All my fish are hyperventilating and my corals are shrinking in HELP!

[ReefJake123]

Anything on this forum that I post that sounds smart, I probably learned from @Lasse lol.

lol I learned majority of my things from books and experience

 

[sawdonkey]

This is a stretch, but did you recently start using glade plug-in type air fresheners? If heard they can cause big problems.

 

[Traian Boala]

I'm happy that everything is looking fine now. But you need to understand what happened in order to prevent future episodes like this one. You said you use well water, but you are confident that it is ok because you tested it a while back. The problem with well water is that it colects all kind of crap on the way to your tank. There's a YouTuber - Daily Reefing - that uses well water and had almost total crash in his 500 gallons. Apparently someone used some chemicals in the region and the underground water became toxic. Even if he uses RO/DI water he had a major problem. He solved everything by doing huge water changes, because whatever was in the well water cleared after a couple of days so the new water he was preparing was not toxic anymore. Maybe this is something you should look into and watch his videos to see if your tank symtomps match. Good luck with your tank and congrats for being such a good reefkeeper at your age with such a big heart.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

How large is your tank? Did you put the new zoa frags straight into your tank or did you wash/dip prior? I don't see zoa's taking out a hippo tang as they have a reputation of eating them on occasion. The cloudiness you described prior to doing water changes would more match up with a bacterial bloom.

The first zoas I fragged was sloppy, and seemed to cause chemical warfare in my tank. All corals were unhappy for weeks. Water was never cloudy from it and fish showed no negative signs.

None of this explains why your yuma melted. They are very hardy.

I suspect at some point you had a destabilizing event that caused higher than .2 ppm ammonia, which eventually led to a bacterial bloom. Could also be an external toxin that started this chain reaction.

It is very important to find the cause in hopes of preventing in the future.

 

[MnFish1]

This is a stretch, but did you recently start using glade plug-in type air fresheners? If heard they can cause big problems.

curious - before you post this - how many micrograms of 'chemicals' are being released by these products - and then divide that by the water in the tank. Though people including @Randy Holmes-Farley have questioned candles - I say no (I was going to use one of those family unfriendly comments that are not allowed. A candle cant create a problem. etc etc - unless there is evidence to the contrary

 

[joeyamador]

I've used amguard before when a fish was stuck and died due to my dang brittle star being a punk and it really helped while I waited for water to mix.

 

[Lasse]

curious - before you post this - how many micrograms of 'chemicals' are being released by these products - and then divide that by the water in the tank. Though people including @Randy Holmes-Farley have questioned candles - I say no (I was going to use one of those family unfriendly comments that are not allowed. A candle cant create a problem. etc etc - unless there is evidence to the contrary

Your right - normal candles can´t - but scented candles can. If you can smell anything - its a gas. A gas can always make its way into the water through the skimmer. Many organic gases are toxic in very low concentrations. In my world - air fresheners and scented candles is a big NO-NO when you have a reef tank with an effective skimmer.

Both corals and fish reacts on this event - this small fact exclude a disease caused of microrganisms IMO. IMO - you normally can´t use a photo of a dead fish and judge what´s happen. Vet´s working with fish does not even take samples from dead fish because the microfauna changes very fast after death. When I as a fishfarmer was in contact with the fish health deparment here in Sweden - we have to send in living fish or they need to take fresh samples out at the fish farm.

The well - is it an open well or a deep drilled well?

I understand that some fish have survive. How manny?

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Lasse]

lol I learned majority of my things from books and experience

That´s true - a wise guy learns from his/hers own mistakes - but on the other hand - a really smart guy learns from other peoples mistakes And there is rather much of misstakes documented here at R2R

Sincerely Lasse

 

[w2inc]

Check and see if the ammonia levels are still detectable. It will help move things forward.

 

[w2inc]

Your right - normal candles can´t - but scented candles can. If you can smell anything - its a gas. A gas can always make its way into the water through the skimmer. Many organic gases are toxic in very low concentrations. In my world - air fresheners and scented candles is a big NO-NO when you have a reef tank with an effective skimmer.

Both corals and fish reacts on this event - this small fact exclude a disease caused of microrganisms IMO. IMO - you normally can´t use a photo of a dead fish and judge what´s happen. Vet´s working with fish does not even take samples from dead fish because the microfauna changes very fast after death. When I as a fishfarmer was in contact with the fish health deparment here in Sweden - we have to send in living fish or they need to take fresh samples out at the fish farm.

The well - is it an open well or a deep drilled well?

I understand that some fish have survive. How manny?

