Rapid fish deaths why

[Mike in CT]

That's a lot of fish to lose that quick due to acclimation. Maybe one or two if something was way off. Something else has to be going on. You said you tested for ammonia right? Sorry about your fish . No chance the power was out while you were gone? I lost fish over night one time when ours was out for 8 hours and the oxygen got to low. I have some battery back up now.

 

[LivinTheSwreefLife]

The only other thing I can think of besides that which has already been suggested would be some type of contaminant making it into the tank (you mentioned the open top).. Any chance a family member might have sprayed cleaning solution on the glass or anything like that?

 

[CALI DIPPIN]

Watch your fish poop if it comes out stringy and white it could be a parasite the parasite normally attacks clowns but can spread to other fish

 

[bucksfan1976]

Will do , I have a three year old but i have safety stuff on everything so I hope the lil guy didnt find a way ... No wait he went to his grandmas for a week the day the fish were put in. My buddy at OSU said there did not appear to be parasitic infestitation that was noticable. So Im leaning to water chemistry, Only thing i did was fire up one of my reactors again, but i had cleaned it with new media , maybe a mix of salinity issues during acclimation. Plus the fact the dang airline arrived with them at 12:00 and I wasnt able to pick them up til 7 am the next morning. This distributor usually makes it where the fish are only in a box for aprox 6-10 hours max and they were in there for almost 24, could have been the stress of the packaging, i never thought of testing the water they were shipped in for salinity, I just let bags float, next time ill bucket drip acclimate them.

 

[Mike in CT]

I think. If they survived for 6 weeks in you QT, then they pulled through the initial shipping ok and it didn't have anything to do with what happened recently. What did your tank read for ammonia? Maybe adding all those fish was too much and you had a spike and those fish were more susceptible because of the stress of being moved to new tank. I just had my QT have ammonia even though I had a established filter on it, that why it has me thinking. Could your ammonia test be bad? Sometimes it can be a long time between using ammonia test kits after your tank is running.

 

[bucksfan1976]

Ill grab a new one tomorrow, I also have 80 gallons of water ready to do a 60% water change if necessary

 

[Deinonych]

You said the water tested OK, but what are your test results? NH3, NO2, NO3, pH, Salinity, alk, Ca, Mg etc.?

 

[bucksfan1976]

Ok Im at work but after my tests and i took to LFS to verify

Salinity - OK (cant remember specific number)
Calc- 500 (i know a little high)
Alk 9.8
Mag- 1300
pH was 8.1
Phosphates were slightly dectable, I refired up the phosband and biopellet reactor after a cleaning and new media
No nitrates or Nitrites

 

[bucksfan1976]

You know what I thought about , we set this tank up a couple weeks ago basically a 5 hr transfer from my other established tank. The rock was put in a tub and water poured on it but not fully submerged wonder if a mini cycle happened

 

[bucksfan1976]

Got a new ammonia kit almost reading off the chart, local coral farm is coming and we are doing a 100% water change we just lost our imperator angel and corals are now showing the effects

 

[Mike in CT]

Well at least you know now..... Have anything like Prime handy to knock it down for now?

 

[bucksfan1976]

They are coming in 45 min

 

[bucksfan1976]

They never showed, so somehow my tank is going through a cycle for no apparent reason, I have placed 3 air stones to help put oxygen in the water, I'm doing 3 60 gallon changes tonight, I've added a polyfil like material to help absorb ammonia and I'm using a bright well product, hopefully I can get it down asap

 

[bucksfan1976]

Well after testing of water by 3 lfs and 2 people we are at a loss. If ammonia was bad inverts would die and they are all alive, we lost the last of my last stock the naso, so a full breakdown might have to happen. My blue hippo, yellow tang , wrasses , inverts and anemones and 2 of my three clowns act like nothing is wrong so I'm beyond dumbfounded

 

[Mike in CT]

Wow that is really frustrating! Why do you think Ammonia is showing up when you test for it? Did you add Prime or something like it that is giving you a false reading?

 

[bucksfan1976]

Well I think all the sick fish have passed, no corals, inverts or any of the other fish are showing signs of being sick

 

[glb]

Sorry about your fish!

 

[bucksfan1976]

Thanks ill say my final rip to
3x Oscar clown fish
Queen angel
Imperator angel
Flame angel
Green clown goby
Citron goby
Powder blue tang
Carribian blue tang
Naso tang
Exquisite wrasse - carpet victim

 

[bucksfan1976]

Ill add copperband butterfly and last remaining clown, my yellow tang has gone missing as well, all fish were found and removed and 100% water change done so now I'm clueless all were showing signs of ammonia and there is 0 in the tank

 

[Shadow1]

Too many things involved, fish were in QT for 6 weeks but new transfer tank was 2 weeks old transfer or not, way lot of fish for a 125. fish stayed in shipping box for 24 hours but were then in qt and ok and just set up a freshly loaded reactor.

List all that went on in sequence and maybe someone can help figure it out. Ammonia spiked maybe.

Of all the things I have learned in this hobby Slow Down is one of the most important.

I suggest getting to the root cause before you blow more cash on livestock.