All of my fish and coral are dying

[Jay Hemdal]

Figured it out. Stray electricity through the tank.

Just to clarify the terminology - "stray voltage", also called induced voltage, is harmless to fish. When you see a burnt plug like that, you have a more serious electrical issue, and short circuits can harm fish (as well as poeple!).

The reason this distinction is important is other people read it and start to blame stray/induced voltage on any of their unknown fish losses, and that just isn't the case.

Jay

 

[Michaelrisucci]

So, turns out, the stray voltage was not it, but only a part of the problem. I bought 6 blue green chromis at the store as a test to see if everything was fine after taking a few voltage tests and seeing there was none running through the water. I’m now left with 2 chromis, meaning I’ve lost 4. I also started to notice a slime substance on my live rock only. Maybe a cause ?

 

[Goaway]

So, turns out, the stray voltage was not it, but only a part of the problem. I bought 6 blue green chromis at the store as a test to see if everything was fine after taking a few voltage tests and seeing there was none running through the water. I’m now left with 2 chromis, meaning I’ve lost 4. I also started to notice a slime substance on my live rock only. Maybe a cause ?

Looks like dinoflagellates. But, I'm not sure they'd kill that quickly...

 

[BeanAnimal]

I am not buying the current flow as the issue unless it is due to a failed pump or heater with exposed conductors in the tank causing ionization (electroplating or arcing) that is releasing toxic metals I got the water.

I think your burned plug is just a lucky find that would otherwise be a later disaster.

My guess - an oxygen issue caused by a perfect storm. Immature ecosystem, heavy bio-old, sudden reduced flow that coincided with over feeding… kicking off a massive bacterial bloom, depleting oxygen and killing the stars which further fed the rapidly declining water quality. You spiked the ammonia and then added more oxygen making it worse. The dead stars and their toxins didn’t help . The dying soft tissue corals didn’t help. Who knows what other macro fauna died and added to the toxic soup. Guessing you now have an ammonia issue and likely nasty dinos.

Not trying to be a jerk… but adding more fish is simply asinine. You have a 4 month old tank. Take a step back. No fish. Cleanup the water and save what corals are left. I wouldn’t add another fish for at least a month. I would get a Second quality brand of test Kits and possibly and ICP sample before adding another thing.

if that turns out okay, then add stuff slowly over a year, not 20 fish in 4 months.

 

[jabberwock]

There have been a lot of critters in this tank in four short months. I think you are going way too fast. Full tank pic would be helpful.

Sorry for your losses.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Here is another take on this: I no longer buy green chromis unless they are larger ones from the central Pacific islands. The small chromis coming in from Indonesia and the Philippines have a horrendous mortality rate, this has gotten really bad since covid started all manner of flight delays and changes.

Jay

 

[BeanAnimal]

I am going to add a somewhat tangent two cents to this...

The "chasing numbers thing" and the "new way"...

I "left" the hobby for almost ~7 years in context to forum participation and keeping up with trends even though my tank has run non-stop for ~20 years.

When I stopped paying attention, most of us tried to keep phosphates and nitrates in check (not zero, but in-check). "Tank cycling" was not an every day discussion other than it had to be done and the time-tested advice for a full reef was to TAKE YOUR TIME as nothing good happens quickly.

Fast forward to today and the overwhelming advice to newcomers is to dump in a bunch of bottle bacteria, throw in a bunch of fish and coral and pour buckets of phosphate and nitrate in or they will fail. If you advise people to slow down you are told that you are old and out of touch.... Then come the bottle bac defenders, phosphate warriors and the rest that want to argue that all of this stuff is the new and better way. It is laughable at best.

The advice taken as a whole is setting people up for almost sure failure as well as allowing them to skip the whole learning process and doing the opposite of reinforcing patience. One only has to look at the overwhelming number of NEW tank emergency threads that follow this pattern.

I am not all looking for debate here, but rather giving my opinion. You folks can debate it all that you want or think it is nonsense... My opinion here is not going to change

To be sure, I am not saying bottle bacteria is bad or some level of nitrate and phosphate are bad or that there is no possible way to move to a quickly populated reef. I am saying that the departure from "move slow and gain experience" has been replaced by a "dump it all in and you will be fine" mentality and that a new reefer does not have the feel, tools, experience or knowledge to make good decisions. What they (the new reefers) do have is a bunch of cobbled together advice that combined is complete crap, even if individual parts of it are valid.

Not picking on the OP here. He did what the internet told him to do... Set up a tank, dump in bacteria, load it with fish and coral and chase numbers for nutrients that just don't matter for a new tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I am going to add a somewhat tangent two cents to this...

The "chasing numbers thing" and the "new way"...

I "left" the hobby for almost ~7 years in context to forum participation and keeping up with trends even though my tank has run non-stop for ~20 years.

When I stopped paying attention, most of us tried to keep phosphates and nitrates in check (not zero, but in-check). "Tank cycling" was not an every day discussion other than it had to be done and the time-tested advice for a full reef was to TAKE YOUR TIME as nothing good happens quickly.

