whole tank wiped out over night...

B

belikethomas

New member
hey everyone,

i have a 92 gallon corner tank filled with live rock and i had

1 clown trigger
1 lunas wrasse
1 clarki clown
1 damsel
2 chromis

i went to my lfs and got 15 gallons of salt water to change in my tank. after cleaning my tank and doing the water change, i noticed that my water was a bit more cloudy than usual, but didnt think twice about it. i woke up the next morning and all of my fish were dead.

does anyone know what might have happened? i am wondering if maybe they gave me freshwater instead of saltwater, but i dont think that it would do that much harm so quickly. my tank has been up and running for about a year and half and i do water changes every few weeks. i have never had anything ike this happen to me in my past 6 years i nthe hobby. i havent went to my lfs yet because i have been busy at work, but i feel like they had something to do with the death of my fish.
 
what were your parameters, and what is your salinity? If it was a lil cloudy, you might have oversalted your fish. My water jugs look cloudy when the salinity hits about 1.040. But without your exact salinity, I cant be sure.
 
Have you tested any of your water parameters? Sorry about the loss of your fish, that is really sad.
 
Sounds like something toxic got into the water.Do you run carbon in your filteration?Also maybe the ph went crazy that will kill fish quickly.Sorry for your loss.
 
Re: whole tank wiped out over night...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11502755#post11502755 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by belikethomas
hey everyone,

i have a 92 gallon corner tank filled with live rock and i had

1 clown trigger
1 lunas wrasse
1 clarki clown
1 damsel
2 chromis

i went to my lfs and got 15 gallons of salt water to change in my tank. after cleaning my tank and doing the water change, i noticed that my water was a bit more cloudy than usual, but didnt think twice about it. i woke up the next morning and all of my fish were dead.

does anyone know what might have happened? i am wondering if maybe they gave me freshwater instead of saltwater, but i dont think that it would do that much harm so quickly. my tank has been up and running for about a year and half and i do water changes every few weeks. i have never had anything ike this happen to me in my past 6 years i nthe hobby. i havent went to my lfs yet because i have been busy at work, but i feel like they had something to do with the death of my fish.
Click to expand...
Those are some tough fish, I would seriously doubt that 15 gallons of fresh water would hurt your fish. Now oversalting is a more likely senario. Did they die with open mouths? Oversalting, chlorine contamination, ammonia, would result with simular symtoms since they basically suffocate the fish.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11508609#post11508609 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Carnavor180
you buy premixed salt water from your lfs?
thats a new one on me.
Click to expand...


Really, I buy all the time from my LFS about 10 gallons every 10 days for my 75 gallon. 'just easier than mixing my own, plus gives you a reason to see whats new.:D
 
I do, as well. Their tanks look great, and they sell it at a reasonable price. I buy the same water they mix for their tanks. They have an RO/DI system, and I don't. I have filtered water, but not sure it is good enough to mix my salt. I use the water at home for top-off, do changes with the water I get from the LFS. It does get expensive over time, so I need to determine whether my GE Smartwater system is good enough for my FOWLRs (http://www.geappliances.com/smartwater/model_fs.htm?GXSL55F) or if I need to install an RO/DI.
 
my salinity is still at 1.024, i have tested it a few times since the massacre. my water has cleared up now, but i have this weird slime built up around the edges of my tank at the top near he water line. i dont know what happened, but hopefully this wont ever happen to me again. i am gonna do a major water change this weekend and see if i can start things all over. thanks for the replies...
 
It reads to me that there was something toxic in the water or jugs.

When you say cloudy, do you mean like scherlling line cloudy or like bacterial bloom cloudy.

Your weird slime build up sounds like soap or a chemical.

Since you now have clean up duty, I would drain the tank, clean, rinse, and refill w/ freshwater to ensure you've removed whatever is in the water and or substrate. Then add your saltwater + carbon.

At a minimum i wouldn't add any fish to this water you currently have n there.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11513556#post11513556 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FMarini
It reads to me that there was something toxic in the water or jugs.

When you say cloudy, do you mean like scherlling line cloudy or like bacterial bloom cloudy.

Your weird slime build up sounds like soap or a chemical.
Click to expand...

I was also thinking a soap of some kind.

belikethomas, do you use Purell or any of those kinds of alcohol-based hand rinses? I've seen a couple of tanks that have had mysterious overnight crashes like this and the only thing that could be traced back that was similar in all of them was the use of these rinses.

Dave
 
i dont use any of those types of hand rinses, that is why i am so baffled by this. i have always done my water changes the same way and for some reason i have had this tragedy happen to me.

i have even thought that maybe my wife put something in my tank because i spend so much time with my fish...j/k

well, on saturday i will be draining my tank and starting all over.
 
This is another reason why you should be making your own SW. I know you trust youe LFS, but maybe you shouldnt for such an Item. Personally, my LFS I feel I can trust, but he mixes his sw up to 1.022. And then theres things like this. Now if I needed a bunch in a pinch......
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11517322#post11517322 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by belikethomas
i dont use any of those types of hand rinses, that is why i am so baffled by this. i have always done my water changes the same way and for some reason i have had this tragedy happen to me.
Click to expand...

The problem is that you don't know if anyone at your LFS does use them. Or if they had washed the bucket for some reason. Or if something accidently got into the water (either at their end or your end). One thing I would do is let them know this happened. They probably won't do anything about it (but they might), but if several people had problems around the same time, that would be a clue that something happened in their mixes.

Dave
 
I think somebody needs to ask if the tank had any survivors. Apparently, all the fish died. Were there any invertebrates and did any survive?

Jay
 
You didnt use a washcloth or allow any of your shirt to get into the tank did you. I know fabric softners are toxic, might have been residue on your shirt. It happened to me.
 
well i went to my lfs and had told them what happened and they wanted to help me figure out what happened. i tested my water and my salinity is at 1.024, my ph and nitrates are almost at 0. still dont know what happened. i have been going to his store fro a while and have full trust in them.

on another note, i know have a build up on the top of my water line (seems to be like protein build up or something). this is new to my tank as well, anyone know how to get rid of this problem. i clear the surface of the water it only takes a day to build right back up. after i went from a reef tank to a fish only tank i stop running my skimmer and have had no issues like this for over a year.
 
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