Red Sea max nano skimmer failure ? Dead fish

[brendanj]

Hi all,

I have woken up this morning with unimaginable happen. Dead Fish!

Red sea Max nano foam absolutely everywhere and i am just trying to puzzle why this has happened.

I have no idea how the protein skimmer has over flown

I do a water change every week of 10L I don’t change the adjustment on the skimmer as I have adjusted to the sweet spot of preventing micro bubbles. I empty the skimmer once a month and rinse it with the dirty water.

Every fish has died and this makes no sense if this a skimmer failure ?

I checked all the parameters they are all fine nothing I have done different over the past year.

If anyone has any info how this could have happened or if someone had this problem before in the past please comment.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I had this happen to me before as well. I took out the whole skimmer, gave it a good cleaning, and never had it happen again. I think my issue was I was never on top of cleaning it so that happened to me.

 

[TheDuude]

But why the die off? Did the overflow throw off the salinity?

 

[brendanj]

But why the die off? Did the overflow throw off the salinity?

Salinity Ammonia & Nirites were all okay which this is what makes this so confusing
All the corals were okay and all open like usual I have had to put all the corals in the reefer 350 all survived. As that was the first thing I also thought salinity to have all the stock die off out of nowhere. I checked all the possibilities. Lead me to believe the air valve was cracked and maybe that’s how it started ?
Remains a mystery and a very sad day.

 

[NanoSteam]

Something else happened here, the skimmer wasn't the cause but its a sign that something else happened here. Usually they'll go crazy like this if something foreign got into the tank like a chemical. I doubt dead fish would decay that fast to cause a reaction in the skimmer.

Are you certain nothing fell into the tank and/or someone accidentally did something?

 

[Aquadude1]

It makes me think some toxin got in the tank, making the skimmer goes nuts.

I have seen similar happen when lots of febreeze got in a tank.

It wouldn't hurt to run carbon if you are not already doing that.
Is it possibly some cleaning product got in there?

 

[ScottJ]

I had the Red Sea max nano skimmer overflow one time when I used lemon juice to kill an aiptasia. I only used about 3ml, but that was enough I guess. My 'foam' was really liquid and overflowed down the back.

So, I would guess something got in your tank also.

 

[brendanj]

It makes me think some toxin got in the tank, making the skimmer goes nuts.

I have seen similar happen when lots of febreeze got in a tank.

It wouldn't hurt to run carbon if you are not already doing that.
Is it possibly some cleaning product got in there?

I run carbon the stock sponges with bio balls with a filter floss on top.

Only chemicals I use is Continuum Bacter Gen M every water change & after morning feeds

 

[brendanj]

Something else happened here, the skimmer wasn't the cause but its a sign that something else happened here. Usually they'll go crazy like this if something foreign got into the tank like a chemical. I doubt dead fish would decay that fast to cause a reaction in the skimmer.

Are you certain nothing fell into the tank and/or someone accidentally did something?

Nothing has feel into the tank I am very paranoid with any soaps on my hands I don’t have a shelf or any sort above the tank for anything to get in.

 

[Aquadude1]

I am not familiar with that bacteria, but is it possible there was a huge bloom making the skimmer go crazy and reducing the oxygen to dangerous levels for the fish?

Also sorry this happend to you