Fish Keep Dying

[Mike T IL]

My tank is over 2 years old. it is It is a custom 230 gallon glasscages aquarium. My tank used to be stocked with a Fox Face, Sailfin Tang, Blonde Naso Tang. 2 clowns, 2 Vlamingi Tangs, Algae Blenny, Coral Beauty, Purple Tang, and Green Mandarin, and Pistol Shrimp. In early December 2021, I woke up to a tank full of dead fish. No signs of itch or velvet. No marks on any of them from fighting either. My Algae Blenny and Shrimp were the only ones to survive and still thrives in the tank. I didn't add anything new to the tank until 2 weeks ago. I purchased quarantined Green Mandarin, Longnose Hawkfish, Fox Face, and 2 Blue Tuxedo Urchins. The next day the Fox Face was dead. The second day the Mandarin was dead and later that night the hawkfish. Five days later one of my urchins was dead. My blenney and shrimp are still going and so is one of the urchins.

All my water testing has looked stable but to be safe I sent in for an ICP test. Got the results this morning and nothing major sticks out. Calcium is slightly low and Magnesium is slightly high. I do daily automatic water changes and I monitor everything on my apex and trident.

I attached my ICP results. I keep salinity at 1.025, PH 8.2, Po4 .05 to .08, Nitrates 12 to 16, Alkalinity around 9.

I am at a loss on why I can't seem to keep fish alive. Is there anything else I need to check?

 

[vetteguy53081]

My tank is over 2 years old. it is It is a custom 230 gallon glasscages aquarium. My tank used to be stocked with a Fox Face, Sailfin Tang, Blonde Naso Tang. 2 clowns, 2 Vlamingi Tangs, Algae Blenny, Coral Beauty, Purple Tang, and Green Mandarin, and Pistol Shrimp. In early December 2021, I woke up to a tank full of dead fish. No signs of itch or velvet. No marks on any of them from fighting either. My Algae Blenny and Shrimp were the only ones to survive and still thrives in the tank. I didn't add anything new to the tank until 2 weeks ago. I purchased quarantined Green Mandarin, Longnose Hawkfish, Fox Face, and 2 Blue Tuxedo Urchins. The next day the Fox Face was dead. The second day the Mandarin was dead and later that night the hawkfish. Five days later one of my urchins was dead. My blenney and shrimp are still going and so is one of the urchins.

All my water testing has looked stable but to be safe I sent in for an ICP test. Got the results this morning and nothing major sticks out. Calcium is slightly low and Magnesium is slightly high. I do daily automatic water changes and I monitor everything on my apex and trident.

I attached my ICP results. I keep salinity at 1.025, PH 8.2, Po4 .05 to .08, Nitrates 12 to 16, Alkalinity around 9.

I am at a loss on why I can't seem to keep fish alive. Is there anything else I need to check?

This scenario is always the heartbreaker. First recourse would be to obtain and send in a sample for an ICP test from different company
Some other factors:
-Are you by chance using tropic Marin pro salt: manufactured in Turkey?
- any possible unknown dweller such as worm(bobbit?)
- any changes in home ventilation or use of air fresheners?
- RODI unit running at optimum?
- stray voltage?
- false salinity reading (last calibration?)
- expired test kits and what brand?
- any rust in sump from hardware?
- low oxygen

 

[threebuoys]

That's a depressing story.

In addition to vetteguy's questions,

Did anything look abnormal about the fish before and after death that stood out?

Before death was breathing labored? very rapid?

Did you check the salinity of the water in the fish bag and adjust the salinity in your tank to match? A big difference in the two might have caused too much stress.

Did you run any tests independent of the ICP prior to and after the deaths? Most concerned about ammonia.

