Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

When I got up and turned on my lights this morning all but 3 of my fish were dead. The survivors are my 2 maroon gold stripe clowns and my mandrin goby.

When I turned the lights off last night everything was fine. All the corals are fine as well as the clams. I tested the water and the parameters are


ph 8.0 (a little low but not enough to kill off 6 fish)
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate is 5
phosphate is 0
and the specific gravity or the water is 1.023

What gives? Anyone have an opinion? the water isn't perfect but it isn't BAD either..

Carefully check to make sure the water does not tingle when you touch it, electrical disturbance in the water...etc.

Anyone spray anything around the tank ?

How long have you had the fish and did you introduce any new ones ?

snoopdog wrote:Carefully check to make sure the water does not tingle when you touch it, electrical disturbance in the water...etc.

Anyone spray anything around the tank ?

How long have you had the fish and did you introduce any new ones ?

I was thinking the same thing with the electrical dis. The corals don't mind it if I remember reading that correctly. But fish of course think otherwise.

By the way was there anything unusual about the bodies ? Like a coating or discoloration ?

There is no tingle when you touch the water, nor did the fish have any thing strange about them. The only thing I have added in the last few days was some ricordias and a polyp colony.

were the bodies beat up? did the clown pair gang up on them?

Curious, what fish died?

no they didn't have any kind of marks on them. the last fish i added 2 or 3 weeks ago. I just saw my rainfords goby so he made it too. I would think the calms or starfish would have bought the farm first. Well I guess moving this weekend will be easier now. Thanks for the replies but I am just thrown for a loss. Keep them coming if you can think of anything.

Thanks,

Dave

Death due to stray voltage happens very quickly at close to normal line voltage. At lower voltages it first shows up in the lateral line. Ask me how I know. Shrimp and crabs are normally killed first. I am a firm believer in grounding probes.

In your case it sounds more like a toxicity problem. Like Snoop asked, did something get sprayed in the air or did you put something new or unwashed in the tank? Did you put makeup water in the tank with a new container or one that might have been under a spray? Did your makeup water get contaminated?

Did you change the pH too quickly? Did it get too hot too quickly? Did you change the alkalinity too quickly?

Could be any number of things. Try and remember what might have been different or anything that got put in the tank temporarily or permanently.

Phil

Nothing has been changed in this tank for 6 months. We have nothing sprayed in the house. The shrimps and crabs and snails are still alive.
There were 4 fish still alive.
Don't have a grounding probe, but I know there is no voltage in the water cause i have stuck my hand in there today. Thanks for all of the ideas guys

I had 40+ volts (to ground) running thru my tank and I could not feel it.

Phil

I know I don't have any stray voltage in there because I used a multi meter to read for voltage. I guess it was just a ghost or something.

The fish that died were:

2 yellow tangs
1 hippo tang
4 green chromis
and 1 half-black angel

The "survivors" are doing great today. I hope I don't have anymore problems. I am moving the tank this weekend so I will do about a 50% water change then. Mabey I can keep more of it but I will have to see.

Might want to run carbon for a week just to be safe.

Did you by chance glue anything down that day?

Karen,

No, I have never had luck with super glue so I stopped even trying that about a year ago. But so far so good with the rest of the tank. Everyone else is still doing fine. Thanks for all the help and concern. I really appreciate it. Snoop, I am running carbon right now.. how long should I run it?

Thanks,

Dave

Dang this one is a riddle isn't it.
I don't know about you Snoopdog, but i keep mine in all the time.