This has been a real bad *$#%ing day - warning pics are not good natured
 

Warning - crappy picture below
So I shut down my 300g cube about 2 weeks ago; I had put all my fish into the sump and I placed all the rocks into a big barrel with heater and pumps. All the fish were happy and acclimatized to their new tank very well (to all the tang police out there - my sump is a 180g sump so don't start with me about no tangs in sumps)

For the last couple of days there were probably some die-offs on the rocks cuz its been smelling kinda bad and I decided to do a water change to the big barrel of cooking rocks. I wanted to put a skimmer into the barrel and needed some extra room so I decided to put 2x 8" pieces of rocks from the barrel into the sump. Two hours went by and I went down to feed the fish and I find a dead Flame angel. The Red Sea Regal Angel and 6" Queen angel were on their sides breathing heavily. Not good signs obviously so I quickly removed the two pieces of live rock, and literally dumped in 2 liters of carbon into the sump. Hoping that would absorb any toxicity I had hoped my only casualty was the flame angel.

I just came home from a dinner and i find this:
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o...e/IMG_2876.jpg

Regal Angel - DOA
Lubbock Fairy wrasse -DOA
6" Powder blud tang - DOA
Queen Angel - still breathing heavily
6" Emporer angel - time of death 2225 hrs 2008-12-07
plus the flame angel already DOA and been taken out

So not sure whats going on but in the same sump included the following fishes which are well and swimming around:
7" Majestic angel
4" Yellow tang
8" sailfin tang
3.5" Goldflake
2 bangaii cardinals
4" orange spotted rabbit fish
4" purple tang

The sump water is being pumped up to my 165g LPS tank with another wack load of fish and that tank didn't have any casualties either. I'm really hoping the Queen and Emperor angels make it but only time will tell right now.

I've been planning on building a 9 foot tank for my FOWLR tank once i move out the 300g cube but I'm starting to wonder if I should just stick with the 165g LPS tank with my sump. I'll see what other fishes die and which ones make it but it has not been a good day nevetheless.

:(

I feel for you.

Oh nooo!!! I'm so sorry, I can't immagine what would come off of those 2 rocks that would be THAT toxic that it could nuke 180 + 165g of water!

That's horrible :sad:

:frown: that about sums it up. I couldn't imagine.

UGH. Not one person on this board that doesn't feel your pain right now. I hope you get it sorted out so your other fish continue to survive.

Holy ****! I'm so sorry...I lost one fish recently...I feel for you. I hope all goes okay from now on.

Holy Crap! I feel for you Chin. What could be so toxic on those rocks to kill so quickly in a large volume of water?

Damn sorry to hear, hopefully the worse is over and the two angels recover.

Dang... sorry to hear that

Oh nooo .... my heart felt condolences to you ... :sad:

Sorry!!!! I hope you are able to save the rest of them

Oh My God. :(

Oh Man I'm so sorry, Anything I can do just let me know.

J

That F'n sucks.....I feel for you.

Sorry man. But wtf happened:question:

Man I am so sorry to hear this horrible news. I really hope the other pull through. I feel so bad for you and the fish :cry:

What could be so toxic so quickly? When I've had massive fish die-offs it was usually coincidented with moving my ritteri, so I assumed it was shed nematocysts that caused the fish to suffocate.

Anyhow the point being that it seems to me that suffocation seems to be a likely cause for rapid onset, multiple deaths.

In this case, we're talking a few hours after adding a few rocks to a large water volume so I would guess it not to be an ammonia cycle. You mentioned there was a smell to the rocks - I wonder if it could be H2S. It would fit the profile of suffocation.

Anyhow I'm sorry if you're not ready to speculate on causes - I can only imagine what you're feeling right now - I'm so sorry. :(

Crappy - the emperor just bit the dust....... queen is still hanging on huffing and puffing away......... RIP

My initial thought was along the lines of what Tony's thinking. I know you've probably already done this, but are you aerating the %@#$ out of the water? It seems the fish most susceptible to low oxygen levels have died first.

