Tank crash overnight!

[Brazzy]

So I lost all my fish except two flamefish today! Came home from work today and immediately noticed my pearlscale butterfly fish dead on the bottom of the tank. Got to looking around and then found my sailfin tang, foxface, and yellow tailed damsel fish were also dead!!

Checked all my parameters and they are just the same as usual

ph is around 8
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is 0
po4 is around 2mg/l

Now I know that the po4 is high. This tank has always run with a high phosphate and I don't know why.

The only thing that has changed lately is that I put a small amount of PhosGuard in a media bag into my canister filter to try to lower the phosphate. Everything that I have read has said that this will not harm the fish but it is the only change to my tank in the last 2 weeks.

75 gal
8 hr cycle for lights
Canister filter
Cuc of hermit crabs and snails
Tank is 5 months old.

Any ideas on what has happened would be appreciated!! Thanks guys!

 

[Brazzy]

 

[Humblefish]

When was the last fish, coral or invert added to this tank? Were they QTd? Any chance a household cleaner or toxin of some kind got into the water? (I would run carbon regardless.)

Also, double check the PhosGuard bag to make sure none of it is getting into the aquarium.

 

[Orm Embar]

While I can't think of anything besides some kind of chemical/toxin/maybe electrical or temperature event (your tests look good to me), I agree with activated charcoal and checking the PhosGuard as the last addition.

Do you have a grounding probe?

The fact that a damselfish is dead suggests something relatively potent to me, but I certainly can't tell what exactly.

My sincere condolences about your dead fish

 

[Katrina71]

Sorry for your losses

 

[eatbreakfast]

I would put a poly filter and carbon to make sure it's not a chemical issue, but with parameters being good, I would suspect a disease, such as velvet.

 

[Brew12]

I'm sorry for your losses.

Any chance you may have gotten soap in the tank? Did you wash the media bag in a machine with laundry soap or maybe not rinse your hands off before putting them in the tank?

 

[Hitman]

Sorry for your losses. Definitely run carbon to filter out any household or coral toxins.

 

[Brazzy]

I'm sorry for your losses.

Any chance you may have gotten soap in the tank? Did you wash the media bag in a machine with laundry soap or maybe not rinse your hands off before putting them in the tank?

The media bag was brand new. I rinsed it with ro/di water before using it but that was it.

 

[Brazzy]

I would put a poly filter and carbon to make sure it's not a chemical issue, but with parameters being good, I would suspect a disease, such as velvet.

What would velvet look like? Would my fish act any different or just die suddenly?

 

[Brew12]

What would velvet look like? Would my fish act any different or just die suddenly?

You can read more on it here (https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/) but it is typically little white dots all over the fish. Affected fish may also only show some dark discoloration without the typical white spots. Rapid breathing is the first thing most people notice. They will tend to be more light sensitive so will hide and will also try to swim into a flow source such as a powerhead. The parasite heavily targets the gills so fish swim into flow to try and help them breathe.

 

[sheldonjjessup]

So I lost all my fish except two flamefish today! Came home from work today and immediately noticed my pearlscale butterfly fish dead on the bottom of the tank. Got to looking around and then found my sailfin tang, foxface, and yellow tailed damsel fish were also dead!!

Checked all my parameters and they are just the same as usual

ph is around 8
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is 0
po4 is around 2mg/l

Now I know that the po4 is high. This tank has always run with a high phosphate and I don't know why.

The only thing that has changed lately is that I put a small amount of PhosGuard in a media bag into my canister filter to try to lower the phosphate. Everything that I have read has said that this will not harm the fish but it is the only change to my tank in the last 2 weeks.

75 gal
8 hr cycle for lights
Canister filter
Cuc of hermit crabs and snails
Tank is 5 months old.

Any ideas on what has happened would be appreciated!! Thanks guys!

A canister filter can create a low oxygen in the tank if there is no strong flow pumps in the tank. Just a thought.

 

[fishybizzness]

Same thing happened to me. Fish weren't eating a few hours after a water change. Next morning my filefish, blue chromis, tomtate and squirrel fish were all dead. I'm still without power from Irma and Maria in the Virgin islands. Running on Generator power for 4 hrs in the morning and 4 hrs in the evening. My beaugregory and a tomtate and some gobys survived. I did another big water change and everything is eating again.

 

[fishybizzness]

I also have a cannister filter and all the trays are filled with pond matrix.

 

[eatbreakfast]

A canister filter can create a low oxygen in the tank if there is no strong flow pumps in the tank. Just a thought.

But when it is low O2, that usually affects bacteria populations too, and there would be ammonia.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

I got unexplained similar happened to my species anglerfish tank few months ago too (6 inches each, 4 of them, 4 different colors), they are look fine in the morning and I came back from work everything in tank are dead except all damsels are still active healthy alive (they are feeders for those anglerfishes), even with dead fishes in tank all tests show Ammo 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm and Nitrate less than 10 ppm, temp 83F, salinity 1.025, PH 8.2. After netted out all the dead fishes I just let the tank run for another month and damsels still show no sight of sickness and still live like nothing happen to the tank...of course they were happy that nothing in there gonna eat them LOL

 

[William Norman]

Check your heater... I had a cheap one from ebay start spiking. Luckily my senseye caught it and warned me.

 

[Humblefish]

Check your heater... I had a cheap one from ebay start spiking. Luckily my senseye caught it and warned me.

Or leaking stray voltage, as cheap heaters will sometimes crack. A voltmeter can be used to check for stray voltage in the water.

 

[Brazzy]

Same thing happened to me. Fish weren't eating a few hours after a water change. Next morning my filefish, blue chromis, tomtate and squirrel fish were all dead. I'm still without power from Irma and Maria in the Virgin islands. Running on Generator power for 4 hrs in the morning and 4 hrs in the evening. My beaugregory and a tomtate and some gobys survived. I did another big water change and everything is eating again.

Oh no!! Hope that everything turns out ok! Best of luck!!

 

[Brazzy]

Check your heater... I had a cheap one from ebay start spiking. Luckily my senseye caught it and warned me.

I have two heaters in the tank just in case one goes out. So far both are still good [emoji4]