All fish dead?

[Herefishyfishy]

The fish died from being poisoned. Either from foreign material or dead sea apple, etc.
Perhaps a guest's child put something in?

 

[Bosco83]

No sea apples or anything like that in there so I'm going to guess it was all the crap she was spraying in the room then.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

No sea apples or anything like that in there so I'm going to guess it was all the crap she was spraying in the room then.

I am extremely over-protective on spray chemicals. My wife even asks for permission to use any chlorine cleaner in the kitchen at the other end of the house. Ammonia cleanser isn't quite as bad as many fear, but most others are deadly. Once a die-off starts, it creates a catastrophic chain reaction which is hard to stop. Once spotted, best to change Massive amounts of water and run all the carbon one can find...

 

[TJL]

Brian, so sorry for you two. After reading all this I am truely baffled as to what could have killed all fish and left most inverts alive. IMO would shoot PM's to Lee Birch & Boomer to inquire if they know of anything it might/could be. In 28+ years of reefing I've had my fair share of disasters but nothing other than parasites that only took out fish.

Best of luck, Todd

 

[blk822822]

I had this happen once when I used some red slime remover. I think it took out all the oxygen from the water. Over night all fish but one died.

 

[tat2z_21]

Wouldn't poison kill all occupants of the tank and not just the fish?

 

[Romewhip]

The incident I had involving loss of oxygen took out fish and the shrimp, snails and crabs were apparently unaffected. Water parameters were all normal, temp was good, everything- just dead fish and shrimp from looking fine at bedtime to DOA in the morning.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

The inverts and corals often fold days later after the die-off starts a new tank cycle. Thus the need of massive water changes.

 

[Bosco83]

Ok so lets say it was lack of oxygen sounding more like the likely cause. How do I go about figuring that out? She doesn't have a sump but we have to koralia evo 3's for water movement and a eshopps hob 100 skimmer.

Brian

 

[tat2z_21]

Wouldn't the skimmer be a pretty good ocygen regenerator. I guess you could angle your koralias towards the surface to agitate the surface for more oxygen exchange.

 

[jrgilles]

If the air in the room is stagnant or there are a lot of people in there breathing, you could have low oxygen in the room, which would then nullify the oxygenating effects of the skimmer/powerheads.

I have a fan in the window by my tank and try to flush the air in my dining room.

Would probably have to have 5 or 6 people in a tiny room for them to have an effect on it... dunno. just brainstorming. I have read about this online though from people with big families.

 

[Bosco83]

Ok I'm off work today and I heard the heater kick on this morning and it's making a weird noise like buzzing powerlines noise. So I ran really quick and got the multimeter but still shows only 3.4v. So I'm not really sure that's it then do heaters make noise once in a while?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Herefishyfishy]

If you rule out any poisoning from outside the system (Sprays, little kids tossing in quarters, etc) then check each piece of equipment for leakage. The metals inside these items can be real nasty. Had a friend have a UV sterilizer tube break inside and the metals contamination etc, take out 100s of fish and corals. If the die-off was caused by a lack of oxygen and doubt it, you would see visible changes. The gas exchange just from the top of the tank is pretty good in most displays and the pumps and skimmers add even more. A closed up room can accumulate CO2, but this typically just makes ph difficult to get and stay high.

 

[Ed Hahn]

No see ums...

You are using filtered water and mixing externally?

You do not have a boxfish, sea apple, slugs in your tank?

Have you treated for Flatworms with FWE?

How many fish have you added recently?

Do you have a PH meter on your tank?

I always want to check temperature and PH.

Water movement on surface..
Is the tank completely covered on the top with drilled overflows...

Contaminated goods- such as media with poor mining processes..

there must be thousands of No see ums!

 

[Ed Hahn]

Herefishyfishy just reminded me of another one. A bulb with a UV shield busted on it.

 

[Bosco83]

We had a Cow fish get stung by the anemone a few weeks ago and we pulled him out and he died in qt. I also did a large water change after that just to be sure. All has been fine and nothing changed since then.

 

[Ed Hahn]

A good back up is always Carbon. But I am not sure how good carbon will work with nuerotoxins. I lost a tank full of my prize fish in 1991 because of a porcupine puffer getting stuck in a tank overflow. A release of puffer, did a water change and saved the fish the first time. I fixed the overflow. The puffer found another place to get stuck in and killed everyone of my fish that second time, silly goofy fish!

Toxins from Flatworms will kill fish and more. We keep learning hard lessons. But we learn. Next time I would use carbon, use a ph meter to monitor changes in tank, monitor temperature, keep hands clean, select fish or animals that do not produce toxins and are compatible.
Make up my saltwater to the same ph and temps as inside tank. We never even talked about salinity.. But any changes you make to your tank please do it slowly as possible.
I have watched people dosing with drips for years. Those are the people still around with most success. Good luck and hope you smile enough to keep in this great hobby!

 

[khaosinc]

I'm operating on the assumption none of the fish or corals are new or even fairly new. Some fish diseases can do a number on a tank like brooklenella (however its spelled) wiped out half my tank in a matter of 24 hours a few years ago.

With inverts being fine and acting normally I would also doubt a chemical problem. My voltage leak is way higher than that, and I've never noticed a problem (nor have I located the cause, but I have about 60 things plugged in on the system). Oxygen is a possible idea, but unless the fish are huge (I'm assuming again this is the 90 gallon) I would be suprised at it being a problem that quickly.

There are a couple of preditory snails that can kill off fish, but again, if theres nothing new added, I doubt that (I got that from Clarks in B-ham, and I'm done with them). I recently ended up with a cone snail off a frag, which is why I bring it up.

So yea... I guess I got nothing...

 

[aquariumdebacle]

My guess would be a lack of oxygen. It has an inverse proportionality to temperature. As the temp goes up the amount of dissolved oxygen goes down. Warm salt-water has a slim margin of retaining oxygen for higher organisms. A significant temperature rise could easily drop the level of dissolved oxygen in a closed system to levels unable to sustain higher organisms.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Sorry for your loss.

I have found much too much attention/blame goes to stray voltage or lack of O2 when chemical poisoning is almost always the elephant in the room. Have lectured on this too many times to count. Air borne gasses and or items put into the tank are almost always the culprit. Could be an object tossed in from a young guest or that new furniture polish or floor stripper. Even chlorine bleach nearby can be detrimental. Often it is broken equipment leaching metals and other nasty stuff... These little boxes of life require very mild conditions.