fachatga
Well-Known Member
I’ve battled bacterial blooms in the past myself. As I researched them I learned that water changes can make them worse. Better to not change water til you get it under control. Could have helped the o2 levels drop more.
URGENT HELP...all my fish died overnight and I have no explanation PLEASE HELP!
- Thread starter davy31
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jaganshi066
Valuable Member
I dont think feeding them three times would cause them to die. I feed my fish a lot, 4-5 times a day.
davy31
Community Member
Hi Lasse, thanks for pitching in here. Well the odor was a little off last weekend when I cleaned out the slimy bacterial goop from the rocks and siphoned the sand bed and cleaned the filter. The fish seemed stressed for about a day but got into the rhythm after that.
The last 2 nights I put the skimmer off but had them running on during the day. I did that because I dose some nitrate late evenings and the last feeding session around 8 pm leaves some left over food in the tank and is not skimmed out. I use an aqua medic midi flotor which is an intank skimmer.
davy31
Community Member
I did let the bloom ride itself out but it came to a point where I felt it was an aglae bloom cause the water was turning greenish. The whole filter was covered in mucus like slime and pretty much the whole tank. The fish looked stressed and I couldn't see much. So I had to intervene and clean a lot if it out. Honestly the tankmates looked happier after that overhaul.
davy31
Community Member
Hi Lasse thanks for pitching in here. Well the odor was a little off but not so overpowering. The whole aquarium and filter was was covered in what I though was a slimy algae bloom as the water was turning greenish.
I cleaned the rock work, siphoned the sand bed and cleaned the filter media which was clogged with slimy goop. The fish were stressed for about a day but seemed to overcome it the following days and perked up. No the skimmer was off the last 2 nights but ran during the day. I did this to increase nitrates as I dose nitrate late evening and feed one last time around 8 pm.
I have lost a whole aquarium (without a skimmer) during night because of a dense population of soft corals consume all oxygen during night. That was at that point I changed my mind about skimmers. 100 % saturation in saltwater is around 6.5 mg O2/L - already 60 % saturation can be bad for fish ( < 4 ppm) at 25 degree - much lesser if temperature is higher.
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
ying yang
2500 Club Member
If dont want skimmer on at night because low nitrates/ phos then you can just take the cup off and let it overflow so doesnt collect any skimate.this easier if got a sump as all the bubbles or most of them will get trapped in the bubble traps ( baffles) i see you got your skimmer in dt and say in tank skimmer so will have lots micro bubbles i guess but will still get the gas exchange from skimmer being on 24/7 .
Not sure if this would work but putting a sponge on top the skimmer or some filter floss to help stop some of the bubbles getting in tank which im not saying bubbles will do harm but you know.but ask others first before doing this as could be chance gets clogged up and do something you dont want i guess so if even slightly thinking this,research first please.or someone reading this,say this is a bad idea please as just trying get options to keep that skimmer on at night.or say if skimmer with cup removed and bubbles overflowing into tank isnt a problem at all please
Not sure if this would work but putting a sponge on top the skimmer or some filter floss to help stop some of the bubbles getting in tank which im not saying bubbles will do harm but you know.but ask others first before doing this as could be chance gets clogged up and do something you dont want i guess so if even slightly thinking this,research first please.or someone reading this,say this is a bad idea please as just trying get options to keep that skimmer on at night.or say if skimmer with cup removed and bubbles overflowing into tank isnt a problem at all please
When I had a crash like that I kept some of the water so that I could do an ICP test later. I never ended up sending it in but if you’re really curious you may want to.
how do nanos that never run skimmers factor here, not being contrary I think among troubleshoots that should be considered.
complete fish losses are rare among forums. for example
click the new tanks forum, read any number of pages, post back the first all fish wipe loss overnite post. heck that's a bunch of cyclers with positive nitrite, the odds of the hunt are in favor of the skeptics clearly.
(we must read for pages/months and months to find a single example, this forum ironically collects the fewest fish losses singular or plural)
continue on down to general forum, we get a few there. hardware issues are above 90% of cases, doses gone wrong. disease comprises a fair portion of wipeout posts. whats very very rare here in the general forum are tank invasions that wipe out fish, cloudy water posts are numerous and turbo twists usually save the day...its in the posts.
continue on down front page
which forum x10 posts and collects the most fish disease losses= the fish disease forum. Disease
key patterning in troubleshoots.
I'm not saying fish disease wins here automatically because it comprises the most loss on the forum. am asking to rule it out
was this tank ran fallow and quarantine, were fish additions staggered and using pre quarantined fish
complete fish losses are rare among forums. for example
click the new tanks forum, read any number of pages, post back the first all fish wipe loss overnite post. heck that's a bunch of cyclers with positive nitrite, the odds of the hunt are in favor of the skeptics clearly.
(we must read for pages/months and months to find a single example, this forum ironically collects the fewest fish losses singular or plural)
continue on down to general forum, we get a few there. hardware issues are above 90% of cases, doses gone wrong. disease comprises a fair portion of wipeout posts. whats very very rare here in the general forum are tank invasions that wipe out fish, cloudy water posts are numerous and turbo twists usually save the day...its in the posts.
continue on down front page
which forum x10 posts and collects the most fish disease losses= the fish disease forum. Disease
key patterning in troubleshoots.
