FISH DYING AND BREATHING HEAVY

[reefcat]

Ive got them running in vinegar, illl keep'em in there for a while before I even think about putting them back in there. I ended up losing 1 purple firefish and one regular firefish fortunately that was it, the rest of the fish are eating well with no signs of velvet or ich. I'll keep updating though.

[daniella3d]

It is usually a problem with deeper sand bed and usually the sand on that spot become sort of black or dark. The way to prevent this is by having sand sifting snail, like a conch or something limilar. It will go inside the sand and aerate it.

How deep is your sand? It if is only an inch or 2, I doubt that's what hapened.

Originally Posted by reefcat

That is a very good assumption because it is almost two years old now, but how can I prevent that from happening again when I put them back in.

[daniella3d]

If you had velvet, it is quite clear what caused the death of your fish and it was not the powerhead!! You probably introduced something what had marine velvet (it can live for a few weeks and go unotice before it spread too all the fish) and that was brewing in your tank until it reached all the fish gills and more.

Marine velvet does not come from the air, it does not appear on freshly installed new powerhead either. It does not appear out of nowhere. Weater you stress your fish or not, marine velvet will kill them if you don't treat them with medication and it is a very deadly and fast killer.

It is not because you had no evidence of velvet before installing the pump that they caused it. Velvet had to be present in your tank and it could have been there multiplying to plague proportion for weeks!

It is not impossible for marine velvet to kill all fish withing 24 hours no, actually it is quite common especially if your fish were stressed out by you doing maintenance. Installing a new pump may also have made the velvet larvaes more mobile and able to catch the fish easier due to increased flow.

Next time, do a proper quarantine.

Originally Posted by apex82

I ended up losing my whole stock after this episode brought on a major case of velvet from the stress caused. There was no evidence of any ich or velvet outbreak the day before. It would be impossible for it to take out 15 fish with all the same symptoms in a night.

Wash those powerheads in vinegar and water for many hours before using them again. If you notice any onset of ich due to the stress caused from this episode I would quarantine right away... Dont wait and try try to ride out like I did.

[apex82]

I am sure you will come up with a reason how velvet also caused some of my soft corals to completely wither, turn grey and completely die the same night... Get a clue, something got in the water and all evidence points to the pumps.

You put any fish into a situation where they are on the last breath and then barely recover, you will be amazed what stirs up in your tank due to this kind of stress. You seem to forget daniella, the fish were fine for several days after the catastrophe happened... then the disease came a week or so later.

Insuating that everyone's problem has to do with not having a quarantine does not help the purpose of this thread. The point is to keep people aware that it is possible for some contaminant to either get placed or not removed from the product in the manufacturing process and that people should be diligent cleaning everything before it goes in the tank.

[Nate]

Hey Apex,

I work for a distribution company that distributes hydor pumps in western canada, we have sold 2500 + pumps and have never had this issue. I would suspect you had another problem in your tank. It was likely not the pumps as I would have heard of a problem from the manufacturer as I talk to them very often.

soft corals aside, with velvet present in the system, it does not sound like it is a very healthy one. I'm sorry to hear that you suspect this is your issue, and I wish you good fishkeeping in the future!

OP,

Again I challenge you to take my suggestion from page 2 and throw the powerheads back in pointed at the surface.

Your surface "scum" is a protein layer. Protein skimmers can pull protein from the water, but many rely on aquarium overflow boxes, overflows, or powerheads to keep the protein in the water. Your skimmer will not be efficient at removing the floating protein on the top unless it has a surface extractor on it like the old hang on prizms or skilters...

I would bet that your fish look worse in the morning becasue CO2 levels go up at night naturally as photosynthesis is not happening.

Alternatively, if I cannot convice you to throw the Koralia's back in, take your average gravel vaccum, start a syphon, flip it upside down in the tank, and suck the proteins off of the waters surface. This will increase oxygen exchange and I would bet some money that that is going to show a difference in the tank, and perhaps that will convince you to throw the koralias back in.