Seems it has to be someting in the water given the rapidity of what happened.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

My tank is over 2 years old. it is It is a custom 230 gallon glasscages aquarium. My tank used to be stocked with a Fox Face, Sailfin Tang, Blonde Naso Tang. 2 clowns, 2 Vlamingi Tangs, Algae Blenny, Coral Beauty, Purple Tang, and Green Mandarin, and Pistol Shrimp. In early December 2021, I woke up to a tank full of dead fish. No signs of itch or velvet. No marks on any of them from fighting either. My Algae Blenny and Shrimp were the only ones to survive and still thrives in the tank. I didn't add anything new to the tank until 2 weeks ago. I purchased quarantined Green Mandarin, Longnose Hawkfish, Fox Face, and 2 Blue Tuxedo Urchins. The next day the Fox Face was dead. The second day the Mandarin was dead and later that night the hawkfish. Five days later one of my urchins was dead. My blenney and shrimp are still going and so is one of the urchins.

All my water testing has looked stable but to be safe I sent in for an ICP test. Got the results this morning and nothing major sticks out. Calcium is slightly low and Magnesium is slightly high. I do daily automatic water changes and I monitor everything on my apex and trident.

I attached my ICP results. I keep salinity at 1.025, PH 8.2, Po4 .05 to .08, Nitrates 12 to 16, Alkalinity around 9.

I am at a loss on why I can't seem to keep fish alive. Is there anything else I need to check?

Do you have corals in the tank?
The two sets of losses may or may not be related. When fish loss occurs and invertebrates are all fine, it is usually a fish disease. Sometimes, a transient low dissolved oxygen event will kill fish, but spare invertebrates.
Your second loss event may have something to do with transport, we’re these shipped to you?
Jay

 

[Mike T IL]

Thank you all for the feedback...

-Are you by chance using tropic Marin pro salt: manufactured in Turkey? I use Tropic Marin but the last few batches of water I have made have been with new salt obtained from BRS.
- any possible unknown dweller such as worm(bobbit?) - I have lots of bristleworms but haven't seen any other pests
- any changes in home ventilation or use of air fresheners? nope
- RODI unit running at optimum? TDS meter shows 0 but i am sure I am due for a change on the resin.
- stray voltage? not from what I can see from my 3 Apex EB382s.
- false salinity reading (last calibration?): calibrated 2 weeks ago.
- expired test kits and what brand? i use my Apex Trident for Calcium, Alk, Mg. Apex probes for temp, salinity (along with my refractometer), and PH. I use Hanna Checkers for Po4 and Nitrate.
- any rust in sump from hardware? Not that I can see. My sump consists of 3 socks, some chaeto, a skimmer and 2 Apex COR-20s.
- low oxygen - Maybe - how do I tell?

Nothing looked out of the ordinary before or after they died. This is my fox face after I pulled him out of the tank.

Did you check the salinity of the water in the fish bag and adjust the salinity in your tank to match? A big difference in the two might have caused too much stress. - I did not. I drip acclimated them over a period of 1 hour.

Did you run any tests independent of the ICP prior to and after the deaths? Most concerned about ammonia. My probes and trident give me the history of most of the tests which are captured multiple times throughout the day.

I do have corals in the tank and they have not been impacted. They are all doing well.

My dealer also mentioned it could have been the stress from the shipping.

 

[BanjoBandito]

Check your heaters for stray voltage...with the ICP test and rapid decline of the fish, this would be my only guess.

 

[Aqua Man]

the stress from the shipping.

drip acclimated them over a period of 1 hour.

Shipped fish should not be drip acclimated. Rapid PH change causes ammonia to change into the toxic form.

Not sure why your original fish died. That sucks.

 

[spiffyreefer]

This scenario is always the heartbreaker. First recourse would be to obtain and send in a sample for an ICP test from different company
Some other factors:
-Are you by chance using tropic Marin pro salt: manufactured in Turkey?
- any possible unknown dweller such as worm(bobbit?)
- any changes in home ventilation or use of air fresheners?
- RODI unit running at optimum?
- stray voltage?
- false salinity reading (last calibration?)
- expired test kits and what brand?
- any rust in sump from hardware?
- low oxygen

Just out of curiosity because I'm having a problem similar to that stated in this thread > is there an issue with the tropic marin salt?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just out of curiosity because I'm having a problem similar to that stated in this thread > is there an issue with the tropic marin salt?

There was an issue with salt manufactured in Turkey which affected mainly coral and has been resolved