Unexplained heat kill some fish last night????

[thebigdog]

OK, I have a weird thing that happened last night.
Some unexplained heat source killed half of my fish last night. :anger2:

I found them on their sides, breathing super fast.
The big ones perished, but the little ones survived.

Water parameters were fine:
PH 8.2
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
Ammo 0

Water tempature showed about 90 degrees.
Our air tempature was no where near that yesterday in CT.
Our high local tempature was only 78 ?F
(No kiddies - Not the heater, it was previously unplugged)

I'm suspecting a faulty submerged pump, may have shorted?
May even had been my Fluval 405 - I'm still doing detective work.
I'm guessing while in operation, it was generating heat.

Has anything like this every happened to anyone else?
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated

I guess I better drag out my chiller now, just in case

 

[Killerdrgn]

Metal halides? Is the tank right underneath the roof of the dwelling?

 

[nyfynest22]

sorry for your lost, but if it was about 80 outside and you were running mh with out any fans or anything i could see it possibly getting up that high, i have a 220 and it was hot saturday here and the temp in my house was 80 lucky enough i have 5x 85cfm fans pulling the heat out so i never have gotten over 79.5

 

[thebigdog]

Thanks, but no Metal halides, just running t-5's
No - 2 1/2 story home and the tanks on the first floor

thanks

Metal halides? Is the tank right underneath the roof of the dwelling?

 

[beerfish]

Every piece of equipment in your tank will generate heat. If you have a couple of powerheads, a return pump, and a skimmer pump, your tank will easily be 5-10 degrees over the ambient temperature in the room. Tack on lights, and anything else that's running and you can easily go over that.

 

[thebigdog]

Believe it or not, this only happened after sundown.
Everybody seemed OK, although moving a little slower than usual.
I did a water test just in case.
Water was fine, and the temp at about 7 pm was only 78 degress

Thanks for the help

sorry for your lost, but if it was about 80 outside and you were running mh with out any fans or anything i could see it possibly getting up that high, i have a 220 and it was hot saturday here and the temp in my house was 80 lucky enough i have 5x 85cfm fans pulling the heat out so i never have gotten over 79.5

 

[beerfish]

I would suggest getting a chiller, or at the very least, some fans. It's only May, so it's going to get worse.

You may want to consider a controller. I have mine set to turn fans on at a specific temp, the chiller (which will be installed shortly) at another step, and the lights shut off and the controller beeps like crazy if it goes too high. The $99 you'll spend on an RKL will save a fortune in the long run.

 

[thebigdog]

Two powerheads, a return pump, and a skimmer pump.
I can see a few degrees, but water going up to 90?
What a wake up call, I lost 2 yellow tangs and a Pakastani butterfly

thanks

Every piece of equipment in your tank will generate heat. If you have a couple of powerheads, a return pump, and a skimmer pump, your tank will easily be 5-10 degrees over the ambient temperature in the room. Tack on lights, and anything else that's running and you can easily go over that.

 

[ming]

If it was a malfunction of an equipment, unless you removed it, it would still be 90F
So the question is, did you change anything from last night to now? and what is the current temp of the tank?
If you didn't change anything and the tank temp is back to normal, it was probably the regular heat from the lights and equipment as yesterday was a hot day.

 

[thebigdog]

Ming,

I did a fast 25% water change, from my mix barrel in the basement.
(The water parameters noted above, were before the 25% change)
Adding that cold new water to the tank, brought the temp down to 76F.

The 90F that I found this morning, was even before the lights when on.
I have since disconnected the filter, pumps, skimmer and sump.
I just have two air stones going now, to give some circulation.

thank you

If it was a malfunction of an equipment, unless you removed it, it would still be 90F
So the question is, did you change anything from last night to now? and what is the current temp of the tank?
If you didn't change anything and the tank temp is back to normal, it was probably the regular heat from the lights and equipment as yesterday was a hot day.

