Dead fish that I cant get to

[mgrelik]

Alright. So I take care of my Boss's reef tank. It's about 400 gallons blah blah and I'm still learning as I go. So last night after feeding, I plugged all the skimmers and pumps back in BUT... I forgot to open the pipe going from the sump into the tank. The tank went all night with just fan heads and I came in this morning to find that 90% of the fish were dead (coral seemed as happy as ever though...)

After my panic attack settled (haha i thought my life was going to end) I started cleaning up my mess... now i know there's more dead fish in the tank... just it's impossible to get to them all, because i know some are deep in the crevices of the rocks, etc. and you can only access the tank from the front.

I guess my first question is: what exactly would have killed them? Low oxygen kills one, then starts a chain reaction of spiked nitrates? or something like that?

and second, what can i do about the other few dead fish in the tank that are impossible to get to without completely tearing it apart?

any help would be amazing guys. thanks.

(oh i tested my water again after i let the system cycle for an hour... and all my levels are a-ok now... sooo yeah)

 

[chend2]

You are ok as long as you watch those levels. Go and buy all the test kits you need. The first one to spike will be ammonia. Even low levels are toxic to corals and fish, so unless you are very careful you may have only seen the beginning of death. If they is any sign of ammonia or nitrite I would continually do water changes until they come back down. Even them you might lose more animals.

As for the dead fish. It really depends, I had a couple dead fish that I couldn't get to and my tank was fine, no spike in any levels. It all depends on the tank, but then again not getting them might kill everything else in the tank as well.

As far a why they died. Some good guesses are temperature, ph change, lack of filtration are a few. Good luck.

 

[chend2]

Oh yeah, run carbon. Won't save you but it may help.

 

[SeaCoW]

how many fish are in the system(or what kinds)? it will give us a good idea how good his skimmer is and the bioload.

 

[Ed Hahn]

I would expect that you had issues with your ph. You are on the money with flow creates oxygen. No skimmer, most likely if you did not have circulation going to skimmer. Temperature and PH two most common killers of animals.

Another question is what type of fish/animals did your Boss have? Some fish when dying or stressed release nuero toxins into water. For example Cukes, slugs, boxfish, Sea Apples, etc...

 

[mgrelik]

Alright, the casualties: a marine beta that was fairly large, 1-2 tangs, a large damsel, small (1-2 inch) blue fish (anywhere from 3-6 died), a couple small clowns. a few emerald crabs and shrimp were casualties as well.

Survivors: a few large clowns made it, a couple blemies, a few little blue fish and one of the small clowns. the one octopus starfish creature we already had survived too. a couple other fish are still alive, but i have no idea what they are lol.

Upon talking to my local aquarium shop (big al's) I went and bought a couple octupus like starfish (i'm terrible with names) and some more crabs. He said they would search out and eat the decomposing fish, which would help reduce the amount of nasty stuff being released.

He also sold me an ammonia removal bacteria where i just put a few capfuls in and it will absorb and eat excess ammonia in the system. I've been testing all my levels throughout the day, everything is still stable. So i'm waiting till i come in tomorrow and ill test again, and do some more water changes, and hope for the best.

 

[mgrelik]

A little bit of an update... One of the crabs i put in has already found a fish i couldnt see and is now enjoying the feast. I'm feeling better already.