Dez' Tank Journal

[blacknife]

They might have got stressed from being in the bucket. I checked the temp every hour or 2 and it stayed around 84 degrees. but that floating thermomoter might not be accurate. poor little guys

[Dez]

New update. The other 2 damsels are completely fine. My wife dropped them off at our local fish store today and I went there tonight and the other 2 damsels are completely fine in their quarantine tank. So something is seriously STRANGE going on in my fishtank.

I tested parameters tonight

Temp - 78
PH - 8.25
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10ppm
Calcium - 440
DKH - 17 (This was ridiculously high.....but would this cause fish death and should I do anything to lower it?)
Phosphate - 0 - 0.25

What is wrong? How could healthy damsels keel over and die overnight?

I bought some carbon tonight and I'll throw that in the tank.

My colt coral frag is doing really well with full polyp extension. It's only a 1" frag, but everyday for a couple of weeks it is fully extended.

I AM BAFFLED. ANY IDEAS?

Should I do anything about the DKH? It should be 7-9 right?

[Malibu]

I have read that soda water or carbonated water will lower the DKH. As to whether it could harm your fish - I'm uncertain, not knowing very much about salt systems. However, I would assume that it's like any other water parameter and any high or low level can be bad...

[lastlight]

Sorry to hear of the setback Dez. When I posted like an idiot about how cool damsels are I think I had my reply window open a while and your post wasn't there yet so I had no idea.

I don't know enough to help you out but good luck I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of this. If anything a few big water changes might help get rid of something you can't test for that MAYBE leached...

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Sorry to hear of the setback Dez. When I posted like an idiot about how cool damsels are I think I had my reply window open a while and your post wasn't there yet so I had no idea.

I don't know enough to help you out but good luck I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of this. If anything a few big water changes might help get rid of something you can't test for that MAYBE leached...

Brett,

It is the most frustrating thing ever and the guys here at Marine Aquaria have been awesome. They took the damsels in and I ran 1 lb of carbon for a few days and I actually have my skimmer up and running. Then they gave me an even bigger damsel that has been in their sump forever cause no one wants the fish and they can't seem to kill it.

I took it home (this was a couple of days ago) acclimated the fish and checked on him in one hour. Seemed okay. Then to go clean up my kid's toys, then came back downstairs to check and the fish was dead! 2 hours! Completely dead, no red gills or anything, just dead.

Today, after a couple more days of carbon and skimming, the guys at Marine aquaria give me this huge fish that a customer brought in to test my water again. I put him in my tank and he seems fine, but then after a couple of hours, the fish has laboured breathing. I knew he was not doing well so I put him back in the original water he came in and half of my water cause the original water got cold. After a little bit, the fish stopped having laboured breathing.

So what I'm going to do is to drain my 40 gallon frag/tank. Isolate it from the system. Mix new salt with R/O DI water. Then I'm going to Marine Aquaria and they'll give me a damsel - theoretically at this point the fish should be fine - fresh new water. If the fish is not fine, then I know it's a crappy batch of salt. If the fish is fine, then I'm going to move a bunch of my rock into the tank to see if it's the rock leaching stuff into the tank. If it's fine, then I know I have to change all my water out or something. If the fish is not fine, then I know that there's something leaching from that 5 year old rock. Then I gotta get rid of the rock.

Here's wierd thing as well. The colt coral frag in my tank has been doing well during this whole time. Good polyp extension and everything. What kills fish but not coral? And what kills it so fast?

Could it be the sponge that grew on the rock while it was in the dark for 4 years? Now it's beginning to die off (only the parts that are exposed to the light). I scrubbed as much of the sponge off today to maybe try to eliminate another variable.

Argh....time to pack the bag in on this hobby....life was much simpler the last 4 1/2 years without a tank.

[mark]

not sure of the effect on fish of high alk but have you've been able to get it down?

[i have crabs]

dead sponges= bad
im quite shure dieing sponge could be a issue, i have no idea if its causing your problem though, have you tested amonia/nitrite? not shure if they release anything toxic