I only hope you get to it, as when oxygen levels get too low, you wont just lose one fish. They will all die if oxygen levels are the case. Soft corals and inverts will be able to handle the lower oxygen levels (for the most part, not all), but will eventually die if this problem continues.

If you were in Calgary I would lend you two of the many koralias I have laying around so you could see for yourself.

[daniella3d]

is that real? you actualy think that a pump could have brought marine velvet into your tank? oki...was it used and recently been in a contaminated aquarium without being desinfected? because if it was brand new, there is NO WAY it could have brought velvet into your tank.

get a clue? maybe you should read a little about marine velvet first? and since you obviously are not doing quarantine, maybe you should get a clue about it? Seem that having velvet in your tank did not do it, not sure what will.

for the purpose of this thread you should have left marine velvet out of the equation because there it is impossible that a brand new pump can bring marine velvet into a clean aquarium. It has to be there first.

Nate, not sure why you are addressing your message to me, as I am not the OP of this thread and beside both of my Koralia evolution 1050 runing backward half of the time, I never had any problem with them.

Originally Posted by apex82

I am sure you will come up with a reason how velvet also caused some of my soft corals to completely wither, turn grey and completely die the same night... Get a clue, something got in the water and all evidence points to the pumps.

You put any fish into a situation where they are on the last breath and then barely recover, you will be amazed what stirs up in your tank due to this kind of stress. You seem to forget daniella, the fish were fine for several days after the catastrophe happened... then the disease came a week or so later.

Insuating that everyone's problem has to do with not having a quarantine does not help the purpose of this thread. The point is to keep people aware that it is possible for some contaminant to either get placed or not removed from the product in the manufacturing process and that people should be diligent cleaning everything before it goes in the tank.

[apex82]

Originally Posted by apex82

I am sure you will come up with a reason how velvet also caused some of my soft corals to completely wither, turn grey and completely die the same night... Get a clue, something got in the water and all evidence points to the pumps.

Read something and process it before responding. The pumps brought the contamination which lead to stress which then lead to disease. Only an idiot would think a pump could bring in velvet and ich.

[daniella3d]

No sir. If you had marine velvet in your aquarium, it was only a matter of time before it exploded and kill all of your fish.

Read a bit on marine velvet before you post such thing. Marine velvet is a very serious desease and it is a very fast killer. No matter what you would have done, pump or no pump, this would have hapen all the same.

Unless you have chimical analysis to prove that the pumps you put in were contaminated by something, then it is only your own opinion. There are thousands of people buying these pumps and like me, putting them in their aquarium without even rinsing and yet no negative effet. It is not impossible but in your case, it is quite obvious what killed your fish and it was a deadly parasite brought about by you neglecting a proper quarantine and introducing this disease into your tank.

That's not what you want to hear but that is the obvious scenario in your case.

Originally Posted by apex82

Read something and process it before responding. The pumps brought the contamination which lead to stress which then lead to disease. Only an idiot would think a pump could bring in velvet and ich.

Originally Posted by apex82

Read something and process it before responding. The pumps brought the contamination which lead to stress which then lead to disease. Only an idiot would think a pump could bring in velvet and ich.

Marine velvet is a serious decease stress does not bring it on it has to be introduced in to the tank and can take a week or even 2 before it shows it ugly head, you can only get rid of it by removing the fish and letting the tank go fa-low for 3 months treat the fish with copper safe as copper is the only thing that will kill MV.... ICK on the other hand is present in most fish and can be kick started by stress. Easaly treated with Extreem garlic and selcon soaked flake food for a few days to a week. I think you should start reading more marine aquarium information before jumping in to a thread and making claims.

Bill

[reefcat]

well the whole ordeal is over. The fish that lived are back and feeding very well. Ive re-introduced the powerheads without flaw and everything seems to be back to normal. After all these opinions it obviously wasnt the powerheads that contaminated the water but I still cannot be sure to what it was. Anyways thanks for all the help everyone!!!