...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:
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