All but one fish missing other fish swimming but breathing rapidly

[Bruce Burnett]

The filter sock looks pretty normal to me, except with the addition of red cyanobacteria. Based on your descriptions, I'd highly recommend that you uncover the sump, and uncover the tank to allow as much gas exchange as you can. Open a window near the tank to allow off-gassed hydrogen sulfide out of your home.

Here's the best theory I can come up with in regards to what happened. You had an extensive mat of cyanobacteria on your rocks and/or sand, and it was thick enough to prevent free water exchange, and the substrate underneath went anoxic. Anoxic zones in reef tanks can produce hydrogen sulfide, which was the case here. As soon as the new wavemaker was introduced, it blew the cyano mats apart, which allowed the release of hydrogen sulfide into the tank. Since the tank and the sump were tightly covered, the skimmer just couldn't keep up with expelling the hydrogen sulfide, and also couldn't supply enough oxygen to the water to make up for the consumption of oxygen that was occurring from the oxidation of sulfide to sulfate.

I'm happy that most of your fish seemed to have made it. Most of the time, this sort of event kills everything in the tank.

You guys seemed to have diagnosed his problem. As soon as he said wife said it smelled like rotten eggs and he said sulfur it became clearer. The smell of the tank is always a good indicator. Why I never tightly cover tank. The smell can even tell you when it is time to change your granulated carbon. Also why I think a skimmer is needed for gas exchange.

 

[Marie7]

Went to bed last night all was well. Got up this morning all the fish were swimming I fed them they ate and I went on about my morning errands.

Lights at full intensity at 11 a.m. I get home at 11:15 a.m. and I see this



Reddish stuff floating all through the tank. All the fish are swimming and acting normally.

11:30 a.m. wavemaker turns on within about 10 minutes I see this




Tank is super super cloudy and the fish are seeking shelter. Which is typically normal and after about a half an hour they typically start swimming out and just start gliding through the tank.

I change the filter sock and I check all of my parameters.

125 gallon DT with a 40 gallon sump


Ammonia 0.25
nitrite 0
nitrate 20
pH 8.2

It is now 9 p.m. eastern time I have not seen any of my fish and looking through the tank at where they usually hide but I don't see them. My blue hippo Tang is the only one out swimming but is huffing and puffing like mad.

This is a picture of the tank now.



It's a smidge clearer but my clean filter sock that I just replaced 7 hours ago it's already dirty contemplating on changing it again.




Anyone know what's going on and what I can do about it?? If you say do a water change I've got 60 gallons of fresh saltwater mixed up.

Amonia is high and can cloud you water

 

[Marie7]

Do you think ammonia of .25 is an emergency?

awaterany prsence of amonia it is an emergency for me... I have plenty of fishes on my 92 gallon and i dont have issues with amonia. Do a water change asap if u havent done it and that will help to lower the anmonia on the tank. A bloom of algae its developing on the tank. Make sure your lights are not the cause of the algae bloom which in most xases are the reason of algae bloom.

 

[Marie7]

Not sure if this matters any, the only thing that has changed in the last 4 days is that I have my lights set up to come on and shut off automatically and have been running them for 10 hours a day. Whereas before they were on maybe three to four hours a day

I have my lights on all day but i make sure i get a good balance between blue, whites and rest of lights changing the intensity at a different times to mimic as much as possible the nature changes of the light on a natural settings, i do use most the blue lights to lower the risk of developing algae still not guarantees if i do it manually and at the right time.