought of checking the voltage of the tank without the advise I got from this forum
 
That's extremely low voltage in my opinion, everybody has voltage in the tank... mines a lot higher than that. You will read voltage if you have any magnetic pumps on your system, doesn't mean anything for wrong.hth
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Midas blenny missing
Replies
5
Views
205
griss
griss
G
Is my anemone dying?
Replies
5
Views
285
Uncle99
Uncle99
S
Tank is not cycling
2 3
Replies
44
Views
521
wvned
wvned
B
Left Tank for a long time, now want to reboot
Replies
8
Views
233
SantaMonica
S
Reignfire
Stray current
2
Replies
31
Views
1K
griss
griss
Back
Top