All fish dead

cloudjockey · #1 10/04/2006, 10:45 AM

I got home today and found all my fish dead. Two large puffers, 3 large triggers, 3 large tangs, and one surper cool lion. My filter system went down on Saturday I think. I was gone all day Sunday and did not check the tank until Monday afternoon. My heaters are in the sump so the tank had no heat for probably two days. The temp got down to about 75. Saturday I (for some reason, probably too many beers), mixed a batch of kalk solution up and instead of dipping it in, I dumped it into my overflow. This way I would slowly mix with the water.

I pH on Monday was fine, 8.3. My nitrate were about 30. This could be due to all the dead fish. The strange this is that my large crab survived all of this. I had one crab in the tank.

All in all about a 500-600 hundred dollar loss. I do not know if the temp killed them or I did with the kalk mix. Any thoughts?

SW1TCH · #2 10/04/2006, 10:50 AM

I dont think it was the temp I had mine go below 75 when i was out of power.

D659600 · #3 10/04/2006, 10:55 AM

I dont think the temp would have killed them. Nitrates being 30 is not that bad. Mine have been all the way up to 120, went on vacation for 3 weeks didint do a water change before I left.(stupid on my part) I have never used kalk mix on any of my tanks before, mabey the beer made it into the tank.

T-T-Trigger · #4 10/04/2006, 07:56 PM

i have had a tank down to 70 from 80 overnight and the fish were fine - reclusive and a short bout of ick, but certainly not a killer. plus you lost all the fish not just one or two, which means the the water got real bad real quick. had to be the kalk, no?

was the water stagnant the whole time (you said your filter system was down)? that obviously would be a major problem/contributor/cause of this.

BTTRFLYGRL · #5 10/04/2006, 09:39 PM

Yeah, 75 won't kill your fish...My heater malfunctioned in my 240 a couple of months ago, tank got up to 98

I only lost one fish and a couple of cleaners..High temps reduce oxygen..

Have you added anything new?

Sorry for your loss BTW

Sk8r · #6 10/04/2006, 10:51 PM

cloudjockey, sorry to hear it... Voice of experience: don't touch the tank even if you've just had wine with dinner: really bad mistakes, follow---in my case, dropping a coral. I'm betting on the kalk, something that's also standing out to you as an "I wish I hadn't done that." One thing these tanks universally hate is sudden changes, and that's sudden. Kalk can play hob with alkalinity if I remember correctly, and the floor falling out of the alk could do them in. Get some water tests and a log notebook and test before adding.

cloudjockey · #7 10/05/2006, 06:19 AM

I'm thinking it had to be the kalk, then the pumps went out. Probably the weakest fish died and then with no filteration the tank went down hill fast. The water was very stagnant when I found it. I have made some changes so this will not happen again. Turns out the pumps are fine, it was a timer switch that controlled the pumps. Went I feed then I set a timer for 30 minutes to turn the pumps off and then back on.

Beer = buzz = dead fish

I chalk this to a very expensive lesson.

BTTRFLYGRL · #8 10/05/2006, 06:35 AM

If there was no water movement in the tank, thats probably what killed them....water movement supplies oxygen

That really sucks!!
I can't imagine coming home to a dead tank

cloudjockey · #9 10/05/2006, 08:03 AM

There was 4 power heads still moving the water, but not really that much. I had a pretty heavy fish load, so they could have died from lack of O2.

LRS078 · #10 10/08/2006, 03:26 AM

First, sorry to hear of your loss....

As far as what killed the fish...I'm always nervous with Kalk and hence don't use it. However you said you tested PH and 8.3 doesn't sound lethal. What it was in the interim we'll never know but let's put that in the "maybe/maybe not" category for now. The temp is a total non issue, I know plenty of people that keep their tanks at 75-76 to slow metabolic rates on predator tanks.

One thing I know 100% will kill a tank is no O2 exchange from dead pump/stagnant water. Unless the surface of the water is disturbed there is no O2 exchange. Believe it or not airstones do most of their work by the bubbles disturbing the surface moreso than gas exchange while the bubbles are in the water. There is some yes, but the way its been explained to me is that the overwhelming majority of it comes from the surface being broken/sump action/skimmer. If those powerheads had airlines and were blowing air/water through that is different. If they just moved some water around but didn't disturb the surface then no real gas exchange happened with the pump down. Your higher stockload only depleted the O2 faster but without gas exchange everyone is toast sooner or later.

peterv · #11 10/08/2006, 04:04 PM

Isn't it so that when a puffer dies ,he can poison all the fish in the tank?
Is this true or not ??
I like puffers very much,but never had one ,for that reason...

LRS078 · #12 10/08/2006, 07:04 PM

That is comletely untrue....you are thinking of certain species of boxfish. With boxfish (camel cowfish, longhorn cowfish, etc) they can choose to poison the tank when stressed/dying but it is a conscious choice not a 100% when they die.

Puffers are poisonous (NOT venomous) ie their flesh, organs, and tissue carry the toxin and can only impact others when said tissue is ingested. So if your lionfish eats a toby puffer or a giant grouper gulps down a dogface then they will almost certainly die as a result of eating the puffer. However a puffer will never secrete any poisons. Only way for another fish to be poisoned is if a fish were to ingest some of the puffer's flesh.... Note, this can happen if something ingests some amount of a puffer's flesh ie a trigger or similar nibbling on a dead puffer or taking a "chunk" out of them. The bitten puffer will get the last laugh.

Make sense now?

peterv · #13 10/09/2006, 05:42 AM

Ok

Now i will get me one to...

cloudjockey · #14 10/09/2006, 09:48 AM

I will have to go with the lack of O2. My power heads are positioned to move the water down onto the rocks. There is also no surface movment with them. Thanks for all the help in understanding what probably happend.

d_hartke · #15 10/09/2006, 12:06 PM

I had a puffer and a lionfish in by last tank. I am almost sure that the lionfish died from something, and took the entire tank down with him.
I have also had two problems with alcohol. Both in college. Once someone poored vodka in the tank. The other time my roomate's brother dumped all my chemicals into the tank after he got back from the bar. Some people just don't understand.

Miamireefer · #16 10/09/2006, 04:07 PM

Sorry to hear for your loss but as said before you said you usually drip the kalk and this time around you dumped it in doesn't turn out to be a good scenario. Although your ph tested fine after it's all settled and dandy at the time it was added could have had a different effect which is what I could imagine along with the lack of o2= a very ****ed off owner. Again sorry to hear man but play it safe this time around and stick to a couple beers rather than a couple six packs... Good luck

Nick