Fast forward to today and the overwhelming advice to newcomers is to dump in a bunch of bottle bacteria, throw in a bunch of fish and coral and pour buckets of phosphate and nitrate in or they will fail. If you advise people to slow down you are told that you are old and out of touch.... Then come the bottle bac defenders, phosphate warriors and the rest that want to argue that all of this stuff is the new and better way. It is laughable at best.

The advice taken as a whole is setting people up for almost sure failure as well as allowing them to skip the whole learning process and doing the opposite of reinforcing patience. One only has to look at the overwhelming number of NEW tank emergency threads that follow this pattern.

I am not all looking for debate here, but rather giving my opinion. You folks can debate it all that you want or think it is nonsense... My opinion here is not going to change

To be sure, I am not saying bottle bacteria is bad or some level of nitrate and phosphate are bad or that there is no possible way to move to a quickly populated reef. I am saying that the departure from "move slow and gain experience" has been replaced by a "dump it all in and you will be fine" mentality and that a new reefer does not have the feel, tools, experience or knowledge to make good decisions. What they (the new reefers) do have is a bunch of cobbled together advice that combined is complete crap, even if individual parts of it are valid.

Not picking on the OP here. He did what the internet told him to do... Set up a tank, dump in bacteria, load it with fish and coral and chase numbers for nutrients that just don't matter for a new tank.

I never use bottle bacteria and I never put fish into a system that isn’t fully cycled. I cycle tanks using sub cultures of bacteria from existing, solid tanks and I’ll sometimes goose it along with ammonium chloride and some Coca Cola (yes, really).
People will do go this “instant route” and it’s usually a done deal by the time I hear about it.

Jay

 

[brandon429]

a secret phosphate input route! accepted

 

[Jay Hemdal]

a secret phosphate input route! accepted

And a carbon source. I wish it were my idea, but it came from another public aquarist.
Jay

 

[BeanAnimal]

Here is another take on this: I no longer buy green chromis unless they are larger ones from the central Pacific islands. The small chromis coming in from Indonesia and the Philippines have a horrendous mortality rate, this has gotten really bad since covid started all manner of flight delays and changes.

Jay

Absolutely could be that the water is now somewhat fine and the sacrificial test fish were doomed already. Certainly not a branch of the the troubleshooting flowchart that most of us would follow

I never use bottle bacteria and I never put fish into a system that isn’t fully cycled. I cycle tanks using sub cultures of bacteria from existing, solid tanks and I’ll sometimes goose it along with ammonium chloride and some Coca Cola (yes, really).
People will do go this “instant route” and it’s usually a done deal by the time I hear about it.

Jay

It amazes me how many people take the path, given the pretty much predictable results. What amazes me even more are the talking heads who keep advising it and rabidly defending it. Yeah the whole broken clock is right twice a day thing too... I would rather just have a clock that is right all the time. The "old way" didn't popup overnight. We arrived at the method through 20 years of trial and error to come up with a predictable method for creating a thriving reef tank. It is now time tested advice that people feel the need to short circuit (again with predictable results).

 

[brandon429]

=micro list of atypical but effective odd things people put in reef tanks

coca cola
driveway deicer
bleach (several threads of people dosing it to fight dinos/tanks surviving, some wins)
peroxide
stump remover
bug killer
vodka
sugar
cipro
fluconazole


it makes me wonder if there's a use for drain cleaner in a reef tank lol

 

[Michaelrisucci]

Thank you guys all very much for the help, I’m going to give it some time before adding anything, like I’ve done for my smaller reef tanks. I ordered some icp tests and am waiting on them to be delivered for peace of mind as to if I should even be continuing to cycle the water that is already in the tank. Still a bit confused as to why my other tanks are doing well even though the same water is being used as well as the same food.

 

[Michaelrisucci]

Side note: all of my corals and inverts (blue leg hermits, turbo snails, margarita snails, Astrea snails, and a sand sifting star) are doing more than fine which is also odd to me. Any idea on that?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Same water as in common sump?

 

[Michaelrisucci]

Different sump, same ro/di water

Same water as in common sump?

 

[BeanAnimal]

Different sump, same ro/di water

As I mentioned above, I think your issue was just an unfortunate chain reaction of otherwise minor events. I could be wrong. Why did most of the inverts make it? No clue. Maybe you had something on your hands and kicked all of this off. Who knows.

Get your ICP test - let the tank run a month or two with what is in it. Don't chase numbers. There should be no need to dose anything but alk/cal/mag and if you really must, major trace elements. Even with that, don't worry too much as long as things stay in range. Ignore the Nitrate and Phosphate in context to dosing. If you are putting food in your aquarium and fish are pooping, it is there.

 

[Michaelrisucci]

I’m looking at the silicone I used for parts of the tank and it says not for use in aquariums. Great.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I’m looking at the silicone I used for parts of the tank and it says not for use in aquariums. Great.

Brand and type?
That is usually a liability disclaimer.
you built the tank?

 

[Michaelrisucci]

Brand and type?
That is usually a liability disclaimer.
you built the tank?

Ge supreme black. It’s written on the back in small print.