Emergency all my fish dying

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

Hello,

i did my two week 20% water change yesterday and I wake up today to by royal gramma, my blue fish and q cleaner shrimp dead. I checked salinity and it’s at 1.024, ph at 8, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-5. Temperature 79

i frankly don’t know what I did wrong but this breaks my heart as I’ve been taking care of this fish for over a year. I don’t know how I ****** up.

My two clownfish are struggling to breathe. Please help me to figure out what is wrong

 

[Macdaddynick1]

May be do another wc and triple check the salinity again.do you use a refractometer? If all other parameters as you say they are, there’s either toxicity or salinity drop, severe enough to kill your fish.

Also was the bucket You used for WC clean?

Did you disturb the sand bed?

Did you check for stray voltage?

Think back to all the steps on how you did a water-change, what did you do different this time?

 

[Spieg]

Have you added anything to the tank recently? If you have an air stone/air pump, it may help your clowns to breath easier.

 

[Illini_Drew33]

Do you have an open top and enough flow to ensure the water is oxygenated?

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Firstly, get a powerhead shooting at the surface of the water for oxygenation as well as your air stone. Then calibrate your refractometer and check salinity and all parameters again as a sanity check.

By any chance during your water change did you go digging around in a sand bed that hadn't been messed with??

Have you added anything new to the tank in the last month?

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

Firstly, get a powerhead shooting at the surface of the water for oxygenation as well as your air stone. Then calibrate your refractometer and check salinity and all parameters again as a sanity check.

By any chance during your water change did you go digging around in a sand bed that hadn't been messed with??

Have you added anything new to the tank in the last month?

I am driving to the pet store to buy an air stone. I haven’t added anything in a good three months at least. I do vacuum the sand every time I do a water change. I am also dealing with some diatoms? The red things and some bad anemones ( I totally forgot the name of those pest anemones)

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

Do you have an open top and enough flow to ensure the water is oxygenated?

I have a lid on top of the tank I left it open. I’m going to the pet store to buy an air stone

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

What size tank? Do you have a skimmer?

Is your heater set to a controller that logs history like an ink bird?

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

May be do another wc and triple check the salinity again.do you use a refractometer? If all other parameters as you say they are, there’s either toxicity or salinity drop, severe enough to kill your fish.

Also was the bucket You used for WC clean?

Did you disturb the sand bed?

Did you check for stray voltage?

Think back to all the steps on how you did a water-change, what did you do different this time?

I checked salinity and it’s all good but I will do a water change after I get the air pump. The bucket was clean, I use the same ones all the time.
I haven’t checked for voltage because I don’t know how to. Could you please advise how I should?
I vacuum the sand and I have diatoms and pest anemones so I’m thinking that might have been a reason why It could be toxins?

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

What size tank? Do you have a skimmer?

Is your heater set to a controller that logs history like an ink bird?

No, my heater is just a basic heater and no skimmer

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I checked salinity and it’s all good but I will do a water change after I get the air pump. The bucket was clean, I use the same ones all the time.
I haven’t checked for voltage because I don’t know how to. Could you please advise how I should?
I vacuum the sand and I have diatoms and pest anemones so I’m thinking that might have been a reason why It could be toxins?

If you vacuum your sandbed frequently, This won't be a cause.

Pest anenome will not do this either.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

I checked salinity and it’s all good but I will do a water change after I get the air pump. The bucket was clean, I use the same ones all the time.
I haven’t checked for voltage because I don’t know how to. Could you please advise how I should?
I vacuum the sand and I have diatoms and pest anemones so I’m thinking that might have been a reason why It could be toxins?

That could very well be it. Or you could’ve had an oxygen drop along with stirring your sand bed, get a skimmer, and instead of the lid use a net cover. Also, make sure to take some of your water to LFS and have them check your salinity. Your refractometer may be bad.

 

[MnFish1]

Hello,

i did my two week 20% water change yesterday and I wake up today to by royal gramma, my blue fish and q cleaner shrimp dead. I checked salinity and it’s at 1.024, ph at 8, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-5. Temperature 79

i frankly don’t know what I did wrong but this breaks my heart as I’ve been taking care of this fish for over a year. I don’t know how I ****** up.

My two clownfish are struggling to breathe. Please help me to figure out what is wrong

What type of salt - and how did you mix it? Did you stir up any 'anaerobic' areas like deep beds of sand, etc. Is there any smell to the water? Could the bucket you used to mix the salt have had some chemical? Did the fish any different immediately after changing the water. Did you check alkalinity/pH? Did you mix up the BUCKET (the dry salt) before using? Sorry about this problem

EDIT - sorry I see you answered some of these questions - when I posted there were no other posts visible in the thread.

Which fish survived? The fact that the shrimp and some fish died - suggests against any 'disease' - but rather some sort of toxin/poison. Low oxygen SHOULD have shown up immediately as compared to 'overnight.

My guess is that it was a problem with the salt itself. or the mixing of the salt - or a chemical that somehow got into the salt.

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

I just got out from the pet store. It seems our tap water here has elevated chlorine levels and I just added what the bottle recommended which may have not been enough he told me to put the pumps all the way up pointing upwards and I got some carbon for my canister

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

Im so sad because i truly try to take care of my fish and its so unfortunate if it was something out of my control

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

So you are mixing your sw with tap rather than rodi?

Anyone doing this for any length of time Will have made a bonehead mistake that had repercussions. I'm sorry this one hurts, Just learn from it.

 

[Tamberav]

You want to use rodi or you can buy gallons of distilled (don’t get the ones with stuff added for taste) at Walmart or such and mix with that.

Tap water contents can change seasonally and such as well.

Be sure you have solution to calibrate your refractometer as they can drift and you won’t know without it.

 

[Oldreefer44]

Discouraging but most of us have been where you are. Last winter lost about 30 fish due to power outage and lack of oxygen. Lesson learned. Now own 2 battery operated air pumps. Lots of good suggestions above. My only caution is to go slowly so that you can discover the root cause which will allow to to make sure it doesnt happen again.

 

[aggrofish]

Im so sad because i truly try to take care of my fish and its so unfortunate if it was something out of my control

Not to sound too harsh but it was 100 percent in your control, I wouldn't use tap pater for a $1.00 goldfish. If you have options I would never go back to that LFS that knows you're using tap water and isn't recommending you use at minimum distilled or suggesting you pick up an RODI system to make your own water. Now you know.

 

[cleanbuttpotatoe]

thank you for your comments. I will do that from now on… I didn’t have my own car but my new car is arriving this month… I’ll do biweekly trips to Walmart for roid water …