Alfredshouse is gone.....
 

I woke up this morning to find all my fish dead. Shrimps dead. Urchin dead. All the fish I just bought dead. Alfred, my favourite Yellow Tang dead. Starting testing my water and found my nitrate had a huge spike in it. I blame this on my FX5, I should of had a sump, which Im building right now. Im devastated. Please dont tell me what a moron I am, Ive already figured this out. Im hoping all my corals dont die. can I change my screen name to nobodyshouse?

I lost:

Yellow tang
Clown Tang
Other Tang
2 fire shrimp
2 cleaner shrimp
3 damsels
Foxface
Cleaner Wrasse
Mosiac Wrasse
Lemon Wrasse
2 Dartfish
2 Gudgeon
Spiny Urchin
Mated pair Blue Line Cinnamon Clowns
other Gobies and various other creatures:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

Really sorry to here.

Oh no, not good. Sorry to hear that.

Alfreds house
 

Alfred was her Yellow Tang... We found him dead this morning:sad:

So sad! :cry:

So sorry to hear. Although I think the overwhelming majority of people would prefer a sump, there are some pretty nice little systems out there running on FX5's so I hope you don't blame yourself too much.

Sorry to hear of your losses.
I've had my share as have most others.

I'm soo sorry to hear. Anything I can do to help, let me know.

Devastated
 

thank you all for your kind words, I could really use them right now. I dont think anyone can do anything for me. However, if anyone has a pump, skimmer or a overflow for sale please let me know. Thanks

Sad to hear this.

I'm sorry to hear this,

I was wondering tho if there was something that could've taken your fish and inverts all in one night?

The nitrates could've been high and even climbing but isn't it alittle suspicious that everything dropped dead overnight did you add any new live rock to your tank or perhaps changed water?

Sorry to hear about your loss. :(

Sorry to hear.

I wouldn't blame solely on not having a sump, as having a sump isn't a guarantee of being problem free.

Sorry to hear of your loss.
Very suspicious. High nitrates, and your corals are ok? Would not your coarls die before the fish. I hope they do not, but why all the fish?

Exactly how high were your nitrates? Fish can and will survive in much higher levels of nitrates than corals can and nitrates don't usually cause sudden mass deaths.

Secondly, how exactly do you think the FX5 caused the spike?

The most common cause of "death by filter" is if it was left off for a long time which caused everything in there to die. Within the sealed confines of a canister filter like the FX5 you would have had a lot of hydrogen sulfide gas build-up. As a result, when you turn the filter back on, all the nasty H2SO3 will literally cause a monstrous fart from hell which gases everything dead in the tank. Do you detect any rotten egg smells?

Not trying to cross-examine you here, just wondering perhaps there might have been another cause.

Really sad to hear.I was going to say the same thing as Fkshiu. Did you make sure that your heater isn't faulty or stray voltage. and when you measured Nitrate not Nitrite. I really not trying to insult you this is tragic but you should really be sure what caused it so it never happens again and other can be taught your hard lesson.

Alfredshouse
 

Nitrate was at 20( maybe from the dead fish????)!!!
Nitrite was at 0.25
Ammonia was at 0.0
SG was at 1.025
PH was at 7.6 which is really weird, I was thinking it was a faulty test, but second test kit confirms it is correct
Temperature 76.7

On Tang Daddys suggestion we tested KH and its 200mg/l!!!!!!
We are now doing another water change, we did 1/3 this morning.
If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate them. Just dont call me an idiot, Ive already cried enough today. Thanks:cry::cry::cry:

This is all true, I have a FX5 that I run on my Koi tank during the winter. I find it gets restricted fairly easily especially if your using the water polishing pads. It pretty much quits running and needs to be disconnected and totally cleaned out (the smell will knock your socks off) If you don't your headed for trouble. You really have to pay attention to the output for any reduced flow. Really sorry about all your fish, the bad side to the hobby.

The Nitrate spike could just be from all the dead fish. Anything new added latley?

Alfredshouse
 

Yes, I did add some stuff this weekend

Bubble Tip Anemone
Zoas
Green Mushroom
2 Dartfish
2 Gudgeon
1 Cleaner Wrasse
Pair of Cinnamon Clowns
2 Tangs


this is a 160gl that has been up for 14 months:cry::cry:

That's a lot of livestock to add at once. The presence of nitrite indicates a cycle has occurred meaning that it could have been ammonia.

I'd still crack the FX5 open and give it a sniff.

still just very odd to lose all the fish overnight and the corals are still alive. some more investigation is needed i think.

