Dead tank

[kyleflahardy]

I have two tanks. One that's a 5 gallon and one that's a 22 gallon. Yesterday I did water changed on both using the same water from one big batch. Anyways, about 4 hours after the water change the fish in the 5 gallon were struggleing. They could hardly breath and 2 fish died. The third (a clownfish) who was breathing very heavy I was able to rescue and put in the 22 gallon. I checked the salinity, PH, nitrates, and nitrites and all seemed fine but obviously something is wrong. Anyways, the clownfish is safe but I still have no idea what caused this. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[ahiggins]

Immediate problems like that make me think something OTHER than water was to blame. Air fresheners, candles, a pet perhaps, random acts.
If your 22 gal was ok then it wasnt the water.
What was the temp of the new water though...say you did a 2 gal change in the 5 tank and a 2 gal change in the 22 tank...the percentage of water change is completely different.
If it was super cold you could have shocked the crap out of your 5 gal tank without realizing it.

 

[kyleflahardy]

Immediate problems like that make me think something OTHER than water was to blame. Air fresheners, candles, a pet perhaps, random acts.
If your 22 gal was ok then it wasnt the water.
What was the temp of the new water though...say you did a 2 gal change in the 5 tank and a 2 gal change in the 22 tank...the percentage of water change is completely different.
If it was super cold you could have shocked the crap out of your 5 gal tank without realizing it.

I do know about the different ratios in different tanks. I don't think it was something environmental because I didn't use any sprays or chemicals. Any other ideas?

 

[rayn]

5 gallons is relatively tiny. Depending on how you replaced the water, could you have inadvertently stirred something up?

 

[kyleflahardy]

5 gallons is relatively tiny. Depending on how you replaced the water, could you have inadvertently stirred something up?

It's possible. What do you mean? What could I have stirred up?

 

[rayn]

Is there a sand bed in it? If enough sand got disturbed then your levels of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate could have changed. No sand? Still should be rock, so if you poured over the rock same thing. Detritus was disturbed and changed levels.

#reefsquad

 

[brandon429]

post pics of the suspect tank

in the larger tank, if you stir up pent up sandbed waste there's more dilution from any ammonia that may be in the clouding, vs the 5 w very little

Ive almost killed my pico reef in the way you described, my culprit was rotten anoxic change water because I was storing my change water in capped drinking water bottles and had used a really old one. mixed sw needs to be stored in sterile containers, prepped in a sterile method (which nobody does) in order to be stored capped off

I know there are many who store their water capped off, but I cant do it again. since stopping that years ago, never happened again.

all my mix water is open top stored and topped off before use. if I wasn't changing 100% that may not have happened to me, but again the smaller tanks register hits faster/no dilution. my mixing bottles built up that typical scum layer at the bottom, which is fine bac substrate along with whatever contaminants got in before capping. as soon as I dumped it in, all the brittle stars and pods swam to the top it was a clear oxic event corals closed up hardcore

mixed up fresh rescue water and within ten mins another full change fixed it all.

 

[redfishbluefish]

How much water did you change in the 5 and 22 gallon tanks?

 

[Sabellafella]

I have two tanks. One that's a 5 gallon and one that's a 22 gallon. Yesterday I did water changed on both using the same water from one big batch. Anyways, about 4 hours after the water change the fish in the 5 gallon were struggleing. They could hardly breath and 2 fish died. The third (a clownfish) who was breathing very heavy I was able to rescue and put in the 22 gallon. I checked the salinity, PH, nitrates, and nitrites and all seemed fine but obviously something is wrong. Anyways, the clownfish is safe but I still have no idea what caused this. Anyone have any ideas?

If all the fish were affected, happened right after a water change. I would narrow it down to something like the water change water --- ph was very very low, o2 level very very low, temp, or salinity flucuations. Contaminants, or using tap water (if your water where you live is terrible) OR A bacteria bloom to cause low o2 issues witch is unlikely. It has to be one of those reasons, other then being unlucky. Sorry to hear about this, its tuff.