Lost all marine angel fish

[Reed55555]

Hopefully this is in the right spot. I have been a lurker for a while and have learned quite a bit over the years. Generally my issues have been pretty solvable. This one is throwing me.

200 gal marine tank running for about 18 years. No major problems. It is in direct sunlight so I have fought cyano on and off, but nothing major.

3 clown fish, 1 hippo tang, 1 Flame and one Imperator Angel. The hippo has been healthy but losing color around his head, one clown fish has also lost color. All have been happy, eating, other than the color loss they have all been fine.

I let the cyano get a little thick on the bottom of the tank, and went to do a water change the other night. When I reached in with the net, I got shocked.

One of my old pumps was leaking 110 into the sump (I measured it). I pulled the pump and the voltage was below 1 volt in the sump.

I finished the water change, nothing out of the ordinary. Yesterday all the fish seemed stressed, hiding, but they all came out to eat. Today the two angels were dead and the tang seems very stressed.

The clowns seem perfectly fine. Temp is a little low (70) I think the heater is failing. All other parameters are normal.

I have had sick fish before, but never lost healthy fish this fast.

Any thoughts?

 

[julie180]

Sounds like you have a couple of issues, stray voltage and low temp.
Have you added anything recently that could have brought disease in?

 

[ThRoewer]

To me this doesn't sound like a disease but rather some form of poisoning or other system/environmental issues.
Though it would be helpful to get a much more detailed description of the tank and the issues.
For example, how and how often do you check temperature and pH. I monitor these with my Apex and especially pH can vary a lot over a period of 24h.
Is it a reef rank with corals and inverts or a FOWLR tank?
...

The discoloration of the fish can be caused by the low temperature or the stray voltage.

The more mysterious issue is the sudden death of two fish.

21°C (70°F) is for most reef fish hypothermic though ideal for fish from slightly cooler places like for example the Sea of Cortez (eg. Opisthognathus rosenblatti), the Galapagos (eg. Holacanthus passer & clarionensis) or the Lord Howe Islands (Amphiprion latezonatus).
Though it isn't low enough to kill your fish instantly. They would rather get sick first.

Stray voltage also means electrical wires are to some degree exposed to water and electrical wires are in general made of cooper. That combined with the electrolysis from the current can not only dissolve copper fast into your tank water but create other kinds of toxic substances (chlorine for example).

As for the voltage issue itself: anything going into a fish tank and especially into a marine tank should be either low voltage (> 40V) or protected by a GFCI.
It is up to the aquarist to install a GFCI for his tank (or better the whole house), not only to protect your fish but also yourself and your family.

 

[Reed55555]

It is a fish only tank. The last fish put in was about 18 months ago, the Flame, which was one of the two I lost. Nothing else is different.

The stray voltage is odd, as everything in there is on a GFCI, but it didn't shut off. It seems to test ok, but I have heard of them failing.

The pump that was leaking the voltage was pretty old, and probably should have been replaced a while a go. It was leaking 110 v into the sump.

The only 2 things that happened the day before, was I did a partial water change and pulled the pump, eliminating the stray voltage.

Contamination would be extremely unlikely, nothing except food (and it is the same frozen packs that I bought about 2 months ago), goes in the main tank. The water for the water change is in a separate room with the sump. No one but me goes in there, and I have used the same water before (I make up 50 gals at a time).

The heater is an old titanium heater, that is set at 74. The water being at 70 tells me the heater is dying, however I suspect it has been that way for a while.

the same was probably true of the stray voltage, it probably ramped up slowly to the 110 volts. So if stray voltage can affect fish, can the sudden removal of the voltage kill them?

Short of contamination, the only real difference is the removal of the current.

Also are Angels more sensitive to voltage (or contamination)?

The hippo is still alive, but definitely not happy.

 

[Reed55555]

Sorry, I lmost forgot, I have a Pinpoint PH monitor. The PH rarely fluctuates, but is noticeable near the end of the day in the winter, as the lights are on longer.