I'm not saying fish disease wins here automatically because it comprises the most loss on the forum. am asking to rule it out
was this tank ran fallow and quarantine, were fish additions staggered and using pre quarantined fish
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delayed month 8 losses of fish not coral is a shocking recurring theme-in-study as well.
the smallest % chance for the cause of loss is a bacterial bloom (try and find recurring bac bloom fish wipe posts) and the largest % chance is loss of merely one fish, in a stressed system, that sets off a loss cascade quickly where the other two didnt have to be in the throes of disease to be still killed secondarily by it.
agreed that cloudy systems can't take much tipping either before cascading. so if the disease prep protocol is tight here, fallow and qt, rule out that cause
but if not
the smallest % chance for the cause of loss is a bacterial bloom (try and find recurring bac bloom fish wipe posts) and the largest % chance is loss of merely one fish, in a stressed system, that sets off a loss cascade quickly where the other two didnt have to be in the throes of disease to be still killed secondarily by it.
agreed that cloudy systems can't take much tipping either before cascading. so if the disease prep protocol is tight here, fallow and qt, rule out that cause
but if not
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A well known example of oxygen depletion during nighttime is heavy stocked fresh water plant aquarium. During night no oxygen is produced by photosynthesis but the cell metabolism use as much O2 as the plants does during daytime. An huge photosynthetic bioload will use a huge amount of O2 that's not will be compensated by photosynthesis during night. This also true for aerobic bacteria - another large consumer of oxygen. Many times - the fish is the smallest consumer. In this case - with green water (photosynthetic oxygen production of oxygen) with a coral population and a bacteria bloom - the oxygen consumption must have been high and show up as a deficiency at night when the consumption not was compensated by photosynthetic oxygen production or the skimmers aeration. You shout down of the skimmer during night - IMO - was the real cause to this accident and I´m pretty sure that this is a classic oxygen deficiency maybe combined with hydrogen sulphide, The fact that your nitrate was low indicate that you can have had "help" of hydrogen sulphide production to kill your fish. When oxygen disappear from a water system - some bacteria change "breathing" compound to Nitrate - if nitrate will be short - other bacteria that use sulphur compound will dominate and their waste is hydrogen sulphide.
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
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BoralBandit
Community Member
dang, im so sorry for your loss, Definitely will +1 the low 02, on my waterbox cube 20 I would always try to keep the water surface as calm as possible, I would notice my fish swimming close to the surface and almost gasping, decided to move the return pump position just enough to keep the water a little agitated and it made all of the difference for me.
Hi, I woke up to the worst morning ever. All my fish in my nano reef died. 3 were on the sand bed and two were stuck to the sides of the flowheads. It was stocked with
3 - Ocellaris
1 - Blue Chromis
1 - Damsel
There are soft corals and inverts which seem ok. The parameters were all fine -
Ammonio - 0
Nitrate - 0 (I have been dosing nitrate and phosphate as my softies were shrivelling up.
Phos - 0.03
Ph - 7.8
Salinity. - 1.024
Alk - 11
Temp - 24 C
There have been. no electrical failures in the tank. The intank skimmer was shut off over night , this was done the last 2 nights in a row. I battled a a slimy gooey bacterial bloom last week and did a 50% water change and cleaned my filter material. It was really bad and I have a few previous posts about this problem. However the tank has been cleaned from the slime for the most part. I fed the fish brine shrimp yesterday around 3 times to help with increasing the nitrates.
I dose nitrates and phosphates to help the softies. In addition I dose a coralline algae starter by Microbe Lift. All my dosing is by microbe lift. The aquarium is about 8 months old and the fish seemed healthy and fine lasz evening when I fed them. They did not look stressed or oxygen deprived.
Something went horribly wrong...and I just feel utterly helpless and a horrid feeling like I killed my own fish. I am just lost for any explanations. Please help!
Probably Low O2 as others have said, but just wanted to mention you don't really need to dose all those things.
Coralline algae starter things are bogus. They are mostly just calcium and way over-priced.
And be patient, your phosphates and nitrates will rise. If you are really worried about corals in that, dose/feed amino acids instead.
Note I change this from "compensated by photosynthetic oxygen production to "compensated by photosynthetic oxygen production or the skimmers aeration"
Sincerely Lasse
davy31
Community Member
I thought it would but it didn't. I was a little more worried about the siphoning of the sand bed to clear the slimy sludge and releasing any toxic buildup in there but the fish were fine in a day or 2.
davy31
Community Member
Hi, yeah I am dosing Aminos and Vitamins too. So basically I am dosing these in combination with nitrate and phosphates. My tank till about 6 months had steady nitrates at 10-20 ppm and phosphates close to 0. But after that nitrates have been registering at 0. I tried different tests but get the same result. My soft corals just never perked up and looked like they were shrivelling up.
2 powerheads deep in the tank resulting in little to no gas exchange via surface agitation, no skimmer action at night when O2 levels naturally drop, further compounded by bacterial blooms.
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