Disaster in the Tank.

[erik2003]

Last night I turned off the protein skimmers to feed my fish. I did not want all the cyclopseese to be filtered out. Well, I forgot to turn it on and this morning I lost three fish and I think soon my rose anamone will go.

The Bi-Colored angel was dead, the Yellow tank was dead, my bi-colored blenny was dead, and all the other fish were at the top of the tank gasping for O2.

The RBA had spewed the silverside and parts of its stomack contents, which I do not think it will recove from. But fingers are crossed.

Well I guess we live and learn. I ran a semi larger bio-load, but I had less LR in the tank. Did not expect this to happen.

 

[Rebels23]

Wow, sorry to hear that Eric! How big is your tank that this would happen so quickly over night?

 

[mgchan]

Sorry to hear about your loss! What a bummer!!!

I agree with Rebels, why so quickly with the skimmer down? Your tank should still be okay even without the skimmer, otherwise it seems you're barely getting enough oxygen into the water.

 

[4angel]

Firt off I am very sorry about your losses. I am also supprised to hear that a few hours of no skimming would be the culpret, unless that cyclopseese is some mean ass polutant. I have never tried this product nor am I saying I am an expert, Its just mind boggling to think that shutting off the skimmer for a few hours could do this on its own.

 

[marrone]

Eric

Do you have any other filters, like wet/dry, that was running to cause water breakage in the tank? If the protein skimmer was you major sorce of water breakage and you left it off overnite that would cause your problem specially if your running a big load of fish and things in the tank.

Do a water change, about 20%, and then if things still aren't better do another water. You want to get good water movement in the tank./

Michael

 

[Rebels23]

Eric, if all the other fish were gasping, it sounds like they had no oxygen. The only other time I have experienced this behavior was during the recent power outage, where I has no water movement in my tank. So marrone makes a good point, was the skimmer your only means of breaking water?

Also, the last time I experienced something like this where a number of fish went very quickly overnight, there was a high content of ammonia and nitrite in the water. Let us know how things go.

 

[erik2003]

I only have a 29 gallon. I have a rotating pump, but it stirs the water. I have never had this problem before.

During the black out I lost power for a lot longer but no losses, but had a few less fish.

I am running two BAKPAK2 skimmers, one to filter and one just to use it and stir the water, also seems to add more airation.

I did use slightly more kalkwaser that night, from a new batch, maybe an unexpected spike shocked them.

Otherwise I have no idea. Cannot figure it out.

Well tonight I am doing a major water change and see what to do next. Wow, my first real tragedy, guess it could have been worse.

 

[stealyourhouse]

When you cram that many large fish into a 29g, you shouldn't be surprised when they die.

How many other fish do you have?

A 29g should have 3 small fish, maybe 4. Definitely no Angel fish, and definitely no Tangs!

 

[marrone]

Erik

Also check your Ph. At night when the lights are off the Ph does drop. Now if you cut off your skimmers, that were getting rid of Co2 from the water, your Ph would have probably fallen even lower. Specially with a heavy load the Co2 in the water will accumlate very fast.

Now if your Ph was high, from alot of Kalk, and you had a spike in ammonia, resulting from lack of oxygen and fish producing more waste, this would have also bein fatal to your fish also.

Michael

 

[Pedro]

Definately rule out your skimmer as the source of the problem. You need to look elsewhere. Personally i think the kalk did it. In a 29gal it's too easy to disrupt your parameters at a faster rate. Did you test your water after everything happened?...You can find your answer there.

The best you can do now is do water changes as mentioned and use some polyfilters and carbon. Hope everything recovers, and now that you have less fish, keep it that way. HTH

 

[Rebels23]

Eric, sounds like it might have been the kalk also. Try to do a PH test if you can. Ammonia is very toxic with high PH.

 

[erik2003]

Thanks for the input. I will do the water change and the testing, out of curiosity.

But to my defense: The fish were never big. My yellow tang was far from big. Maybe palm size. The Angel was a dwarf. I really feel that the sizes were acceptable (I actually watched for that in inches per gallon), but the numbers were slightly higher. However, I have three-quarters of the tank as swimming space, unlike the more common reef tanks.

Well, theres alot of work to do. Thanks again for the input.

 

[Crakeur lost his password]

Erik, the tang is a no no in smaller tanks because they add a lot to the bioload and they get real big. The number of fish wasn't great, given the fac that the angel and the tang are constantly grazing.

That said, let me be the first to give you the huge warning about the bta. If it is even questionable in health, I'd get it the hell out of the tank. along with the toxins released into the water, dead anemone smells worse than anything you will ever smell.

I think the problem might be a combination of a few of the things listed above. best bet is to do a big water change (20% at the very least), test the water for the big three contaminates and continue changing out water daily until you bring the system back to normal.

You might also want to consider running some carbon or chemi-pure to remove toxins further.

Sorry to hear about all this. I've had my share of catastrophies (fire, flood, etc) so I can feel your pain.

 

[erik2003]

Well after a week all seems to have settled. The BTA appears to be doing well, and the rest of the fish are ok. I did several water changes.
And nothing else has occurred yet.

Again thanks for the input.

 

[Pedro]

Glad to hear all is well. Good luck.