 

[knugenx]

Maybe air circulation around your tank/room...it could be 78* outside, but mybe 90* inside around your tank area causing it to be stuffy...it was 85* outside temp yesterday, my house with all the windows opened felt like 100+* when I got home in the evening.

 

[finksmart]

How's the flow? Your fish died likely due to decreased level of oxygen. Warmer water holds less oxygen that cooler water. That big of a jump certainly depleted a lot of oxygen in the water in a short period of time, causing your fish to breathe heavily, and those that could not breathe died.

 

[danny]

temps

It sounds like something I did years ago when I hooked up my calcium reactor, too much CO2 in the tank & all fish were on their sides breathing very heavy. Over the years my tanks have gone above 90 & no fish loss, corals yes. Do you have a reactor, if the answer is yes then check CO2 if not sorry that I could not help & sorry for your losses.

 

[KathyC]

Ming,

I did a fast 25% water change, for my barrel in the basement.
(The water parameters noted above, were before the 25% change)
Adding that cold new water to the tank, brought the temp down to 76F.

The 90F that I found this morning, was even before the lights when on.
I have since disconnected the filter, pumps, skimmer and sump.
I just have two air stones going now, to give some circulation.

thank you

This was all this morning?
You should have brought the temp back down gradually ! A 14 degree drop is a short period of time is asking for even more issues with the tank

Yesterday was a humid day - that makes more of a difference than a day like Saturday was with no humidity, so yes, your tank temp could have climbed quite a bit.

What type of return pump are you using?

I would hook the skimmer, pumps & sump back up - what you need most in that tank right now is oxygen and the oxygen exhange at the waters surface that you get from the powerheads and interaction with the sump.

If a pump had shorted out (I doubt it) it would have stopped working, not continued heating the tank.

If you have a Fluval on there - you need to dump ALL of the contents of it now as the bacteria inside of it is now dead (closed system, no oxygen in there at all without water flowing through it). If you turn it back on & send it's dead contents back into thw tank - you can easily wipe out ALL life in your tank.

 

[NL146]

+1 on the humidity

 

[basiab]

If it was 78 in the house then it is more likely that some equipment caused it to go to 90. It sounds like you have used a chiller before so you should have an idea of when you need to use it in regards to the temperature in the house. And if you usually don't use it at 78 then something out of the ordinary must have happened. See if you can get Mr. Holmes to help you.
And as someone mentioned, the oxygen level drops at higher temperatures and that is probably what did your fish in.

 

[thebigdog]

No tank room for me, I'm not that lucky.
The tank's in my dining room, and the house is an open floor plan.
With the ceiling fans on, it was not too bad.

We did'nt get as hot as the city, but it was still a little stuffy here.
We only had to put the AC upstairs in the bedrooms a little while.
Once it cooled down upstairs, we were able to shut it off.

Downstairs where the tank was, was a little stuffy,
but relatively confortable

As I mention before, the problem was not during the day.
This thorn in the side, only started trouble over night.

thanks

Maybe air circulation around your tank/room...it could be 78* outside, but mybe 90* inside around your tank area causing it to be stuffy...it was 85* outside temp yesterday, my house with all the windows opened felt like 100+* when I got home in the evening.

 

[knugenx]

oh wells...hope you find out the problem and let us know.

 

[thebigdog]

Your theory makes a lot of sense, finksmart.
"those that could not breathe died".
Since only the bigger guys, kicked the bucket.

Put I think I may have enought flow.

Fluval 405 put's about 340 GPH.
Two circulation pumps at about 300 GPH each.
Sump return pump about 300 GPH
Plus I threw in an air stone too last night.

I'm freakin' at a loss ?


thanks

How's the flow? Your fish died likely due to decreased level of oxygen. Warmer water holds less oxygen that cooler water. That big of a jump certainly depleted a lot of oxygen in the water in a short period of time, causing your fish to breathe heavily, and those that could not breathe died.

 

[NYreefNoob]

if the temp was up over a period of time easily could have caued the lack of oxygen and did that too them, what kits u using to check parms and how long was temp up that high ?