I'm not sure what went wrong...

[Salt1972]

...but it was A LOT. We lost all fish today in a matter of minutes during a water change. We're still not sure about our inverts, clean up crew, and corals.

We have no idea what happened.

My daughter and I keep a 125g mixed reef tank that we started in Sept. '17 after 4 years of keeping a 55g. We've been pretty active here on the forum and learned a lot from many of you. Everything had been going GREAT until today.

We had very stable parameters with a healthy variety of sea critters & corals - detail list at the bottom.

We have a Water Mixing Station (pictured below) that has been in use since Sept. '17. We keep ~ 50g of RO/DI in the top barrel. When we prep to do a water change, we transfer ~30g of RO/DI to the lower barrel, mix Reef Crystals salt (1.026), add a powerhead, heater, and circulation pump.

Here's the sequence:
1. Friday Evening - We mixed our water and let it circulate / heat.
2. Sunday - We siphoned / vacuumed ~30g of tank water into a Brute can as usual.
3. We pulled the potable safe hose from the mixing station to the tank and started the pump as usual.
4. After about 15g of new water entered the tank, I saw our large (3"+) Green Chromis dead and noticed all fish behaving strangely.
5. I immediately stopped the pump and collected as many fish as possible and put them into the barrel with the freshly siphoned tank water. It was too late. All fish died. The shrimp do not seem to be doing well. Corals have retracted.
6. I siphoned approximately 75% of the water out.
7. Added Carbon (ROX.8)
8. Mixed new water in a Brute can (not the mixing station)
9. Added new water.

What else should I do? What went wrong? The ONLY thing we did different was go 4 weeks between water change instead of 2.

Could that 4 weeks have allowed the bottom 1/4" of water in the salt mix barrel to grow a bacteria or some pollutant strong enough to kill fish within minutes?

Parameters Before the Change:

78.8 deg
1.026 Salinity
8.3dKH
475 Ca
1375 Mag
2 NO3
.05 PO4

We still have about 20g of the obviously tainted water in the mixing station. What should I test for?

We're CRUSHED. We've had the large Chomis and Clowns for 5+ years and we've worked so hard to build this environment only to fail our responsibility to them.

Former Stock List:

• 13 Green Chromis
• 2 Ocellaris Clowns
• 1 Purple Tang
• 2 Peppermint Shrimp
• 1 Fire Shrimp
• 1 Scarlett Shrimp
• 1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp
• 2 Emerald Crabs
• 1 Sally Lightfoot Crab
• 100 Dwarf Cerith
• 23 Nassarius Vibex
• 38 Florida Ceriths
• 50 Hermit Crabs
• 25 Nerites
• 1 Urchin
• 1 Pinchusion Urchin
• 1 Red Fromia Starfish
• Large Duncan Colony
• Large Frogspawn Colony
• Green Star Polyp
• Green Torch
• Rainbow Palythoa
• Minty Maze Brain
• Hawkins Enchinata
• Cali Tort
• Sunset Monti
• Blue Eye Leptastrea
• Smurf Playzoa
• Jingle Bells Cyphastrea
• Ultra Blasto

 

[JoshH]

I'm so sorry for your losses, I can't for the life of me think of something that would cause such a drastic change in health SO fast. #Reefsquad any ideas? Are those parameters you listed for the display tank prior to the change? Or your mixed water before the change? Also any pictures of your mixing station?

 

[Tahoe61]

Dump the remaining water.

So sorry for your loss.

When was last time you added fish?

Check all equipment, heaters, pumps, ATO, probes....

 

[reeferfoxx]

This is devastating! Sorry for your losses

Try and think back when you started adding water. Did you notice any clouding or particulates floating around?

Since you still have some water left over, it wouldn't hurt to test it for chlorine, ammonia, and the TDS coming from the RODI.

 

[eatbreakfast]

When cleaning the tank did you move any rocks from the sand? Do you have a deep sand bed that may have been disturbed in maintenance? Livestock dying that quickly points to a very rapid toxicity.

