Everything died

[ichthyoid]

So very sorry for your loss. I’m sure you are just devastated right now!

If possible, take a water sample to your lfs or maybe someone you know that can test it and get a 2nd opinion on the parameters.

The only disease I know of that might do that could be Brooklynella.

Check all of your equipment, to be sure it’s ok. If there’s nothing obvious, I would check the heater(s) to be sure they operate to set point as expected.

I am really sorry!

 

[ReefKeeper666]

I keep my QT tanks in a closet in my office. This way the fish store is water is never near my DT.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a meter to check for stray voltage but I'm going to feel awful if everything died because I was too negligent to install a $20 grounding probe.

Most of us install a probe AFTER we have discovered a zap from hand in water. Part of our learning curve.
ASSURE YOU ARE NOT GETTING A FALSE SALINITY READING. WE ALL GET CAUGHT WITH THIS ONCE IN A WHILE ALSO

 

[FishyDP]

Were your hands in the tank before you left? If so, did you have anything on your hands such as sun screen? Sorry for your fish losses.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Evening @Gtinnel

I am also very sorry. That is terrible. It is hard to come back and see that.

I have a question. Were all the fish alive this AM and passed this Pm? Like mentioned it leads me to believe some poison/ toxin or shock issue less than disease.

Any other people at home? Cleaning agents? Anything dosed? Cloudy water? Etc?

@saltyhog @Big G

 

[Pistondog]

I have a 125 gallon aquarium that I have had setup for almost exactly 1 year and I just recently got it fully stocked with fish and started adding a few coral frags. Today I left to go out for about 3 hours and when i get home all of my fish are dead. I checked parameters and everything looks normal (the only thing I cant test is the phosphate because I cant find my hanna checker but I cant image that would matter anyway). I'm at a loss for something that can almost instantly kill everything, except for a few hermit crabs that I still see moving around.
I had a small orange shoulder tang, pacific blue tang, large kole tang, two clowns, foxface, melanurus wrasse and a few green chromis.
The tank had been going fairly well other than some algea that I have been fighting that I think is lyngbya after researching online, and I haven't been able to get my coral frags to open up , including gsp. Because of the coral issues I've wondered if something is wrong with the tank but again all of my parameters look good.

The only thing I could think of that could kill everything that quick is electrical shock maybe. I dont have a grounding probe in the tank. I'm half afraid to start again since I'm not sure what even happened.

Sorry for such a long post but I had to get this off my chest. I think I'm going to be sick.

So sorry for the livestock loss, I always feel bad since we are the caretakers and the fish are our charges.
One positive that can come of this is we all learn something.
If you find a definitive cause, please post!
Also, are your electrical sockets gfci, so a small current leak to ground trips the breaker? This is important for human and tank safety, in theory, before loss of life, .

 

[gabrieltackitt]

So sorry for your loss. If it is velvet then the proper amount of time to be fallow us 45 days. I would do some ghost feeding and go fallow for that time just to be safe.

And keep investigating everything else just to be sure you didn’t miss something. 45 days also just so happens to be about the exact number of days that you need for a full preventative QT. A 5-10 gallon tank with a hang on filter and sponge is very inexpensive, petco is currently having their dollar per gallon sale so it may be the perfect time to set a QT up. For larger fish maybe go up to a 20 long instead of a 5 or 10. Start cycling your QT ASAP and then get some new fishies going while you prep your main tank for new fishies.

 

[Gtinnel]

ASSURE YOU ARE NOT GETTING A FALSE SALINITY READING. WE ALL GET CAUGHT WITH THIS ONCE IN A WHILE ALSO

I only have one refractometer but I checked it with my calibration solution and it looks correct.

Were your hands in the tank before you left? If so, did you have anything on your hands such as sun screen?

I fed the fish shortly before I left the house so my fingers were in the water a little when i put nori on the clip but there shouldn't have been anything that i can think of that i would've had on my hands.

Any other people at home? Cleaning agents? Anything dosed? Cloudy water? Etc?

No one else was home. The water looks normal. I do not dose anything yet because I have just recently started adding corals, I literally only have 5 frags in the tank. Yes all the fish were alive when I left the house and then when I came back 2 and a half hours later they're all dead.

