URGENT Fish help please
 

After my whole tank drama yesterday, my fish are all not looking so great.

all of them are rapid breathing, hanging low in the tank. No spots, no cloudy anything...

Current water :

Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0
PH - 8.4
Alk is 1.4 which is low so i dosed
Amo - .25 (i moved a lot of sand around the tank yesterday)
salintiy - 1.0245
temp is sitting @ 80

I have no idea what is going on... in 2 years i have never had an issue, now it's blowing up in my face. Any help??? I don't think i will be sleeping i am much too stressed out

I would lower the temp a couple of degrees, colder water holds more oxygen and slows the metabolic rate of the fish, so they require less oxygen.
I would guess it is an ammonia or nitrite spike do to stirring up all that sand.

no nitrite reading though.. and is .25 ammonia enough to kill all the fish?

Dosing probably did it
You might do a water change

Ammonia is poison it will kill do a water change 10-15% if there is ammonia there is nitrites and nitrates they are all part of the same biological circle. Add a air stone as well this will help rase the oxegen level in the tank. get your skimmer to skimm a bit wetter this will get more waste out of the water.

Bill

I dosed with reef builder to raise the alk... followed the instructions...

I did a water change tonight... but i fear it's going to be much too late...

should i mkae new water right now get it to the right temp and put all the live stock in it tonight?

well after sand storm and reorganizing your rocks. I think fishes are just really stressed out. Try water change. i read .25 ammonia is not that bad

my ammonia sit at a level that is not detectable and it is a poison and will kill even low levels will kill after a while due to accumulation in the fishes system. Has anything spawned in your tank? A large snail dead maybe they can turn a tank if they are large enough. How are your cleanup crew doing?

Bill

i am mixing more water right now...

snails looks fine, crabs are all picking away....

I have done a 15% water change... ammonia is now reading 0..... let's hope when i get home from work tomorrow everything is a little better.... BAH.. who needs sleep! I would have to be up @ 5:00am anyway!

As I PM'ed keep an eye on levels and do water changes as needed things should stables, we all hope. try and get some of that ammonia reducing floss at a local LFS costs about 10 dolors. helps for emergincies like this. Snails and the rest of the cleanup crew are doing good then if any thing has died they will find it and take care of it. You could have some worms that died do to the ALK dose or some thing else. Now you should reduse the light period to help combate any algae groth that may follow this crash. Give us a post before you leave for work if you have a couple of seconds how the fish are breathing and such. give new peramiters when you can, all that youo have test kits for anyways.

Bill

morning update.. nothing dead that i can see.. breathing is still heavy... tank is still a little cloudy. i put my little coralife 50/50 light on it. I will water change once i get home from work tonight....I hope they last the day.

good luck!

Well when I left it looked like the scooter blenny was doing alright...I gueass it's a waiting game now...

Just saw this, hope everything turns out ok for you. Let me know if I can help.

I have a QT tank that is empty in the event you need to bring something over for a few days...

With all the stress the fish have been under it would not suprise me if ICK rears it ugaly head. so keep that QT ready.

Bill

I just don't understand that if my water is fine and my ammonia is 0 and everything else is good... Why are my fish so stressed. Doo I may be paying you a visit tonight... That's if I have fish when I get home.

I shouldn't have touched my tank! Lol I should have just left it.

Fish are kind of like over sensitive people if anything is out of whack then they start to fret about it and they get stressed from anything being out of whack that is why a bigger tank is better. A bigger tank tanks little thing that go out of whack and can adjust on it's own some times and other times all you need to do is a 10% water change and everything is back to normal. I have an angle that killed a brain and my tank just adjusted to the change in the brain dieing I try to catch the angle to no avail so I will wait and try a bottle trap latter it does not pick on anything else. It did try and pick at a monti but the polups retract and the fish got nothing now leaves them a loan.
Forgot to mention ICK starts in the fishes gills so they could be reacting to that a fresh water dip before QT will help alleviate them a bit get anything that is on the gills but loose off.

There may have been something that powdered ALK dose stuff that has set off your tank a chemical unknown or not specified.

Bill

Update:

All fish still alive... all trying to eat today. but still breathing rather quick. I got some reef stability stuff from AI at lunch and i put it in the tank.. checked the water again first... same readings as yesterday but ammonia has dropped to 0... so now what???

Well..stop putting stuff into the tank. Sounds like the tank needs some stability. Be prepared to do more water changes if the situation seems to get worse...otherwise, it should just get better.

lol I was told by the guy at the store to add that, and it should help stabilize my tank. I haven't added anything other then that.. but i am being told to go get some carbon! I have water ready to do another water change... just not sure who big to do it or when! tis is the first time in 2 years anything has ever happened in my tank. it's all a HUGE learning curve, so i want to know as much as possible!

Personally I wouldn't add anything "chemical" to the tank. Do a couple of waterchanges, if the fish are looking better, maybe do a small waterchange like 10-15%. Do another one tomorrow and the next day. Smaller waterchanges might be better at this point.

As for the carbon, I would imagine whatever nasty was in the tank has likely disappeared or is not as "strong" as it was. Waterchanges should help.

Whatever issue that went on in your tank may not be reflected in any kind of test readings you can measure. However, something is in the water as evidenced by the fish issues. I would just do a couple of waterchanges and see how it goes.

You can run the carbon that will help take toxins out of the water. If you do a water change I'd do no less than 5g as your tank is small that would work out to about 20% which is ok. Was the stability stuff called cycle as that would help with the biological filter also or was it Super Bac Aquarium which will also help your bio filter IE:Live Rock replentish after a crash. It also removes ammonia. But for now stop addingand sit back and watch the fish see if they eat anything and if there breathing settles down a bit you know you are going in the right direction.. as I said before you can lower the temp a couple degrees and add a air stone this will help the fish and the stress turn the lights on the tank off, room lights are ok for now till you know what is happening.

Bill

water change it is!!! Going to do a 15% right now... and another 15% tomorrow!!! the skunk clown has come out for the first time in 2 days!

good sign if fish are coming out, your almost there. watch those fish as much as yo can any signs they start going down hill get them to a QT. Feed garlic extract if you have it as it should stimulate them into eating and build their immunity system. You can also add 1 drop for every 5 gallons to help stimulate them to eat.

Bill