Fish died after water change

[magicwhistle]

It can make a difference and calibrated with RO if often not accurate. Every 5 mins can cause shock and I recommend clean pail/bucket and emptying contents into the container and adding a cup of water every 15 min s 6-8 times. it gradually equalizes salt/oxygen/Ph and gradual is key for the new occupants prior to entering new tank

Check the bleach for any additives, I picked up what looked like normal clorox bleach only to notice it was scented.

His death could totally be unrelated to the water change. Sometimes fish have internal parasites or such or other issues we can't see.

Yeah I bought some 35ppt calibration fluid and the refractometer was accurate. The bleach had no additives either.

I also bought some ammonium chloride to dose the tank to make sure something wasn't up with the cycle. Since there's only corals in there right now I dosed it up to 4ppm and it's been less than 24 hours and the ammonia is down to ~0.8ppm so the biological filtration seems fine. Nitrates and nitrites both read 0. (All of these are using Red sea test kit)

The filters smelled a bit of bleach in some spots but when I tested for chlorine it came back negative. I'm not sure how much would be necessary to kill fish though.

I don't think the acclimation process I used cause this. The first fish was acclimated like 3x using this method and lived for 7 months and the newest fish was eating and swimming around with the bigger fish for 3 weeks. It also seems odd that they'd both die at the exact same time if it was an infection or acclimation issue or something like that. They weren't added together.

Gonna do an ICP to see if there's any contaminants in the water. Other than that I think I'm gonna keep the tank going for awhile and see what happens from here before getting more fish.

 

[Auquanut]

Probably a silly question and probably not the issue, but did you temp match the W/C water to the tank water? Did you use any sort of detergent when washing the socks? Just kind of reaching here.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Gonna do an ICP to see if there's any contaminants in the water. Other than that I think I'm gonna keep the tank going for awhile and see what happens from here before getting more fish.

I'd be surprised if an ICP test ever revealed why a fish in a reef tank died.

 

[MichaelReefer]

Personally I feel like no matter how many times you rinse or wash those socks after you bleach them, they will always have a feint smell of bleach. I normally do a bleach wash, then run two rinse cycles and I can still smell it. Never had issues with my tank though.

Sorry this happened to you.

 

[magicwhistle]

Probably a silly question and probably not the issue, but did you temp match the W/C water to the tank water? Did you use any sort of detergent when washing the socks? Just kind of reaching here.

Yeah. I have this small preset heater I use to temp match. The ambient temperature is around the same as the tank temperature right now though so it's usually never even turns on when I hook it up. (The w/c water I use is usually sitting in a bucket waiting).

I'd be surprised if an ICP test ever revealed why a fish in a reef tank died.

I think mostly I'm gonna do it for peace of mind before I start adding any more fish.

Another thing I was thinking could have caused this was I did vaccum the top layer of the gravel and I did stir it around a bit to redistribute some of it. The sandbed is like 1-1.5'' in most areas but some areas are a bit thinner maybe .5''. Are there byproducts from the sand biofiltration that build up other than what we usually test for? (Like nitrates etc.)

 

[Kris 2020]

Personally I feel like no matter how many times you rinse or wash those socks after you bleach them, they will always have a feint smell of bleach. I normally do a bleach wash, then run two rinse cycles and I can still smell it. Never had issues with my tank though.

Sorry this happened to you.

So, why bleach wash filter socks? I just run mine through the washer with plain water. Just curious.

 

[MichaelReefer]

So, why bleach wash filter socks? I just run mine through the washer with plain water. Just curious.

I just do it how basically everyone else does. a cap or two of bleach. Hot wash, rinse wash 1-2 times. Keeps em cleaner.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Personally I feel like no matter how many times you rinse or wash those socks after you bleach them, they will always have a feint smell of bleach. I normally do a bleach wash, then run two rinse cycles and I can still smell it. Never had issues with my tank though.

Sorry this happened to you.

This is why I wash with warm water only- no bleach or soap

 

[xtian]

I use bleach on my filter socks. Let dry outside in the sun for 24hrs+ and they're good to go. They dont smell like bleach afterwards either.

 

[Reef.]

Bleach just whitens the socks, it doesn’t ‘clean’ them, I would use either just hot water or white vinegar or citrus acid then rinse well and air dry for at least 24 hours, outside if possible.

smallish tank so it could have been the bleach, I’m guessing it wouldn’t take much.

