Help!!! Just lost about 6 fish!

tallreefguy

tallreefguy

New member
I just got home from work and noticed 6 fish are dead randomly around the tank!!!
2 Yellow Tangs, 1 purple tang, 1 blue tank, 1 cardinal, 1 chromis...

The picasso clown, flame angel, rabbit fish, blonde Naso, 1 chromis are alive.
All corals appear to be doing well.

Tank parameters: ph: 8.3, Nitrates 20 ppm, nitrites ammonia undetec., mag. is around 1400. Temp was 80 degrees.

It's been hot here (90's to low 100's) and I run 2x250 watt halides in a canopy with 2 fans on the sides of the canopy and 1 200 CFM fan blowing on the water to keep it cool.

Help! All the dead fish appear to be in good condition (besides that they aren't alive) no dots, no discoloration.

Ideas?!
 
Calcium approx 500, dKH I think was bout 10.
Tank setup: 90 gallon with a decent amount of live rock. Single overflow. Running a fuge in my sump. Run 2 reactors with Rowaphos. I run carbon every now and again. Usually I leave it out. It has been out for probably a week. I just dropped 2 bags in the sump to be safe.

I dose 2 part - Brightwell aquatics for calcium. I also dose some Iodide maybe once a week per instructions on the bottle. Running a Deltec TC2060 skimmer. Viaaqua 3300 return pump.
I feed them once daily at night when I get back home. Brine shrimp or pellets.
I feed the sebae anemone & the Long tentacle plate coral pieces of sliversides about twice a week. I fed them last night.

Temp. was swinging from 80 to 83 with a chiller in the summer. Put the new fan on about 4 days ago - stays between 80 and 81.

What else do we need to know?
 
How long has the tank been set up? That is a HUGE bio-load for a 90. Find it hard to believe that your ammonia reading was at 0.
 
Well, on the surface, that WAS a HUGE bioload for that sized tank. I always prefer to keep any tank at a lower temperature to increase dissolved oxygen levels and keep fish metabolism lowered.
 
Yes, I know it was a crazy bioload for a 90.
I had setup a 100g Breeder tank for just fish, but EVERYTHING was dying. I couldn't figure it out, LFS couldn't figure it out, some other dude who has been doing saltwater for 30 years was baffled as well. So the survivors that I could actually get out of there went into the 90 to keep them alive.
That was about 3-4 months ago.

I guess the bioload evened itself out.
It's been setup for about 10 months
 
Last edited:
The sump was almost out of water when I got home. Return pump looked like it had been sucking up air along with water for awhile, if that helps any...
 
It might be a good idea to get an ATO for your sump to keep the salinity stable. What is the SG, by the way (sorry if I missed it)? Have you verified your ammonia test results? It's possible that your test kit could be bad.
 
I honestly didn't check the flow. I added more water to it, first thing.

Salinity is 1.026.

I thought about an auto top off - Do you recommend any? Any particular setup you find that works really well??

Yes, I do love my tangs..... But I'm very careful about how I add them so they all get along. They did not like the purple tang (last one in, tank survivor) He had (what appeared to be) Ich scars all over him. Yes, scars. The LFS watched him for me til he was better. They cleared up within 2 weeks in my tank.

Yes, it is entirely possible the Ammonia test is going bad. I do not have a way to verify that right now.
 
Salinity = 1.026 ---- was that before or after your sump pretty much ran dry? How much water did you have to add?

If the reading was the same before and after you added water, something is way off.
 
We might as well say 6 tangs since there is a rabbitfish as well...and one of the tangs is a naso. Amazing. And man I'm sorry, but even a 100 gallon breeder as you called it wouldn't be big enough for the fish you had. And they haven't been in that for 4 months, which was plenty of time to find new homes for some. You said yourself you knew it was crazy to have all of those fish in a 90...so why were they still there? Don't restock until you figure out the problem, and try not to stock so heavily next time or you might run into the same issue. I hope not though, good luck.
 
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