Mysterious fish deaths

[Brew12]

This looks like a portable GFCI? All of my equipment is already plugged into a GFCI.

Fantastic! Then it is safe to say you don't have an electrical fault contributing to this situation.

 

[reefmagic]

If the issue is ammonia coming from a faulty RODI unit, could I safely add Prime to the reef as an interim stop-gap measure?

Once again,thanks to everyone for your thoughts and ideas.

Yes absolutely.. honestly I would do that regardless because there is no harm and it does increase the rate of conversion of ammonia and nitrite to nitrate which is much less toxic to fish. Alos immediately binds and neutralized ammonia.

 

[Rybren]

I did add Prime this morning before heading out to the LFS. The LFS tested both the RODI and tank water for ammonia and chlorine; neither was present.

I also purchased a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge and have had it in a sample of tank water (no Prime) for 3 hours. It shows no ammonia.

 

[reefmagic]

I did add Prime this morning before heading out to the LFS. The LFS tested both the RODI and tank water for ammonia and chlorine; neither was present.

I also purchased a Seachem Ammonia Alert badge and have had it in a sample of tank water (no Prime) for 3 hours. It shows no ammonia.

That's good. It must be something else or possibly a spike of ammonia that has already been converted. Sometimes a spike only last a day or 2 in an older system. But you would probably have noticed your fish breathing very heavily and seeming lathargic

 

[Rybren]

That's the strange thing. The fish appeared totally normal within 2 hours of dying.

 

[mckinney0171]

That's the strange thing. The fish appeared totally normal within 2 hours of dying.

old thread. but, OP: did you ever figure out what was wrong? I too am having this same issue. I have lost in the last week - x1 sunrise dottyback, x1 coral beauty angel, x1 yellow eye kole tang. all fish seemed perfectly healthy were eating and then the next day gone. i found the carcasses for the dottyback and the kole tang but never found the coral beauty. all my other fish are fine and show absolutely no symptoms. i am completely puzzled over what is causing this. my tank has been setup for 5 years and i have some of my five year old fish doing just fine. the last additions were the ORA sunrise dottyback and an ORA electric indigo dottyback. Both were fine until the sunrise died one day. The next day I found the kole tang dead and being eaten by my CUC. the coral beauty i noticed vanished yesterday but saw him two days ago and he was just fine.

 

[mckinney0171]

my parameters - 100 gallon with 30 gallon sump

Temp: 79.5 - 80.5
Salinity 1.026
pH: 7.9 - 8.0
NO2: undetectable
NO3: 0 - 1ppm
PO4: <0.05
Alk: 10 dKh
Ca: 440 - 460
Mg: 1450

 

[Flexin]

Do you use filter socks? If so how do you clean them? I'm asking because I had some challenges on one of my tanks a few month ago. I now clean the socks in the washing machine twice after running one before adding them. I then the the socks sit in RODI for a while in case there is something I missed.

 

[mckinney0171]

i yanked my filter socks about a month and a half ago and stopped using them now that you mention it. i don't have any mechanical filtration - only skimming and chemical filtration (biopellets, GFO, and GAC). Yikes! Do you think pulling those filter socks may have caused some kind of an issue where I am not getting crud out of the water like I always did before? I honestly never even considered that..... I kept convincing myself that I had something murdering my fish in their sleep.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

With NOPOX (carbon) dosing it is possible to get a bacterial bloom going that can consume all the oxygen from the water, suffocating the fish. Maybe I missed it, but do you have a beefy skimmer? Do you have a decent amount of water surface agitation? Any lids on the tank?

 

[mckinney0171]

No lid just a mesh screen. Have plenty of surface agitation with four mp40s. I don’t use nopox but I do use biopellets and recently added some more as I had shown some consumption. Since I changed them and cleaned the reactor out they are swirling at a higher rate then usual. Possible cause?
Skimmer is a tunze 9410.

 

[Rybren]

old thread. but, OP: did you ever figure out what was wrong? I too am having this same issue. I have lost in the last week - x1 sunrise dottyback, x1 coral beauty angel, x1 yellow eye kole tang. all fish seemed perfectly healthy were eating and then the next day gone. i found the carcasses for the dottyback and the kole tang but never found the coral beauty. all my other fish are fine and show absolutely no symptoms. i am completely puzzled over what is causing this. my tank has been setup for 5 years and i have some of my five year old fish doing just fine. the last additions were the ORA sunrise dottyback and an ORA electric indigo dottyback. Both were fine until the sunrise died one day. The next day I found the kole tang dead and being eaten by my CUC. the coral beauty i noticed vanished yesterday but saw him two days ago and he was just fine.

I never did find out what was wrong. The fish stopped dying on their own and haven't had a loss since.
Good luck. I hope you get it figured out.