Cycle finished but fish died?

[CoachRichardson]

If that is a Fluval Evo I had a similar situation but caught it before I lost my clown. Those tanks are mass produced and my only guess is some chemical is used in the production. I didn't thoroughly clean my new tank before I set it up and almost lost the clowns. I took the clowns to the fish tore to hold, broke down the tank and thoroughly cleaned it and tossed that sand. After I did that I ran fresh water for a couple of days and carbon. I then started it back up with new sand, new bacteria and added my clown back after a day and all was fine. I have to assume because I couldn't come up with anything else that there was something in the tank or silicon from manufacturing that was still present when I didn't thoroughly clean my tank before setup.

 

[Dburr1014]

My wife bought four auto spray units a few months ago. I was terrified at first. Two upstairs, one in the bathroom and one sitting teen feet away from the tank.
I have had zero issues with it.

 

[Seansea]

I see this is an AIO. DO you have a skimmer going on this? Helps remove any toxins in water at start up. For the first 2 weeks that skimmer will be going nuts with any manufacturing residue thats floating around in tank.

 

[Spicy Reef]

With each of those animals dying w/in hours, I don't feel it could be acclimation. IMHO there has to be something leaching out from something submersed in the tank. From everything you've mentioned so far, it's difficult to know what you don't know...
Someone mentioned earlier, did you check for stray voltage? heater or pump could be leaking... grasping at straws and following along. Animals should not have passed so quickly especially since you already had them a while.
R u running activated carbon?

PS... I wouldn't rule out the auto spray units yet.

 

[bj274]

I see this is an AIO. DO you have a skimmer going on this? Helps remove any toxins in water at start up. For the first 2 weeks that skimmer will be going nuts with any manufacturing residue thats floating around in tank.

I have one but have not used it yet

 

[bj274]

With each of those animals dying w/in hours, I don't feel it could be acclimation. IMHO there has to be something leaching out from something submersed in the tank. From everything you've mentioned so far, it's difficult to know what you don't know...
Someone mentioned earlier, did you check for stray voltage? heater or pump could be leaking... grasping at straws and following along. Animals should not have passed so quickly especially since you already had them a while.
R u running activated carbon?

PS... I wouldn't rule out the auto spray units yet.

I have a new sicce 1.0 pump and new aquael heater?

 

[bj274]

If that is a Fluval Evo I had a similar situation but caught it before I lost my clown. Those tanks are mass produced and my only guess is some chemical is used in the production. I didn't thoroughly clean my new tank before I set it up and almost lost the clowns. I took the clowns to the fish tore to hold, broke down the tank and thoroughly cleaned it and tossed that sand. After I did that I ran fresh water for a couple of days and carbon. I then started it back up with new sand, new bacteria and added my clown back after a day and all was fine. I have to assume because I couldn't come up with anything else that there was something in the tank or silicon from manufacturing that was still present when I didn't thoroughly clean my tank before setup.

Ouch!!! that sucks
I did add chemi pure bag earlier this week.

 

[bj274]

I do have the brown algae starting.

Do y’all think my pods have survived?

Also added pink and purple coraline couple weeks ago

 

[Tamberav]

Could this be possible???

I would say it is possible. The tank is small and there wouldn’t be much dilution.

Running come carbon may help.

 

[BeanAnimal]

My wife bought four auto spray units a few months ago. I was terrified at first. Two upstairs, one in the bathroom and one sitting teen feet away from the tank.
I have had zero issues with it.

Nothing like chemical atomizers all over the house… same for those silly essential oil vaporizers. I prefer to not be in room with that stuff.

 

[slythy]

As someone said before, have you tested for stray voltage? How are you measuring salinity?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m in process of setting up new tank. Live sand, dry rock, dr tims and microbacter 7. Next week will be 2 month mark, about a week or week and a half ago I reached 0 ammonia and waited for nitrites to go to 0 which was 2 days ago. Nitrates were present, I did about 40% water change, then I moved my clown from another tank and he seemed great for several hours. Got up this morning and he was dead ….
Any help on what happened?
I didn’t acclimate, but the salinity was identical and temp was within a degree between the 2 tanks.
Will having a lid deplete the oxygen in the water?

You said nitrates were present but did not indicate at what level
NitrItes play No significance in saltwater environment and can be disregarded unless sky high. If you are using Api kit- you may have false readings. In addition when moving them into display, you will have wanted to acclimate or short acclimate them for salinity and temp Unless you had this preset.
For cycle, not sure how you other than bacteria performed the cycle as a 2 month period would have been unnecessary. Best practice would be adding your bacteria as you did, then adding ammonia chloride or a piece of shrimp (shrimp for 48 hours). Then you want to monitor ammonia , When your ammonia is steady at zero for 5 days and Nitrate is steady at 20 or below- You are cycled. Ignore nitrIte Unless sky high
The tank will go through two phases in which ammonia will rise then fall and nitrate will rise and fall which is normal. When fish are added, the bacteria population will increase with the new bio load, converting waste to nitrate.

 

[bj274]

Nothing like chemical atomizers all over the house… same for those silly essential oil vaporizers. I prefer to not be in room with that stuff.

No, me and my wife hates that stuff as well

 

[bj274]

As someone said before, have you tested for stray voltage? How are you measuring salinity?

Hannah checker

 

[bj274]

You said nitrates were present but did not indicate at what level
NitrItes play No significance in saltwater environment and can be disregarded unless sky high. If you are using Api kit- you may have false readings. In addition when moving them into display, you will have wanted to acclimate or short acclimate them for salinity and temp Unless you had this preset.
For cycle, not sure how you other than bacteria performed the cycle as a 2 month period would have been unnecessary. Best practice would be adding your bacteria as you did, then adding ammonia chloride or a piece of shrimp (shrimp for 48 hours). Then you want to monitor ammonia , When your ammonia is steady at zero for 5 days and Nitrate is steady at 20 or below- You are cycled. Ignore nitrIte Unless sky high
The tank will go through two phases in which ammonia will rise then fall and nitrate will rise and fall which is normal. When fish are added, the bacteria population will increase with the new bio load, converting waste to nitrate.

Hard to tell exactly how high nitrates were due to hard to determine exact color. I have a Hannah nitrate tester coming tomorrow, but my best guess was around 20.
I did add ammonia to cycle, just took a long time for ammonia and nitrites to reach 0.

 

[slythy]

Hannah checker

do you have another way to verify its reading correctly? Im not sure how good those are tbh

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hard to tell exactly how high nitrates were due to hard to determine exact color. I have a Hannah nitrate tester coming tomorrow, but my best guess was around 20.
I did add ammonia to cycle, just took a long time for ammonia and nitrites to reach 0.

I trust Hanna kits but if unsure, you can take a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at

 

[mavl666]

Did you test for phosphate?
Mine were high and killed an urchin within hours

 

[Tamberav]

Nothing like chemical atomizers all over the house… same for those silly essential oil vaporizers. I prefer to not be in room with that stuff.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Dburr1014]

I was thinking the same thing.

I 100% agree.
I did manage to get her NOT to buy plug in type called plug-ins, those start fires.
Then she came home with these.... I have to pick my battles. LOL

I'm just saying I read all over the board, they will cause problems with a reef tank. Not in my case.