Tony how does H2S kill? weird thing is the output of my reeflo orca skimmer into the sump is where most of the deaths occurred.

REALLY sorry to hear about that. i can sense your frustration in your post. too bad man.

Oops. Sorry...wrong copy/paste :(

H2S is only a wild guess on my part but here are the main things about it:
1) You can smell it in little as 1ppm air.
2) At 10ppm in a work environment is enough that you should not be exposed to it for more than 10 minutes for every 8 hours. (something like that anyhow)
3) 1000ppm is pretty much instant death.
4) We know H2S is produced in anaerobic situations. Perhaps there was some die off in the curing bucket of something and the rot was releasing H2S.

The only other things I can think of:
1) "cuke nuke" - maybe a cucumber was in one of the rocks, and died, releasing whatever neurotoxins they have (some of them have?) ..
2) rapid proliferation of some kind of rot causing the saturated O2 levels of the water to be depleted rapidly?

:cry:

Go
 

Holy crap, that really sucks. I'm sorry to hear about this.
________
jugalettes

Dang it Chin, that sucks. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know. Anthony

man that really sucks chin! :sad: no one should have to come home to that, very sorry to hear. i really hope you find out what happened and save any remaining fish

Sorry to hear about your lose Chin.

No worries about the glass....... still looking for the 1/2 inch so I have not ordered it. But if you decide not to do through with the tank build........ that's cool also.

Cheers,
Vic

Oh man Chin, that sucks. imo the H2S thing sounds like a shot in the dark but really may be it. Did you get the smell of rotten eggs at all? if so, H2S; if not, start looking in another direction :question: I find it really odd that the deaths were localized... check for mechanical problems like equipment. Do the fish have any signs of physical trauma other than flared gills? again, my condolences, hope the rest pull through.

Fish death
 

something rotten got stuck inside your pump causing it ti spew poisonous hydrogen sulfide into your sump. anyway hope you overcome this and carry on with your tank build.

Sorry to hear
 

Sorry for your loss

Just caught this thread. Chin that totally sucks. Aeration, waterchanges and carbon are about the best you can do for H2S. :neutral:

How horrible! :cry: Sending *hugs* to you.

Sadness goes out to the fish :(

My condolences. I can imagine the frustration.
I work with H2S on a regular basis, It will have a rotten egg smell that will be very prominent. You will be able to smell this for even several days after a h2s release in very small (1 part per million is detected by the human nose) amounts.
It will also be heavier then air and will be released with agitation. If the water doesn't smell like rotten eggs at a source of agitation, ie a returm pump or power head agitating the surface, then it doesn't sound to be h2s imho. Especially if the release of h2s into the water supply was only yesterday.
Hope this helps.

i had the same thing happen to me on my mixed 62 gal the cuke caught killed in my powerhead it was a black one and instant seath to my tank.. that could be it chin

Damm that sucks sorry to hear it.

The queen angel is still alive this morning so i'm crossing my fingers it will pull through. Still lying to one side but still breathing.

From all accounts, i believe it is h2s poisoning. The bucket of rocks were smelling like rotten eggs which was why I wanted to do the water change. Two pieces of rocks in 300g of water was all it took to kill off five fishes. Seems very localized in that the side of the sump that the rocks were in killed 4 fishes. 8 years in this hobby and I didn't even know about this h2s poisoning so folks, learn from my mistake -
DON'T PUT ROTTEN EGG SMELLING ROCKS INTO YOUR TANKS NO MATTER
HOW MUCH WATER FLOW OR HOW BIG OF A SKIMMER YOU GOT

Good lesson to learn, sorry you had to be the one to have gone through it for the rest of us to now understand what symptoms to look for. Hope the Queen pulls through.

Chin just read this tread. Sorry to hear about your losses. That truley sucks....

Chris