Sincerely Lasse

Thanks for sharing that post. I have been having some issues in my system. My skimmers pull air in from the outdoors. It gives me another place to look for the cause.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

OK so just for the sake of discussion - I re-read all of the information. The fact that the shrimp died makes 'fish disease' less likely - unless there is an ammonia problem. (have you been checking it frequently?). Have you double-checked ALL of the tests you have done on your tank - with an LFS or another source - salinity, etc etc. Have you by chance done a test for copper?

Thinking back - was there ANYTHING different on the day before the tang and the angel died? temperature, water change, etc etc etc. I agree with you - go back to the initial episode...... It sounds like a toxin - or a disease. My rec - soon - take a sample of the water - to send for an ICP test - then change as much water as you can - as quickly as you can - matching parameters. What salt are you using (sorry if I missed it). The reason for taking a sample and sending an ICP is that though it may not 'help' current situation - it may help when you get it back - to see 'what was going on'. Would recheck your ammonia/nitrite (though not likely a problem if thepH is ok). But - I would re check all of your tests.

I just went back through and read everything again and I agree I missed the shrimp dying. That pretty much rules out disease. I see it looks as if your tank has stabilized and I hope it has and starts moving forward again. Good luck!

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Just did my ammonia test and it’s at a 0.25ppm so not horrible

Is this ammonia NH3 or total ammonia NH3+NH4. ?

 

[Belgian Anthias]

Doing a big waterchange at low pH may not be a good advice as the pH increase may do more harm as it may solve. If ammonium NH4 is present a water change will delute total ammonia ( NH3+NH4) but may increase the toxic NH3 level. Better is to do several small changes.

How the nitrogen cycle is controlled in this system. Obviously something has interupted or reduced the installed ammonia reduction capacity ( nitrification, assimilation)

 

[Belgian Anthias]

If the ammonia build up is NOT caused by a nutrient problem ammonia can easely and safeley be removed bij dosing some vodka; ammonia will be removed fast by assimilation.
Sometimes the skimmer may cause such a problem as a kimmer removes constantly but selectively essential building materials wich may limit growth needed to support the carrying capacity of the system. As waterchanges may not be the best solution for an ammonia problem, adding some F2 media may help in solving a building material problem.

 

[ReefJake123]

This is a stretch, but did you recently start using glade plug-in type air fresheners? If heard they can cause big problems.

Nope

 

[ReefJake123]

I'm happy that everything is looking fine now. But you need to understand what happened in order to prevent future episodes like this one. You said you use well water, but you are confident that it is ok because you tested it a while back. The problem with well water is that it colects all kind of crap on the way to your tank. There's a YouTuber - Daily Reefing - that uses well water and had almost total crash in his 500 gallons. Apparently someone used some chemicals in the region and the underground water became toxic. Even if he uses RO/DI water he had a major problem. He solved everything by doing huge water changes, because whatever was in the well water cleared after a couple of days so the new water he was preparing was not toxic anymore. Maybe this is something you should look into and watch his videos to see if your tank symtomps match. Good luck with your tank and congrats for being such a good reefkeeper at your age with such a big heart.

Thanks man it’s just truly a passion of mine, I will definitely look into his videos

 

[ReefJake123]

Your right - normal candles can´t - but scented candles can. If you can smell anything - its a gas. A gas can always make its way into the water through the skimmer. Many organic gases are toxic in very low concentrations. In my world - air fresheners and scented candles is a big NO-NO when you have a reef tank with an effective skimmer.

Both corals and fish reacts on this event - this small fact exclude a disease caused of microrganisms IMO. IMO - you normally can´t use a photo of a dead fish and judge what´s happen. Vet´s working with fish does not even take samples from dead fish because the microfauna changes very fast after death. When I as a fishfarmer was in contact with the fish health deparment here in Sweden - we have to send in living fish or they need to take fresh samples out at the fish farm.

The well - is it an open well or a deep drilled well?

I understand that some fish have survive. How manny?

Sincerely Lasse

I don’t use any candles at all and the well is deep drilled my two clowns the six line wrasse and my 3 green chromis are the only survivors

 

[ReefJake123]

I just went back through and read everything again and I agree I missed the shrimp dying. That pretty much rules out disease. I see it looks as if your tank has stabilized and I hope it has and starts moving forward again. Good luck!

Thank you man!

 

[ReefJake123]

Is this ammonia NH3 or total ammonia NH3+NH4. ?

Both but it’s fully down again

 

[ReefJake123]

Well guys this thread will at least be a great piece for anyone having problems a lot of amazing suggestions as to causes