Help Nobody Has A Clue

M

MRICKEN1012

Member
I NEED HELP WITH MY SALTWATER TANK. I JUST HAD ALL MY FISH DIE OFF OVER NIGHT. THIS IS THE 2ND TIME THIS HAPPENED TO ME.
IT HAPPENED ABOUT 2 WEEKS AGO WHEN I MOVED FISH FROM A 55G TO A 60G AND IT HAPPENED IN ABOUT 2 HOUR TIME. THE FISH WERE FINE ALL NIGHT, WHEN I WOKE UP IN THE MORN EVERYTHING LOOKED GOOD. I TOOK A NAP IN THE AFTERNOON (ABOUT 2 HRS) WHEN I AWOKE EVERYONE WAS DEAD EXCEPT A SNOWFLAKE EEL, AND ONE TRIGGER WHICH WAS ON HIS SIDE BARELY BREATHING.I QUICKLY MOVED HIM TO MY HOSPITAL TANK. THE NEXT DAY HE WAS FINE. A FEW DAYS LATER I PUT HIM BACK IN THE TANK AND HE IS DOING FINE.
MY MAJOR PROBLEM IS WHAT JUST HAPPEND IN MY OTHER TANK. I HAVE A 55G, AND HAD 2 CLOWNS, JAWFISH, SCOOTER, CARAL B SHRIMP, 2 DAMSELS...ALL WHICH DIED OVERNIGHT. THEY HAVE ALL BEEN ADDED OVER ABOUT A 4 WEEK TIME. NONE HAD ANY SIGNS OF PROBLEMS.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS TRICKY. I HAVE MANY CRABS, A FEW SNAILS, CC STARFISH, MUSHROOM CORAL, HAMMER CORAL, FROGSPAWN CORAL, AND NEWLY FOUND SERPENT STAR, ALL OF WHICH ARE STILL ALIVE. I WILL SAY THAT THEY ARE NOT LOOKING GREAT (CORALS) BUT THEY ARE NOT DEAD.
THE FROGSPAWN, HAMMER, AND MUSHROOM CORALS WERE ALL ADDED THE NIGHT BEFOR THE FISH DIED. ALL WATER TESTS CAME BACK FINE (DONE BY MYSELF, AND 2 DIFFERENT FISH DEALERS).
ONE DEALER GAVE ME 2 DAMSELS TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. THEY DIED WITHIN AN HOUR OR SO.
WE ALSO TESTED FOR I THINK IT WAS IRON BC MY LIGHTS ARE METAL AND I JUST NOTICED THERE WAS A SMALL AMOUNT OF RUST ON THEM. THAT TOO CAME BACK FINE.
NOBODY HAS A CLUE WHAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM. PLEASE HELP ME OUT IF YOU CAN.

MY EMAIL IS MRICKEN1012@YAHOO.COM
ALL PERAMETERS IN BOTH TANKS ARE FINE
 
ok my par are ph 8.0..alk 2.5 mepl...ammonia 0..nitrate 5.0 ppm...nitrite 0.15 ppm...sal 1.022...temp 78.5....I just did a 50% water change today when I found the dead fish......rena xp2....super skimmer 33000, but that was put on the night befor they died, befor that I was running a sea clone skimmer..300 watt heater... 660 power head with no air tube...im not sure about the lights they are ocean sun, one bulb is white, one is blue each 48 inches (lighting confuses me, they were just to get me by untill I got my new setup which is tomorrow). also the tank gets no direct sunlight, and I have no top, but the lights cover about 2/3 of the tank. My gf sprayed furbreese,and lysol the night befor, but it was at least 17ft away and I have no fans in that room, also I dont think that would just kill fish and not everything else.
 
As for what's causing your inhabitants to die so suddenly, I have no clue.
But I do wonder why you would restock the tank so heavily after this same catastrophe happened just two weeks ago, without first determining what the cause was the first time.

I'm sure your fishmonger loves it, but if I were you I would hold off on a third round until you get a handle on what's killing off your livestock.
 
Well they died in my 60 gall, after I moved them like 5 weeks ago...this just happened in my 55 gall today, the tank where the other fish used to be.
 
I would say the stuff your g/f has been spraying. Even if she sprayed it several feet away, it still carries and also it can get sucked into pumps or any turbid water and kill off everything quickly... been there done that with freshwater tanks :(
 
ya sorry, I would blame the gf too.

(off topic, my gf once poured a beer by accident on my computer.... took me a week to get it out of her what really happened)

unless she understands how sensitive our reef aquariums are, she wouldn't take such precautions as we would
 
I do not even use glade plugins anymore. I have reef tanks and freshwater planted tanks. Trust me, you do not want that crap in the house.
 
It's the febreeze.

I've had *two* freshwater tanks killed by that stuff, before I figured out what was going on. It's completely lethal to fish - it's made of evil!
 
The fact that trigger recovered so quickly after being moved to another tank points to a toxin. If you girlfriend sprays that stuff around like some people I know, it was quite likely to blame. You'll have to teach her, no aerosol sprays of any kind in the fish room in the fish room ;) She'll have to stick to the liquids that you pour on a rag and wipe stuff down the old fashioned way.
 
I ran a little filter last night w only carbon and a kind of wire media I dont know what it is but it came w the filter, its not real fine , but I figured it would do...

Im def going to blam it on my gf!!!!lol
 
I hope thats not a steel wire media.

I'm just guessing, but you added several animals in a brief period of time. Most of them died. One was removed and it recovered. Later when placed back in the tank it did fine. Your nitrite is at .15. Do you think it may be possible that the tank is young, the biological load increased to fast for the biological filter and ammonia levels climbed to high? After the animals were removed the biological filter began to catch up by turning the ammonia into nitrite. This could explain why you have a detectable level of nitrite and why the fish was able to survive after being placed back in the tank. If you decide to restock I would hold off until the nitrite is not detectable. Then I would add animals very slowly. Even if this is what happened, I would still blame the GF.:D
 
Not to beat on you....

As others have mentioned, there are several problems here.

1) The cleaning fluids.
2) The age and stock levels of the tanks.
3) The massive introduction of livestock on short periods of time
4) Rapid changes in filtration and equipment.

I think you need to take a step back and reevaluate your methodology.

Take things slowly.

Keep the cleaning supplies out of the room and the air. That means ammonia, fabreeze, pledge, 409, Windex, lysol, etc.

Buy only one animal or coral at a time. Let it adjust to the system and the system adjust to it. Give it a few weeks, not days.

Change only one piece of equipment at a time. Let the system adjust to the changes for a few weeks.

You sound enthusiastic and concerned about your system but you also sound rather inexperienced. Spend some time here browsing the forums and learning about good husbandry techniques.

Take things slow and you will enjoy the results much more with much less grief.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10530311#post10530311 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by toonces
0.15 ppm nitrite is not "all my water parameters are fine."
Click to expand...

any detectable nitrite is deadly for the fish....
 
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