Fish and crabs (hermit and emerald) keep dying!

StephyC09

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We have checked all our water parameters over a week ago and everything was perfect. Our hermit crabs and now our blue hippo Tang has died. We have only had him about 3wks. He was 100% fine last night when we went to bed. Turned on tank and he's dead. He had been eating pellets, algee flakes and shrimp. Only fish still alive is our original clown fish. Corals are doing ok. Don't understand what keeps happening

15714175218785243253820839618837.jpg
 

Snowxcross

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We have checked all our water parameters over a week ago and everything was perfect. Our hermit crabs and now our blue hippo Tang has died. We have only had him about 3wks. He was 100% fine last night when we went to bed. Turned on tank and he's dead. He had been eating pellets, algee flakes and shrimp. Only fish still alive is our original clown fish. Corals are doing ok. Don't understand what keeps happening

15714175218785243253820839618837.jpg
Hi, i do see some red slime on the sand. Would you mind posting your parameters?
 
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StephyC09

StephyC09

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Hi, i do see some red slime on the sand. Would you mind posting your parameters?
If I can find the paper my husband wrote them on yes. I can tell you that they were all with in normal range according to the test papers. I think the salinity was a little low but that improved when my husband added 5 gallons of salt water. We have been battling the red slime or algee for a long time. We can not seem to get rid of it nor do we know what it is!
 

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Red slime is typically cyanobacteria. I’ve used chemiclean successfully to get rid of it. Others don’t always have the same success though. That’s most likely unrelated to the fish and crab deaths though. How long had you had the tang? Did you quarantine it at all?
 

Snowxcross

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if both your inverts and live stock died in a short period of time, i'd lean towards salinity, at least initially. Those hippo tangs are super sensitive, but inverts even more so with salinity. Nutrients being off one way or another by a little will not kill your tank mates, but would be helpful just so the R2R people can see your parameters to help.
 
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StephyC09

StephyC09

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Red slime is typically cyanobacteria. I’ve used chemiclean successfully to get rid of it. Others don’t always have the same success though. That’s most likely unrelated to the fish and crab deaths though. How long had you had the tang? Did you quarantine it at all?
We adjusted him to the salinity in the take through a small drip. Since it was just our faithful clown fish (now dead too) we didn't quarantine him. He lived in there for 3 almost 4 wks before dying. All our hermit crabs and our emerald crab have died too. Our coral has been doing well however. We did get a new light, before the Tang, and are wondering if lighting has an affect? The red slime has been in our tank forever! Will look up treating as you suggested!
 
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StephyC09

StephyC09

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if both your inverts and live stock died in a short period of time, i'd lean towards salinity, at least initially. Those hippo tangs are super sensitive, but inverts even more so with salinity. Nutrients being off one way or another by a little will not kill your tank mates, but would be helpful just so the R2R people can see your parameters to help.
My husband checks it weekly before we add water and he adjust the water we put in accordingly. I'm not sure where his paper went with all the numbers But now our clown fish is also dead. Mind you he was from when we first set up this tank well over 2yrs ago. Our coral seem to be doing ok however....
 

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It's hard to say what's wrong with no info at all. What size tank? What type of system are you running? Do you use RODI for your top off and mixing new saltwater?

The only thing you've mentioned is salinity. You say you adjust it, but that means it's not stable. What do you use to test it? Water stability is important. If salinity isn't stable, then other things are probably not stable either. What sort of test kits do you use?

If that's not the issue, the next thing would be to determine if something foreign has entered the tank. Stuff on your hands, stuff in the air, things like that. How old is the tank?
 

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