Help mass die off overnight

[vetteguy53081]

Your Alkalinity is to high. Did it swing up abruptly for some reason. Possibly causing participation, inessence chocking them to death. The gills of some fish are much more susceptible to that than others.

Alk impact will be more on coral and I have had alk jump to 13.8 without issue and I have 38 fish- 20 are tangs. SPS was not happy but fish just fine

 

[fish farmer]

One thing I noticed which may not be the "smoking gun" but could attribute to some of those fish dieing.

Your regal tangs look nice and fat, full bellies, heathy.

Your yellow tang is skinny, hollow belly and some of the fish on the bucket appear to be in similar condition (hard to tell from the photo) like the tangs and maybe the larger foxface? Were they in better shape before this tank move?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The title suggests I woke up and walked over to my tank this morning and I’ve probably lost $600 worth of fish I’m kind of upset but I wanna save the last couple that are alive so if anybody can help that would be greatly appreciated

Sorry for you loss. The remaining fish are breathing pretty fast. There could have been a transient low oxygen event that was just critical enough to kill off a percentage of the fish. Or, it could be a gill disease issue that is still on-going.

The fact that corals look o.k, tends to rule out acute water toxicity. Alkalinity is not the issue here.

Definitately drop some strong air stones in the tank and watch the remaining fish closely.

Jay

 

[threebuoys]

Sorry if you explained this earlier and I missed it. Just how long had the fish been in the tank before the wipe out?

 

[14 foot reef]

Did you test ammonia, I'm guessing ammonia elevated beyond safe level.

 

[Rtaylor]

To kill this many fish that quickly had to be oxygen, ammonia, or a toxin.

 

[Stormlasher]

To kill this many fish that quickly had to be oxygen, ammonia, or a toxin.

just tested amonia its 0-0.25 got this toxin pad thingy and thre it in aparently it will change colors, thre in some nitrifying bactira for good mesure to be shure yellow tang seems to be doing better now scopas is iffy still

 

[Stormlasher]

im going to move my alge scrubber over to this tank to force the nitrate and phosphate into check im just so frustrated 1.5 years no issues what soever and then 1/3 my lifestock dead in 1 night >.> seems it was my alge eaters

 

[Stormlasher]

Sorry if you explained this earlier and I missed it. Just how long had the fish been in the tank before the wipe out?

big fox face 2 years powder tang 1 year bicloro fox faces 7 months butterfly 4 months purple tang 9 months damsel since the begining? or 5 months ago

 

[laverda]

Alk impact will be more on coral and I have had alk jump to 13.8 without issue and I have 38 fish- 20 are tangs. SPS was not happy but fish just fine

I agree, unless it caused percipation. Which it propably didn't in this case as it has been high for a while.

 

[Stormlasher]

UPDATE: so no more fish have died i have not a clue what caused it at all all water paramiters are in check and perfect im scared to add more fish so im going to give it a month before any new friends, thankyou all for your help and support.

 

[ZoWhat]

IMO a massive death of fish overnight is smthg changing rapidly that the fish can't handle:

Oxygen (usually from a nitrifying bacterial explosion quickly consuming O2 as Oxidizers) (if you don't understand this statement, you should stop everything and learn)

PH (but would have to be a drop of 0.5 over minutes not hours)

Ammonia (from decaying matter like a single dead fish decaying under a LR)

Temp (again a sudden drop or rise of several degrees over minutes not hours)

Salinity (again sudden within minutes)

Toxin (some foreign matter that fell into the water column)

ALL REASONs to spend the $1k on an APEX system to alert your phone by text in the middle of the night.

Poor man's way is buying an APEX JR that is used but in working order mfgred about 5-7 years ago via Ebay..... you can have a nice APEX monitoring system.that is used fir under $500

My suggestion: move on and get an APEX and learn what alarms to setup:
* ORP
* Temp
* SG
* PH


.

 

[CoralB]

Is it possible you had a power outage during the night ?? That combined with a bacterial bloom from moving the sand around could have played a part in depleting oxygen if off for a substantial amount of time and given how many fish you had in the tank . Just a thought or possibly. You said it was 350 gallons though . I’m sure after the loss your ammonia and nitrates were probably high so knowing that after wouldn’t be helpful. If you knew before yes . Did you have enough flow to allow proper gas’s exchange at the surface ? . Curious still whether you had a major power outage overnight . Sorry for your loss . Only hope that you can pinpoint what happened to take steps to prevent future tragedies. Good luck and please keep us posted .

 

[wculver]

one thing i did is i moved a bit of sand around caus a wavemaker fell and pushed it all out of the way i pushed it all back but thats nothing to crazy unless there was some killer bactiria waiting

Perhaps this was Hydrogen Sulfide from moving the sand? I've read that others suspected their mass die-offs were suspected hydrogen sulfide poisoning. This should not happen though if the sand is regularly agitated by fish and snails.

 

[Stormlasher]

IMO a massive death of fish overnight is smthg changing rapidly that the fish can't handle:

Oxygen (usually from a nitrifying bacterial explosion quickly consuming O2 as Oxidizers) (if you don't understand this statement, you should stop everything and learn)

PH (but would have to be a drop of 0.5 over minutes not hours)

Ammonia (from decaying matter like a single dead fish decaying under a LR)

Temp (again a sudden drop or rise of several degrees over minutes not hours)

Salinity (again sudden within minutes)

Toxin (some foreign matter that fell into the water column)

ALL REASONs to spend the $1k on an APEX system to alert your phone by text in the middle of the night.

Poor man's way is buying an APEX JR that is used but in working order mfgred about 5-7 years ago via Ebay..... you can have a nice APEX monitoring system.that is used fir under $500

My suggestion: move on and get an APEX and learn what alarms to setup:
* ORP
* Temp
* SG
* PH


.

bro i have 3 apexes lol if somthing was out of the ordenary i would tell you

 

[Stormlasher]

leme reclarify i was hoping for anything out of the ordenary i have been at this for 2 years and have all the equipment to test and find out and i ruled out amonia first test none i was hoping to see if anyone saw anything on the fish but sofar no other fatalities everything else is perfect so i truly dont know but ill wait 1-3 weeks and if all is well ill build my collection back up it was just a sad day and a bit of pannic but sofar everything is good

 

[Stormlasher]

Perhaps this was Hydrogen Sulfide from moving the sand? I've read that others suspected their mass die-offs were suspected hydrogen sulfide poisoning. This should not happen though if the sand is regularly agitated by fish and snails.

It could be this the small area kicked up some diteitus that dissipated in 10 min or so just strange caus 70% of the fish died in the frag tank only 2 in the main tank

 

[wculver]

It could be this the small area kicked up some diteitus that dissipated in 10 min or so just strange caus 70% of the fish died in the frag tank only 2 in the main tank

Well it's the only thing I can really think of that would effect fish that quickly. Oxygen deprivation is quick but I just can't see that happening with a cycling tank and a skimmer.

Based on other posts people mention this happening it's sudden and hard to explain why some live while others don't from the event.

 

[Dorinda]

Bad batch of algae sheets???

 

[Aspect]

If there is stray voltage in the tank and you stick your hand in, you won't feel a shock unless you are grounded. Best bet is to pick up a $15 grounding just in case.