***help*** fish emergency

[Awibrandy]

I am so sorry to read of your losses! Trust me I am in a similar place. My losses have been the opposite of your's in where I lost all my corals, inverts, but only 2 fish thank God!
In my case what appears to have happened is that a 45 minute power outage caused a heater to explode sending electric current through the water.
BTW, you do not necessarily feel the electric voltage in the water when you stick your hands in it. My hands had been in the tank several times with no incidents. It was when my arm brushed the metal stand that I felt the buzz, and then almost got electrocuted by being stupid, and not knocking off the power to the tank before going in to retrieve the blown heater.

I cannot begin to understand nor give advice on a system that fish are dying in, and yet the more delicate animals (corals) are surviving. I find this most confusing.

Please respond to Marrone's questions. He most qualified to try and help with your situation.

Best wishes to finding the problem, and a speedy recovery of your system!:hug:

 

[kaOzGrUnT]

It might seem dumb BUT, are you using filtered water or straight from the faucet? NYC recycles water 3 times before being dumped off into the sea, therefor sometimes chemicals in the water are high.
Look at your pump or anything with metal making contact with the water, maybe rust.
I'm not that experienced but I just want to throw more ideas at you.
Good luck

 

[MASTRO1]

Day 1
At first it was the shrimp that I noticed were not moving and then they died (4) shrimp.(2)fire (2) cleaner. I then test water and all my readings were fine as listed below.
Day 2
I came home to see my yellow tang and fox face dead in the sand... Stiff as a board but no marks,scratches,slime or smells.(THIS WAS THE SAME FOR ALL OF MY FISH) At the same time my blue hippo was on the sand in the bottom corner not moving but breathing fast.(I THINK, weird because gills moving excessively fast but lips and mouth open and close slowly as if he is trying to grasp air). He then died an hour later. After this I had no idea what to do so I tested water again and all my readings were fine as listed below. and did a 10gal water change anyway just because I felt I needed to do something.
Day 3
My ocellerus clown and tomato clown started lying down in the sand and as all the others the gills started moving rapidly and their mouths were opening and closing faster and faster. Then they started swimming slower and slower and then they just layed in the sand and in about 2hrs they both died. Tested water and same readings again.
Day 4
My powder brown tang was found dead and my last cleaner shrimp was dead.
All the fish ate until the day they died. Swam normal, slept normal. Everything looked fine with them. That's what's killing me.
And all the shrimp and fish that died I had for about 5-7 months. Except for the powder brown tang I had him for the last 2months. He was the last fish I put in but he was beautiful, healthy and lived for 2 months and was 3 1/2". I don't think he was the cause. I do do my own water tests weekly... PH 8.2-8.3 Salt 1.025 Ammonia 0 Nitrate 0.25 Nitrite 0 Phosphate 0 Calcium 480... I hope this helps you help me.
THANKS!
Sincerely,
Louie

 

[motortrendz]

when the fish lay on the bottom its a stress situation... did u mention the tank temp? bc the temperature directly affects the o2 levels in the tank.. but it sounds like a heavy metals trpe of a piosoning if you ask me.. do you have corals in there.. how do they look,are the reacting normal? did you have a cuck? if you did it may have nuked and let out all the toxins... check the tank for any forign objects, money, change, something silly like a broken heater.. check for stray voltage form a pump/heater/hydor.. do you have a sump? what is submersed in it? if you have a mag drive pump check the "stainless" screws bc they like to rust...

 

[marrone]

Do you have any fish left in the tank? I think you probably have a ammonia or nitrite problem. Your tank can't handle the load and is probably cycling to catch up. Adding more fish didn't help, especially with them dying. At this point the best thing to do is leave the tank alone for about a month, don't add anything. Do a water change after the month and then add a hermit crab or damsel and see how it goes.

 

[KathyC]

Can you please post a pic of the tank and the sump (if there is one)and the plumbing?

I assume (from your first post) the dates are not in a row - do you have the specific dates for all of the deaths?

Are there shrimp/snails in there - are they ok?

 

[coralnut99]

Really tough one to figure out. If there was a poisonous agent or overdosing involved I would think the clam would've bit the dust along with the first few fish but you say it's still hanging in there.

The list of what perished is pretty long. Just the fish is quite a bioload in a 65G. I'm starting to believe test kit failure's a possibility; especially the ammonia and nitrite kits. If you bought them when you started the tank up, it could be as much as two years old by now. Again, I don't put much fath in what a LFS would tell you, but that's just me. Check expiration dates. I know Salifert doesn't always stamp their kits, but you can email them with the Lot/batch # on the reagent bottles.

I strongly suggest you start taking apart your hardware one piece at time and inspect for breaks/leaks. You've got nothing to lose with this one.

A longshot might be contaminated carbon or phosban since you run both. Think about changing brands, even fishfoods.

About all I can come up with.

 

[Awibrandy]

Just so you know, my kits Nitrates (salifert), ammonia & trites api all read 0. But when I took some water to a well trusted lfs (a vendor here) the results were some ammonia (didn't get the actual #), and the trates were over 100 ppms. I just got a new API kit in the mail, and tested the 3 again - Ammonia .5, trites 0, trates 5.
Just giving you a heads up on test kits.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

I acclimated them (DRIPPED) for about an hour and a half. I put them in around 10PM. They all ate and seemed fine. Then I noticed they started breathing heavily. About 3hrs later the yellow tang was dead. Overnight the blue chromis was gone and tonight around 6PM I found the clown dead.

from what is stated here, fairly quick death and breathing heavily would indicate lack of o2....whether it be from toxin preventing o2 uptake, high temp(broken heater...stuck on?)...lowering ph, lowering o2 concentration? check your temp. test the ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate yourself with fresh sample...not bringing it to the lfs.....(btw nitrate 0.25? seem incorrect.....not the culprit but seem odd)
also test the mixed salt water batch...salitnity, ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and alk. btw when you do water change, do you let it sit over night, circulate and aerate to bring up dissolved o2?