Navarchus
Almost smarter than a pig
Gdbyrd, sorry to hear about your loss. I am going to thow some wild theories out there, but I don't think I really can tell what happened. Let's focus on the changes to your tank to see if we can diagnose the problem.
As far as I can see the following is a list of all the changes in the last two weeks:
1) Heat spike to 86.
2) No skimmer running for 3 days
3) Changed sump skimmer to run as HOB
4) Introduced microbubbles.
5) New Kenya Tree last week
1) I don’t think the heat spike caused the die-off. My heat spikes to 86 in the summer months and I have not experienced a massive die-off. Also, the fact that the water temperature was back to normal for days before the die-off seems to indicate that the heat was not the problem.
2) I don’t think that your cessation of skimming was the problem either. Your nitrates remained undetectable, and you had just performed a water change.
3). The HOB skimmer may be the culprit. You changed this the night before everything died, which leads me to think this may have been the cause. Depending on how extensive your changes to the protein skimmer were, this may be the source of the electrical leak. If there was a leak however, I would have expected you to have felt it when you removed the dead fish. What changes were necessary to get this thing to work as a HOB? Do you have a deep sand bed in your sump? If so, when you moved the PS did you disturb the sand? Disturbing deep sand beds can release toxins formed by anaerobic bacteria.
Also, what do you do for work? Is there a chance that you had any chemicals on your hands when you were fishing around in the sump?
4) I don’t think the microbubble killed the fish. Actually the presence of microbubbles seems to suggest that there was enough oxygen in the tank, so the fish didn’t suffocate.
5) The Kenya tree could be the culprit too. Kenya trees compete with hard corals by releasing 'terpenoid' or 'sarcophine' compounds into the water. These compounds are similar to turpentine in chemical structure and can be just as toxic—although I have not heard of fish being killed by them. Also, where was the Kenya tree from? Some places still use cyanide to capture fish, and this could have leeched from the Kenya tree. (long shot, but I figured I would throw it out there).
Anyway, good luck rebuilding. On the bright side, you can take all the knowledge you have learned to date and start anew. Make the tank that you always wanted. If this ever happens to me I may tell my wife that the fish died because my tank is too small, and that I am finally going to get that 300 gallon one that I have had my eye on. ;-)
As far as I can see the following is a list of all the changes in the last two weeks:
1) Heat spike to 86.
2) No skimmer running for 3 days
3) Changed sump skimmer to run as HOB
4) Introduced microbubbles.
5) New Kenya Tree last week
1) I don’t think the heat spike caused the die-off. My heat spikes to 86 in the summer months and I have not experienced a massive die-off. Also, the fact that the water temperature was back to normal for days before the die-off seems to indicate that the heat was not the problem.
2) I don’t think that your cessation of skimming was the problem either. Your nitrates remained undetectable, and you had just performed a water change.
3). The HOB skimmer may be the culprit. You changed this the night before everything died, which leads me to think this may have been the cause. Depending on how extensive your changes to the protein skimmer were, this may be the source of the electrical leak. If there was a leak however, I would have expected you to have felt it when you removed the dead fish. What changes were necessary to get this thing to work as a HOB? Do you have a deep sand bed in your sump? If so, when you moved the PS did you disturb the sand? Disturbing deep sand beds can release toxins formed by anaerobic bacteria.
Also, what do you do for work? Is there a chance that you had any chemicals on your hands when you were fishing around in the sump?
4) I don’t think the microbubble killed the fish. Actually the presence of microbubbles seems to suggest that there was enough oxygen in the tank, so the fish didn’t suffocate.
5) The Kenya tree could be the culprit too. Kenya trees compete with hard corals by releasing 'terpenoid' or 'sarcophine' compounds into the water. These compounds are similar to turpentine in chemical structure and can be just as toxic—although I have not heard of fish being killed by them. Also, where was the Kenya tree from? Some places still use cyanide to capture fish, and this could have leeched from the Kenya tree. (long shot, but I figured I would throw it out there).
Anyway, good luck rebuilding. On the bright side, you can take all the knowledge you have learned to date and start anew. Make the tank that you always wanted. If this ever happens to me I may tell my wife that the fish died because my tank is too small, and that I am finally going to get that 300 gallon one that I have had my eye on. ;-)
