Disaster unfolding

[Anonymous]

I topped off some evaporation the other day with what must have been some seriously contaminated water.

The next morning there was a nasty stench from the aquarium, many snails had died, the clam and polyps were all retracted, the fish looked terrible. I had some older salt-water made up, so I changed all I could -- about 25% volume, chucked in a bunch of activated carbon, and had to leave for a trip.

Some things looked moderately better on my return, but one of four fish are dead, and the other three look terrible -- cloudy eyes, skin looks weird. Corals are still shedding mucous.

The dead fish is a blue tang I got a few days after my seven and 3/4 year old daughter was born. It was newly metamorphosed. The other fish I have had even longer.

I'm at a loss as to what else to do at this point.

 

[Anonymous]

Where did you get the water from? Any possible causes for the contamination?

Sorry to hear about the calamity.

I left for a weekend once and my roommate turned off the AC to save money when he also left town. I returned to see all of my corals bleached and I lost 3 basketball sized prize pieces.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear that. How is the specific gravity? What make you think that it is contaminated water?

 

[Anonymous]

One possibility is I accidently used water I had dechloronated for a goldfish pond we just started, but even so, I can't see why this would have happened, unless it had copper sulphate in it or something like that.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear that. How is the specific gravity? What make you think that it is contaminated water?

1. Perfect.

2. See below. It happened right after. It could be coincidence, but there was no other perturbation on an aquarium that has been completely stable.

 

[Anonymous]

I mean see above.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe it's lack of sleep, but I'm really depressed about losing this fish, even if the others survive. We got it right when my daughter, who will turn 8 in December, was born. I can't claim to be emotionally attached to it, but somehow it seems like those 4 (now 3) little pieces of sushi became part of the family. I also took pride in the fact that they were all going strong after all these years.

I keep having to tell myself it is "just" a fish, but still ...

 

[Anonymous]

It is not easy to lost a pet, and it seems like it had taken the identity of being a member of your family.

I don't think dechlorinator can do this, it is just chelating agent, no copper or any metal (AFAIR).

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this, but if the dechlor was essentially Sodium thiosulfate there is no reason why there should have been a problem caused because of that alone. I do suggest mixing up a LOT more water (or, at this time, if you can get it, use real seawater) and plan on several more W/Cs.

It is my opinion that you were indeed emotionally attached to the fish, and yes, it happens. It's not "just a fish", even if it would be tasty on rice.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry WG.

 

[Len]

Very sorry to hear. Keep doing water changes. I was really sad losing my one fish after I administered Flatworm Exit, and really worried about the rest of my fish that looked terrible. But they came around after a couple of weeks and a couple of huge water changes. I hope your's pulls through too.

 

[Anonymous]

Take a DO reading from your RO vat, take a reading from your tank.

Drain your RO vat. Then smell it. What does it smell like?

Dechlorinated water is essentially just going to have sulfate. Sulfate is the second most abundant anion in seawater. Unless there was metal contamination, not likely, this isn't an issue of dechlorination or wrong water. Something else is happening.

 

[extremepb319]

Yea that sounds really strange...I use dechlorination stuff before i top off my water and nothing has ever happened to my tank so I highly doubt its that. sorry about your inverts and fish that would stink...

 

[Anonymous]

I don't think it is the sodium thiosulphite or whatever it is. But I may have accidently put in water that I was preparing for a new goldfish pond, and that bottle has "conditioner" in it but doesn't list what it is.

But I am now thinking the problem might be with the local water supply. They are changing over the reservoir and presumably draining the dregs into the city water supply, so dog knows what the heck could be in it.

I'm going to bring home deionized water that is distilled prior to deionization and make up new salt water with THAT.

 

[Anonymous]

Is the DI water copper-free? Most lab use all PP plumbing for DI, so you should be fine. Just don't let the facility know, they do get mad when people use lab water for non-academic purpose...

 

[Anonymous]

that sucks man... I hope your tank recovers.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, the others are still alive but they look like they've had a tour of duty in Iraq.

My kids noticed their tang was not there. My oldest even wrote a book about the day we got it, and we had it sent out and bound.

 

[Anonymous]

I hope you stay in the hobby... I'm realizing how frustrating reefkeeping can be, but on the good days this hobby rocks

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for your loss, WG.

 

[Anonymous]

I hope you stay in the hobby... I'm realizing how frustrating reefkeeping can be, but on the good days this hobby rocks

Well, this is the worst thing in 8.5 years, and stuff looks like it is recovering. I just hope the fish live. The corals are all coming back.