Desperate Help Needed

[Fun $ Pit]

Ok - I am at a total loss. I don't know if it's ich doing this or other infestation, but one by one all of my fish are dying off.

They seem to be doing fine then within a matter of hours their skin starts to fade, turn grey/whitish, have trouble swimming (lay on side) and then die.

(This all started when I was on vacation and I had a stand in caretaker)

Did the water get poisened somehow or what? I see no other signs of disease other than mild ich.

I have quarantined my two remaining fish with a 100% fresh saltwater and aerating.... don't know what else to do other than watch the worse.

[kc9dre]

What else is in the tank? Just the fish, inverts? If you suspect the water, have you checked the water? Either way I would do a water change ASAP. I'm still new but that is whatI would start with until I get better answers from the seasoned vetrans on here...

[m2434]

Salinity or O2 would be my first guesses... but what are your parameters.

[Craig Lambert]

Without listing all of your water parameters and tank information, any response would only be a guess.

[Fun $ Pit]

Salinity was at 1.023
0 Trates
0 Ammonia
0 Trites
PH of 8.4
o2 should be fine - open tank with plenty of surface additation with sump

The only things I have in my tank are dead, barely live rock, lots of snails, a mushroom, and a ric.

[Sk8r]

First get a water sample and test for alkalinity, ph, salinity, nitrates, ammonia, and give exact numbers where possible, eg. 8.3, 7.9, 1.025, etc. And have you had a temperature spike?

Second: run carbon. Whenever in doubt, run carbon for 4 days, then discard. Get live fish, corals, inverts, to quarantine in clean water. Get some polyfilter and snip off a strip: run that in the water column and see if there is a color change: polyfilter can remove stuff, but it's pricey, so you'll want to test and see if there's anything it CAN pull out.


Could your caretaker have used a cleaning agent, Windex, Pledge, etc?

WIth only a mag 5 return pump in a 90 g tank, I am suspicious about oxygenation shortage. I used a mag 9.5 in a 54g, before I went larger, and I thought at the time that a mag 12 might not have been too much.

Tell us all you can about what else is in the tank, condition of water, behavior of fish, etc.

So sorry for what's happening. What a welcome home!

[SPAMREEF]

tempature?? electric shock??? windex????? smoke???? some things to check....

[Fun $ Pit]

Strange thing is - I've had all of these fish in the same tank for 4 months. These deaths only started when I was away last week. Now, on a side note - Just before I left I setup a phos reactor. When I returned the tank was not in bad shape, but the sump was. Chaeto had shrunken and died off, skimmer had overflowed, sump walls were grimy, and much of my hair algae was dieing off.

[Sk8r]

Dying algae releases phosphate bigtime, plus other elements. Phosphate reactor may have gotten the phosphate but can't get other stuff. How was the skimmer? Sounds like a light was off most of the time. Your tank sitter may not be fessing up to the whole truth. Plus I would not run phosban while running a fuge: phosban is to kill algae, fuge is to keep it alive letting it suck up nutrients. That may actually have been a big problem.

[Gdevine]

Originally posted by Sk8r
Dying algae releases phosphate bigtime, plus other elements. Phosphate reactor may have gotten the phosphate but can't get other stuff. How was the skimmer? Sounds like a light was off most of the time. Your tank sitter may not be fessing up to the whole truth. Plus I would not run phosban while running a fuge: phosban is to kill algae, fuge is to keep it alive letting it suck up nutrients. That may actually have been a big problem.

Tell me more about this not running phosban and having a fuge. I run Ecosystem method with a 65g DT and a 35 fuge. I've never heard what you just mentioned. I have been running a reactor for more then a year and my fuge is teaming with life and I've never seen any adverse reaction. Almost everyone I know runs a phosphate reactor and a bio fuge with no ill affects.

Are you certain about your statement?

[Fun $ Pit]

When I returned the first thing I did was clean out the sump and tank. I removed the dying chaeto and vacuumed out the bottom of the sump and cleaned the walls with mag float. I even did about a 30% water change too.

[Gdevine]

How well did you "rinse" the phosban BEFORE you put in the reactor and charged it up? If not well rinsed, the residual of Phospan can be toxic whe it enters the water column.

[melev]

Perhaps you had a power outage that lasted long enough to cause those deaths. It would be tough for us to guess what happened while you were out of town, when you can't figure it out and you're seeing the tank in front of you.

All the die-off - something big caused that.

[Sk8r]

Melev has a very good point.

Gdevine, phosphate is what fuels algae growth. It is supposed to suck it up. Phosban is designed to suck up phosphate. So either the system has so very much phosphate it's satisfying both, [and the fuge is first in line in the water column] or the likelihood is that the algae farm is getting shorted and the Phosban is not doing great harm, but no great good, either. My own reasoning is that an algae dieoff could cause troubles, and a brand new Phosban system inserted in the water flow between tank and fuge could suddenly deprive a lot of algae of nutrient. Many cheato balls come equipped with caulerpa hitchhikers, which would be particularly unpleasant in die-off [mildly toxic.]

[stuccodude]

your flow could be too much in your reactor making your phosban toxic, good luck

[Fun $ Pit]

Regardless of the mystery reason behind the deaths, I still feel bad for the fish - as any good keeper should.

I am down to one fish now. Sailfin died last night.

Whatever is causing the deaths is affecting the fish only at this point. All of my inverts (snails/starfish) are doing great.

My one fish - Kole Tang - is in quarantine at this time for at least 30 days. No signs of disease at this time, so we may get to hang on to one of our fish.

I am leaning towards brooklynella from the clowns. When I returned last week my bicolor blenny had already passed, and clowns and sailfin had the white dot ich look. I put them all in quarantine and tried copper treatment, but clowns died and sailfin died last night. I am now understanding that formalin is more effective in treating brooklynella? Seems like I just can't win.

[Fun $ Pit]

Thanks for all the ideas and thoughts everyone. We are learning alot through this about treatments etc. and will be much more prepared next time.

On a good note - we had a quarantine tank and could have it setup and ready within an hour. Two tanks actually. I had one tank setup with Cupramine at .4 and the other with hyposalinity at 1.006. I was trying to save the sailfin long enough to get formalin today - thought the hypo and freshwater dip would relieve the mucous filled gills till then. I was too late I guess.

Anyways - We appreaciate all the feedback!