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- Apr 24, 2020
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Hi everyone!
So on Monday night all my fish died except my electric blue hermit crab. So sad. My tank was established on May 10th of this year. I was doing the BRS 5 minute video set up. So far so good ~no issues until now. In my tank we’re 2 pairs of clown fish and the blue hermit crab. Monday morning everything was fine and same for the afternoon. I fed them as normal and they ate as normal. Then at 8pm I saw one pair of clownfish laying on the bottom of the tank in the left corner. It looked like there were cuddling / sleeping but then I noticed they were not breathing normally. Not fast more slower. The other pair of clown fish were trying to swim normally but started thrashing / shaking if you will on the surface of the tank. I checked all parameters, temp and salinity = everything was where it needed to be (no issues at all). I have a water box all in one tank and added two nano Hydor circulation pumps at time of tank set up along with live rock and live sand. The last time I added any live stock to the tank was over a month ago. I really didn’t want much in my tank since this is my first tank and I didn’t want to over do it.
I need to point out the following as I am not sure if either of these had anything to do with my fishes dying.
I had just performed a water change that afternoon as I do every week. I did nothing different than every other water change that I’ve done. I clean everything with just a toothbrush (never used for anything but cleaning this tank) and water. I try to get as much water dried on everything I rinse/wash before I add it back into the tank (shake off). I put in a clean filter and cleaned the sponge (that came with the tank) I rinse off quickly the bag of carbon and bag of bio balls. I clean everything in the tank with the same tooth brush, glass scraper and suction device to help me remove the water and add it back. I also sift just the surface of the sand with that pump. I make my own saltwater using RO/DI water as I have always done so. I can’t see anything happening there.
However, last Tuesday Chicago was hit with a bad storm causing me to lose power for 14 hours. That sucked. Yes I learned too late that I should have had a battery back up. Nothing happened to them (that was visible) The power came on the next afternoon. I monitored them for a few days and saw no difference but here we are 6 days later and they are all gone (fish only).
I‘ve done research and all I can come up with is either lack of oxygen (from storm) poison (from water change or some how something in the air getting in the tank) or not having the pumps grounded (electric current) although I didn’t feel anything anytime that I put my fingers or hands in the tank. I never had any chemicals on my hand. So after all that my question is what do I do with my tank now? What I mean is I’ve read to do a 50% water change but I can’t find anything anywhere that tells me what to do with the sand and live rock. Is it ok? Do I toss it and start over for fear of a possible contaminant? I mean I don’t think it’s that but I have no way of ruling that out. I know I didn’t but what if something got in there. Idk. Was it a delayed reaction due to my power outage and if so then I know I can reuse my rocks and sand meaning start over. I guess I’m just looking for someone who may have gone through this as well and any recommendations on what I should do next before I try again with the same set up (maybe).
Thanks so much in advance and sorry for the long read.
So on Monday night all my fish died except my electric blue hermit crab. So sad. My tank was established on May 10th of this year. I was doing the BRS 5 minute video set up. So far so good ~no issues until now. In my tank we’re 2 pairs of clown fish and the blue hermit crab. Monday morning everything was fine and same for the afternoon. I fed them as normal and they ate as normal. Then at 8pm I saw one pair of clownfish laying on the bottom of the tank in the left corner. It looked like there were cuddling / sleeping but then I noticed they were not breathing normally. Not fast more slower. The other pair of clown fish were trying to swim normally but started thrashing / shaking if you will on the surface of the tank. I checked all parameters, temp and salinity = everything was where it needed to be (no issues at all). I have a water box all in one tank and added two nano Hydor circulation pumps at time of tank set up along with live rock and live sand. The last time I added any live stock to the tank was over a month ago. I really didn’t want much in my tank since this is my first tank and I didn’t want to over do it.
I need to point out the following as I am not sure if either of these had anything to do with my fishes dying.
I had just performed a water change that afternoon as I do every week. I did nothing different than every other water change that I’ve done. I clean everything with just a toothbrush (never used for anything but cleaning this tank) and water. I try to get as much water dried on everything I rinse/wash before I add it back into the tank (shake off). I put in a clean filter and cleaned the sponge (that came with the tank) I rinse off quickly the bag of carbon and bag of bio balls. I clean everything in the tank with the same tooth brush, glass scraper and suction device to help me remove the water and add it back. I also sift just the surface of the sand with that pump. I make my own saltwater using RO/DI water as I have always done so. I can’t see anything happening there.
However, last Tuesday Chicago was hit with a bad storm causing me to lose power for 14 hours. That sucked. Yes I learned too late that I should have had a battery back up. Nothing happened to them (that was visible) The power came on the next afternoon. I monitored them for a few days and saw no difference but here we are 6 days later and they are all gone (fish only).
I‘ve done research and all I can come up with is either lack of oxygen (from storm) poison (from water change or some how something in the air getting in the tank) or not having the pumps grounded (electric current) although I didn’t feel anything anytime that I put my fingers or hands in the tank. I never had any chemicals on my hand. So after all that my question is what do I do with my tank now? What I mean is I’ve read to do a 50% water change but I can’t find anything anywhere that tells me what to do with the sand and live rock. Is it ok? Do I toss it and start over for fear of a possible contaminant? I mean I don’t think it’s that but I have no way of ruling that out. I know I didn’t but what if something got in there. Idk. Was it a delayed reaction due to my power outage and if so then I know I can reuse my rocks and sand meaning start over. I guess I’m just looking for someone who may have gone through this as well and any recommendations on what I should do next before I try again with the same set up (maybe).
Thanks so much in advance and sorry for the long read.
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