 

[Robink]

First, so sorry for your loss, this is devastating.
I would think something contaminated your new water. Even if you waited 2 months to do a water change that should not have happened.
Did you have any pest service or any chemical service done that could have gotten into the water change station?

 

[Joel Franco]

Did the water temperature in the new water match your tanks? Is it possible that you shocked your fish?

 

[Salt1972]

Thank you for your responses so far. The loss is a strange emotion.

We do have a 3-4 inch coral bed, but our return water system is a bit unusual... our return flows through a 1/2" PVC grid under the the coral gravel. The constant flow through the coral gravel in addition to vacuuming every other week keeps it pretty sparkling clean.

We do have tainted water left in the mixing barrel. We have standard reef water tests, but do not have chlorine or ammonia. The TDS from the BRS 4 stage is 0.

Would LFS typically have a Chlorine & Chloramine test?

 

[eatbreakfast]

Chlorine dissipates overnight chloramines don't. I believe(but double check) that they will show up on an ammonia test.

Is it possible part of the grid got clogged creating an anaerobic zone and the block got dislodged during the cleaning thereby releasing the anaerobic water?

 

[Salt1972]

Did the water temperature in the new water match your tanks? Is it possible that you shocked your fish?

The temp was matched within 1 degree. When everything went wrong, we mixed ~75 gallons of new water. THAT was cold, but had to be better than the polluted / toxic water. When we added the 75g, it pulled the tank temp down to 72 from 78, but the heaters recovered within the hour.

We're still at a loss regarding what caused the toxicity. I'll take a sample to a pool store tomorrow for a chlorine & chloramine test.

 

[Salt1972]

We just pulled a sample of the tainted water and it smells strongly of Clorox. I have NO idea how it might have gotten into the mixing barrel.

In addition to the 75% water change, carbon, and all wave makers pointed at surface, what else should we do? I may post a secondary specific question about this.

 

[Maritimer]

If there was bleach in your mixing container, would a shot of Prime or other water conditioner be in order?

So very sorry for your devastating loss . . .

~Bruce

 

[Diesel]

Dang dude that sucks!
For now do everyday a waterchange, 20% at least, run activated carbon and replace every two days in the first week.
Find out what caused the toxicity.

 

[Yati]

Sucks big time! I hope nothing else dies!

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

How long did the mixed Reef Crystals sit? From your post, it sounds like you initially mixed it 4 weeks ago and just started circulating and heating recently? Per Randy Holmes-Farley (post 1, post 2) Reef Crystals contains organics that can degrade over time and should not be stored mixed for long periods of time.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Could that 4 weeks have allowed the bottom 1/4" of water in the salt mix barrel to grow a bacteria or some pollutant strong enough to kill fish within minutes?

Yah. I'd suspect one of two things here. Hyper-salinity from the "1/4" of water remaining in the mixing barrel, or the organics in the mix breaking down over the 4 weeks, so I'd check your salinity of the left-over H2O then dump it. You've done a 75% H2O change, so I think that's all you can do for right now. See how the remaining critters fair over the next couple of days, and consider an additional large water change soon. So sorry for your losses.

 

[Brew12]

We just pulled a sample of the tainted water and it smells strongly of Clorox. I have NO idea how it might have gotten into the mixing barrel.

In addition to the 75% water change, carbon, and all wave makers pointed at surface, what else should we do? I may post a secondary specific question about this.

I'm sorry you have had this happen!

Does your fresh made RODI smell like bleach? Or if you sample it, does it have ammonia? I would be wary of using your fresh made RODI until you can do some samples on it. It seems the most likely source of any contaminants you added.

 

[reefwiser]

I would run a ICP test the ATI ICP test has both tank water and RO/DI water too.

 

[Reefer1978]

By any chance are you on well water?

 

[don_chuwish]

We just pulled a sample of the tainted water and it smells strongly of Clorox. I have NO idea how it might have gotten into the mixing barrel.

In addition to the 75% water change, carbon, and all wave makers pointed at surface, what else should we do? I may post a secondary specific question about this.

How have things settled out today? The carbon should help, plus more water changes. Obviously we can't solve the mystery about the Clorox tainting but I'm dead curious if you figured it out!