I would also think there are remnants left over from washing power and fabric conditioner, again a smaller tank you need to be sure

 

[magicwhistle]

Bleach just whitens the socks, it doesn’t ‘clean’ them, I would use either just hot water or white vinegar or citrus acid then rinse well and air dry for at least 24 hours, outside if possible.

smallish tank so it could have been the bleach, I’m guessing it wouldn’t take much.

I would also think there are remnants left over from washing power and fabric conditioner, again a smaller tank you need to be sure

Interesting. Yeah, I didn't throw them in the washer I cleaned them in a bucket of water with some bleach by hand inside out and just rubbed em against each other. And then let em soak in the bleach for a bit. Rinsed. Air dried for ~3 days outside and then rinsed them in water with some prime then air dried again. Was pretty worried about bleach getting in the tank but I assumed it was fine since I saw recommendations everywhere to use it to clean the filter socks.

If all it does is whiten though I'll probably skip it just clean with water.

 

[Kris 2020]

Yeah I’m going to stick with water, thanks for the replies tho everyone, sorry to hijack the thread!

 

[homer1475]

Just purely out of curiosity, how long did you mix the new salt water before dumping it into the tank?


And I have been washing filter socks in bleach for 20 years(they even sit in a bucket of pure bleach for several weeks before i wash them), never an issue after 24 hours of dry time.

 

[magicwhistle]

Just purely out of curiosity, how long did you mix the new salt water before dumping it into the tank?


And I have been washing filter socks in bleach for 20 years(they even sit in a bucket of pure bleach for several weeks before i wash them), never an issue after 24 hours of dry time.

Not sure the exact time but it was a few hours. Probably like 3-4 hours. I always set it up with the heater and 2 little pumps circulating water pointed sideways. Then after awhile I check the bottom of there’s any salt down there and if there isn’t and the water looks clear I use it.

 

[Reef.]

Interesting. Yeah, I didn't throw them in the washer I cleaned them in a bucket of water with some bleach by hand inside out and just rubbed em against each other. And then let em soak in the bleach for a bit. Rinsed. Air dried for ~3 days outside and then rinsed them in water with some prime then air dried again. Was pretty worried about bleach getting in the tank but I assumed it was fine since I saw recommendations everywhere to use it to clean the filter socks.

If all it does is whiten though I'll probably skip it just clean with water.

Adding a cup or two of plain white vinegar (not the malt one) is a good option, it rinses well and air drying also evaporates any remnants of vinegar, it is a good natural cleaning product, will have a slight whitening effect but best of all if a small amount of vinegar were to get in the tank it would not be disastrous, it would only affect the ph of the water, obviously adding a bottle of vinegar to a tank would be disastrous so still be aware.

 

[laverda]

It could be chlorimines. Does your test kit cover them?

 

[magicwhistle]

Not to keep this thread going but I think everything is under control now. LFS didn't have any ICP single test kits in stock but I might not go ahead with that anyway now.

After the tank died the tank water was looking a bit yellowish and more corals started closing up. When I dosed the ammonia to 4ppm I got a bacterial bloom (I think: the water was looking cloudy) but it handled it in 1 day (pretty sure the standard for a cycle is able to handle 2ppm in 24 hours right?). The bloom settled down but the water was still looking yellowish.

I ended up getting some chemipure blue from my LFS and put that in the reactor along with some ESV B-Ionic 2 part. Instantly had results on both aspects. The color of the tank cleared up significantly and I've so far dosed the alkalinity back up to 8ppm (over 3 days so far ~ 1.5ppm increase from before). Even after the first dose of alkalinity all the corals opened up within hours and right now they're all pretty much fully opened. They don't look as good as they did before but I'm happy they're opened, hopefully they colour back up nicely.

I also got a shrimp to kinda test the water conditions. So far it's been living and eating fine. So I assume whatever killed the fish is out of the system at this point (assuming it was chemical).

Is that a safe assumption? I'm thinking right now I will wait until this weekend and if things are still going steady I'll get another fish.

Also, I'm thinking about just running chemipure ongoing now, is that safe to do? It's really surprising how quickly the tanks water cleared up, looks crystal clear again.