AlfredsHouse
 

The ammonia was at 0.0
Nitrate was at .8
I know it was alot of fish at once, but there were only 3 in there and I didnt expect them all to die.
I opened the FX5 and it didnt stink like rotten eggs, Checked it two weeks ago.
I did another water change tonight, I changed 50% and the KH is still high, its at 140, with a safe range of 100-125,

Im going to take my water to AA tommorow and get them to test it.:cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry::cry:

this may be a stupid question but whats the temp? Any chance of a heater malfunction?

Alfredshouse
 

Tested for voltage in the water, none was found
Did a water change on Saturday.
Please give more suggestions, Thanks

how long has the tank been up?

Tank crash
 

Temperature is/was at 79.6 and its been up since Feb/08.

Tank crash
 

tested the inliner heater and digital thermometer and they are working. I put another Koralia in this weekend, thought that might of electricuted everything, but nope thats not it either.

Your water parameters seem to be fine. At least not to the point that it would kill everything overnight. It almost sounds like you might have had a CO2 build up. Using a cannister doesn't agitate the surface so this might have been the cause.
Just trying to help narrow down the possibilities.

You keep saying Nitrate - which is not really toxic to fish.

If you say Nitrate (No3) being 0.8 - I think you mean Nitrite (No2) - which is very toxic.

Sorry about your loss.

It was just too many fish added at once.

Bummer.

How big were the Tangs? How many fish were in the tank prior to adding these ones? How quickly did this crash happen after adding these new fish?

So sorry to hear about your losses :sad:

I have had a lot higher nitrates then 20 before in my tank, did some water changes right away once I realized, and luckily I didn't loose anything. The nitrates probably spiked after the fish died, doesn't seem likely to be the cause of death IMO.

Did you add all these fish at the same time? A sudden death like you describe is likely caused by oxygen starvation. Do you have power heads operating near the surface of your water to allow for oxygen exchange?

^ Ya he did. Although that is a significant amount of fish to add at once, the tank is 160 gallons. I don't think that adding all the fish at once would be the only reason for the crash, although it may have been a significant attributing factor to a snowball effect.

sorry to hear,
did you have a black cucumber?
same thing happened to me long time ago when black cucumber died.
whiped the whole tank out.
Re overflow i have CPR-90 replica brand new newer used for $50

Actually, nitrITE in marine aquaria is relatively NON-toxic to fish:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/20...hf/index.php#5

What is concerning is the presence of nitrITE in the water at all which almost always means that ammonia (which is very toxic) was there previously. There should be zero nitrITE in a tank more than a year old unless there was a mini-cycle - possibly brought upon by the addition of so many fish at once.

I believe that the oxygen deprivation theory may be correct especially if the FX5 was the only form of circulation: Lots of fish are added to a tank with poor circulation. This causes the death of the weakest fish which in turn causes a mini-cycle which kills off the rest. When you finally do the testing the cycle is at the stage where's there's a little nitrITE left and rising nitrATES.

Your Alk reading is actually normal.

^ I think fkshiu is on the right track. I don't think it was a single issue that caused the death of all the fish, but in the end I do believe the primary cause was adding too many fish at once...then the resulting lack of oxygen and (likely) ammonia, and who knows what else may have also played a factor.

oxygen
 

I would be willing to place a large bet on low oxygen levels. Buildup of protein on the surface...usually happens when someone is not using a sump, and an inadequate hang on skimmer (i dont know what skimmer you have/had), and little to no powerheads pointed up at the surface. Did you have a slimy coating on the surface of your aquarium?

Nate

However this is not caused directly by the adding of fish, it would happen eventually if you just had 1 fish. But the adding of new fish increased your need for available oxygen, with that, the new fish are stressed and their oxygen uptake is thus increased, and in the end it comes to a point where no one can breathe and they die. Good thing is your corals should be fine, I have seen them handle this no problem

I'm so sorry about your losses. This really sucks to hear about it. However you will learn from it, and be a better hobbyist after the shock is over. I agree with the posts about oxygen starvation and would look into that. When I first started out I inherited a tank with fish when I bought this house. It had a Ehiem filter and it stopped pumping one night and killed most of my fish. We still have no clue why it shut down since it was clean inside.

So sorry about Alfred.

What kind of skimmer? and most important, did you spray or use any chemical cleaners in your home? even smoke? theskimmer can inject the residuals from the air into your water cusing just what you have experienced including your PH drop. And at 7.6 that alone can kill off everything.