Also, are your electrical sockets gfci, so a small current leak to ground trips the breaker?

There are no gfci outlets on that breaker and the breaker is not gfci. Yet another thing that I knew I should do but didnt. I didnt test for voltage with a meter but I did make sure everything electrical was on and put my hand in the water, and I didnt get shocked. I also looked at all of my equipment and didnt notice anything abnormal.

If I dont take the tank down should I just go through a fallow period, or do I need to empty the tank and completely refill? Since I dont know exactly what caused this to happen it's hard for me to start over not knowing if, or when this will happen again.

 

[Katrina71]

Go fallow. I had a 99% livestock loss with a crash before. I know you're heartbroken, but you'll overcome this. Don't beat yourself up. You're human. Even with QT it happens.

 

[Reesj]

It can not be a fish disase. No way all die at once while acting normal and eating. It had to be some tank crash parameter. Either some toxic from outside or corals, stray electricity, heater malfuction breaking etc..;Sorry

 

[Krully]

Agreed with the poster above. I see people talking about velvet and QT but don't you think it would be a big coincidence that all fish died within a few hours? Gotta be something else.

 

[Gtinnel]

A disease seemed unlikely to me since all fish went from seemingly healthy to dead in a couple of hours but I am far from an expert.
I also don't suspect disease because the one coral frag that I had that actually looked pretty healthy didnt look to good when I got back home and found the fish dead, and a fish disease I assume wouldnt effect the coral.

I keep trying to figure out what happened and I dont have any idea. I think the not knowing is what is bothering me the most. I dont have any invertebrates that can nuke a tank, and I dont have any macro algea that can go sexual.

My sand bed is around 3 inches deep and a few days ago I was cleaning a power head and when i put it back in i had it adjusted wrong and it disturbed the sand bed in one spot. But if my sand bed did have hydrogen sulfide gas in it that was released that wouldnt cause everything to quickly die a few days later...I wouldnt think. Even if that were the problem I believe it causes a decrease in pH amd mine was 8.1 when I tested it a few days ago and 8.2 when I tested it after the fish died.

 

[Kamate]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Totally bummin' I hope things will get better and you're able to figure things out, as it may help with your loss.

 

[najer]

So sorry to read this, hope you get to the bottom of it.

 

[deahttub]

My .02 is this was an event, ie toxin thst got in there such as soap, or anerobic gas bubble that was building up on the tank. do you have any objects in the tank that are hollow where anerobic bacteria can build up?

 

[Dom]

Profoundly sorry that this has happened to you.

Most people that are not part of our community would shrug their shoulders and say "It's just a fish". But we who are involved in the hobby are familiar with the subtle behaviors of our fish that give them their personalities.

For members of our community, it is this distinction which allows them to go from being "just a fish" to becoming pets.

As hard as we try, sometimes there is no silver lining to be found.

As has been suggested, there are a few possibilities as to the cause. If I am in your position, I would first identify the problem to avoid the same mistake moving forward. THEN I would work under the assumption that it was disease (even if you have identified the issue as electrical) and tear down the system, sanitize and do a complete rebuild.

Keep us posted.

Dom

 

[vetteguy53081]

Dont believe disease related. I would :
- do a good water change
- Install a ground probe as a safety measure
- Run carbon such as Chemi pure Blue
- Monitor tank over next 2 weeks and have trusted LFS test water for results and to compare with yours before stocking.

 

[deahttub]

Dont believe disease related. I would :
- do a good water change
- Install a ground probe as a safety measure
- Run carbon such as Chemi pure Blue
- Monitor tank over next 2 weeks and have trusted LFS test water for results and to compare with yours before stocking.

This

 

[TriggerFinger]

So sorry for your loss do you run the airline for your skimmer to the outside?

 

[vetteguy53081]

My .02 is this was an event, ie toxin thst got in there such as soap, or anerobic gas bubble that was building up on the tank. do you have any objects in the tank that are hollow where anerobic bacteria can build up?

Even aerosols, or elements entering from an open window can do it