All My fish died, why?

[Ben1]

So I did a water change last night, and woke up this morning to some dead fish, possibly inverts.
I lost my Yellow tang after 3 years, I lost my A. Melanopus after 2 1/2 years and my potters angel after 2 months. Of course the damsel lived.
Also my clams exhallent syphon is majorly gapping, is going to make it?

This is what I think happened. I unplugged the skimmer when I did the water change and forgot to plug it back in. My Calcium Reactor has no soliniod valve.

I think this caused either one or both of these problems, A: the O2 levels were completely depleted by the bacteria, and fish B: The Ph dropped because of the depleated Oxegen and addition of C02 from the calcium reactor. The Ph was only 7.62 this morning

What should I do to prevent this from reaccurring?

Will My clam make it? Its really gapping.

What else can I expect to be effected, SPS tank?

All other parameters in line.

 

[monkeyboy]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Ben:
<strong>The Ph was only 7.62 this morning
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Thats the big problem, the pH must have dropped really fast when all the entering CO2 didn't get bubbled out by the skimmer, my suggestion, get a pH controler and an electronic solenoid for your reactor so things like this don't happen anymore. What does your pH normally run at? What's your dKH?

No idea what is to become of your clams but i'd shut down the CO2 for now until you can get ahold of what i specified earlier.

 

[liquid]

I think you crashed your O2 levels by keeping the skimmer off. I did the same thing a year ago and lost my yellow tang...

Shane (aka 'liquid')

 

[platylover]

How is your water circulation? Alot of surface agitation?

By what you describe, you might not have enough circulation, making the skimmer the only way to oxygenate and degass CO2 from your system. It was probably a combination of excessive CO2 and depletion of oxygen that caused your fish to die. Were their gills flared? I've heard that is an indication of oxygen depletion.

 

[Ben1]

The gills were not flared but these were tough VERY fat fish that had been with me a while, made me very sad.

This is an SPS tank so I do have alot of suface agitation, I run three large powerheads on a wave maker. I dont have a sump though and believe this would have been a big help.

I believe the clam should be fine he was back to normal after the skimmer was of for a few hours. What a shame losing fish after you seemingly had some success.

I definatly am getting a contoller and a solenoid.

Monkey Boy,

my ALK runs 4.0 Meg/l, and ph usually runs 8.2 night and 7.8 right before light on.