Help! my fish are dieing

[yellow_tang2009]

I went to mexico this weekend for two nights and got a friend to feed my fish. He knows what he is doing and has done it lots before, But this time my clown is lying in the anenome sideways and discolored, ,my foxface is all black and in almost lieing on the sand and my trigger is bobing up and down. they did this onece befor but i just put an air pump in and they were fine. this time i had a air pump in there? my water parameters are normal but my nitrate is a little high. about 30. I cant figure this one out?

Thanks

[MattG]

when you say everythign is fine what all did you test for?

You saying this happened before and an air pump fixed the problem makes me think its either a lack of oxygen or really low ph. I would keep your your air pump on and maybe point a powerhead or two at the surface of the water to aggetate it.

I would also run some fresh carbon and do a decent sized water change (make sure the temp/salinity is matched) in case there was some type of contamination. Also make sure to check your ph.

[tahoe98]

Yeah that sounds too extreme to just be a nitrate problem. My nitrates in my FOWLR tank have been as high as 50 and all of my fish did fine, including my Blue hippo and Sailfin tangs. I would try to get some more current going and check the PH.

[fsu]

Along the same lines as what they have said, have you had any power outages? This happened to me in a similiar fashion. I didn't know that it had happened til a few days later!

[yellow_tang2009]

I tested my PH, Nitrate Nitrite Ammonia Calcium and salinity. I have been running carbon for the last six weeks. changing it out evry two weeks. But after pumping LOTS of air in my tank they are fine this morning. My trigger cut himself on a rock bobing up and down other than that you would not know it happened. But i cant figure out why. My skimmer should be puttting enough air in the water i think.