Howdy everyone

W

Weeburn

Reefing newb
Just thought I'd introduce myself. I've been in the hobby for about 2 years now, and unfortunately, aside from joining to share the experience of the hobby with everyone, and get ideas/information from other members, I'm also hoping to find a solution to a serious problem I'm having with my tank.

I'll be making a new thread here shortly, but which section would y'all recommend I start it in? Having a problem with all my fish suddenly dying off...after having very little problems in the 2 years I've been doing this. My other forum, DFWMAS, hasnt been able to give me an answer as to a solution to my problem

Anyways, happy to be here, and hopefully soon my problem will be dealt with and i can continue enjoying my tank and contributing to the community.

[edit:] meant to post this in the introductions forum! How do I delete/move thread?
 
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Welcome to the Reef!!
What are all of your levels at???
What tank?
How many fish do you add?
Do you acclimate?
 
55g tank, lighting is 4x65w PC, half actinic half 10,000k, 1 750gph Koralia powerhead.

Last water test (last wednesday) showed
Ph: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate N02: 0
Low range Nitrate NO3: 10
Salinity 1.024.

All my previous water tests have been about the same. Trouble all started a little over a month ago, I introduced a condy anemone into my tank, around that same time did a water change (15g) and upgraded to the lighting i just mentioned. Not sure if these things are coincidental, but still worth noting. starting about 2 weeks later i lost one fish about every 3 days or so, until they were all gone. had 3 yellow damsels, one striped damsel, and a fire/saddleback clown. Had the clown for a year and a half, the damsels for about six months, no problems with any of them through that time.

Clown had some greyish/dead skin looking spots on him, didnt look like ich, around the same time the condy started to look like it was on the decline. I figured the anemone might have had something to do with it, but not sure (Clown was hosting anemone). None of my other fish displayed any visible irregularities. After they were all gone, did a 40 gallon water change (about 80/90% if you count how much water my live rock displaces) at the advise of my local fish store, with their pre-mixed water.

Waited awhile, added a yellowtail damsel, acclimated properly, just to see if the problem was with a chemical in my water (i used to mix my own salt with tap-water, i know, big No-No, but everything had been fine in the past with this method) or possibly a disease/parasite. He didn't make it 3 days before he was gone.

My plan is to just not add any fish for the next 6 or so weeks, see what happens, still not convinced it's ich, but i know it doesnt always show visible spots. Water consistently tests ok, but maybe there's something in it that isn't tested for that could be causing this.

Bifferwine said:
Hello,
Have you tried testing for stray voltage?

Identifying, Locating and Curing Stray Voltage in a Saltwater Aquarium

Welcome to the site!
Click to expand...

I haven't, i'm a mechanic so I'm familiar with using a Volmeter, but I don't see how that would be possible given the way my lights are mounted and my wires routed. There's no possible conductive path into the water. Plus you would think it would affect my inverts, which are doing as fine as ever, if stray voltage was the problem.

Also I didnt add the powerhead until after this had happened, so I'm not suspecting it.

Any ideas? (sorry for such a big post, but i figure more details are better than less)
 
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Weeburn said:
None of my other fish displayed any visible irregularities. After they were all gone, did a 40 gallon water change (about 80/90% if you count how much water my live rock displaces) at the advise of my local fish store, with their pre-mixed water.
Click to expand...

Uhh you changed 80-90%???
Changing so much of the water is not a good idea.
Does your anemone look ok? Not in bad shape? Have you fed him?
 
Waddi said:
Uhh you changed 80-90%???
Changing so much of the water is not a good idea.
Does your anemone look ok? Not in bad shape? Have you fed him?
Click to expand...

Anemone's gone, pulled him out when he was looking like he was about to die right before i did the huge water change. He looked healthy and awesome for the first few weeks i had it, fed regularly, until all this started. Then it was a fairly rapid decline in his health. I know normally such a large water change is a bad idea, but with nothing left in the tank to lose besides hermits and snails (which made it through fine), and suspecting harmful chemicals i figured there wasn't much to lose. Kind of a "burn it down and start over" mentality, which I was hesitant to do, but as I mentioned it was the guy at the LFS who suggested it, my original plan was to do weekly 20% changes for about 6 weeks.

And tomorrow I'll grab my DMM at work and test for voltage in the tank, even though i'm not entirely convinced. Who knows, hopefully I'm wrong and that's all it is.
 
Did any fish die after you took the anemone out?

Often times, when anemones get sick or die, they wipe out everything else in the tank with them.
 
Bifferwine said:
Did any fish die after you took the anemone out?

Often times, when anemones get sick or die, they wipe out everything else in the tank with them.
Click to expand...


All the fish were already gone when I pulled the anemone out. My reason for doing so was that I suspected the anemone being sick/dying was a possible reason my fish all died, so I figured if I'm starting over I didn't want to leave it in as a variable.

However that makes me reconsider the anemone being the cause of the problem, since after its removal followed immediately by the 40 gallon water change, the damsel i introduced afterwards still died in less than 3 days. Again, I really didnt want to add the damsel so soon, but the guy who'd been helping me through my problem from the beginning at my LFS said it might not be a bad idea, just to help isolate the problem to being one of anemone vs. water quality vs. parisite/disease. Maybe next time I go back to my LFS I'll ask for an older guys help?
 
sen5241b said:
I'm guessing you may have had a heavy metal build-up. These metals can get into the sand and rock so an 80% change out may help but not solve the problem. Carbon will remove heavy metals. I suggest at the very least you investigate this possibility. Start here:
Click to expand...

This is a possibility I've considered, especially since I used to use tap water to mix my saltwater. FWIW when I did my water change I did replace and add carbon in my canister filter (Fluval 305, only 3 months old). I'll read up on your links in the meantime.

Thanks everyone who's responded for your help, again you guys seem to be a lot more helpful than others I've asked, and I can't believe the response time. Hopefully with your help I can come to a conclusion, and in addition to all I've learned on my own ( quite a bit! ) researching while I've had this problem, maybe one day I can use the knowledge I've gained here to help someone else out. This forum is awesome. Keep it coming guys!
 
I think we have all had stuff that has died on us and we were left wondering why... It sucks when you can't put your finger on the reason! I feel for ya.
 
Weeburn said:
This is a possibility I've considered, especially since I used to use tap water to mix my saltwater. FWIW when I did my water change I did replace and add carbon in my canister filter (Fluval 305, only 3 months old). I'll read up on your links in the meantime.

Thanks everyone who's responded for your help, again you guys seem to be a lot more helpful than others I've asked, and I can't believe the response time. Hopefully with your help I can come to a conclusion, and in addition to all I've learned on my own ( quite a bit! ) researching while I've had this problem, maybe one day I can use the knowledge I've gained here to help someone else out. This forum is awesome. Keep it coming guys!
Click to expand...

You probably know that canister filters, if left hooked up long enough, will cause a detritus trap and thus lots of nitrates. If the cause is heavy metals you may wish to get a lead test for you water. I think you can get one at Home Depot. Also you cuuld use your canister filter, temporarily, filled with carbon, polyfilter and other media to clean the water, sand and rock. You could also rinse your sand or replace it.
 
+1 Sen

Weeburn welcome to the site. If you run that canister filter all the time, make sure you clean it every few days, otherwise crap collected in it will start breaking down and releasing nirates into your water. If you dont have a protien skimmer, I would suggest at least looking into one. That way you would only have to use the canister filter when you want to run carbon, or some other sort of chemical media
 

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