Overwhelmed!

[Treetipper]

Hey guys,
Not even sure where to start here.... buddies 100g tank started leaking and he needed to tear it down. I bought 120# of the carib sea fiji pink live sand put it in a 75g tank and cycled it for a week. Then added about 60# of his live rock and two of his large canister filters. And let that cycle a week than added the fish , 4 damsels 3 clowns a large fox face and an anemone. .Everybody looked happy and healthy for about a week, and then within about 10hrs i lost all but two clowns and the anemone . My water tester kit showed everything at minimal levels .I knew i was rushing things ,but its still a real gut punch. Not sure what what to do,or check next. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[windemerejack]

Are you sure your tank was cycled?
what tests did you perform?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Did you rinse the sand? Any stray voltage?
Was the rock transported in water from your friends house to yours?

 

[fishguy242]

retest moving the sand,week water prob toxic

 

[windemerejack]

That also seems a lot of fish to add all at once especially in a newly cycled tank (if it is even cycled)
There is a number reasons why what happened has happened so you need to give us as much detail as you can about tank params, how you went about swapping from one tank to another, that way we can help you more.

 

[Auquanut]

I gotta ask the same questions. If you have power heads in the tank, I would angle one up to cause surface agitation and maximize oxygenation to the tank immediately. The clowns are the hardiest of the fish you listed, so the first thing that comes to mind is oxygen deprivation. Can you tell us what you tested for and what test kit you used? Also, please tell us what filtration you are using. The fact that everything was fine for a week, then died within 10 hours suggests that either something changed dramatically, or that the ammonia level rose over time to a point that the more sensitive fish couldn't cope.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sounds like release of toxins and low oxygen.
What was temperature and salinity?

 

[windemerejack]

Is it me or does the op not seem interested?

 

[Cell]

Adding the 60 lbs of live rock should give you a instant cycle, I dont think ammonia was the issue. I'd look at the nem and oxygen as others have suggested.

 

[Treetipper]

Are you sure your tank was cycled?
what tests did you

 

[Treetipper]

Water temp is 78 ph 8.0 ammonia - less than .25ppm nitrite close to 0 and nitrate less than 5.0 ppm. I didn't rinse the sand but i let the tank run a week with a large cannister filter i brought over full before i added the rock . I brought the rock and another cannister filter, in plastic lined boxes probably out of water 30 min,and let that run 4 or 5 days with no significant water changes. His tank remained running on a sump this whole time. Which i am going to include. But he dumped it so i have it cycling on its own right now waiting afraid to add at this point. It felt to me like an oxygen thing to me also, i put the glass on top of the tank immediately prior to thus happening which i immediately removed cause the temp jumped almost 2 degrees.

 

[Treetipper]

Could putting the glass cover on the tank, cause oxygen depletion, or filling it up so the power heads wouldn't splash as much, or a combination of the two? I adjusted the powerheads to agitate the surface more and the clowns seemed to perk up a bit.

 

[PeaBrain]

filling it up so the power heads wouldn't splash as much

What does this mean exactly? And if your temp jumped by two degrees in short time, that could be part of the issue.

 

[Treetipper]

When i did the water change previous to the fish dying i filled the tank above the power heads a little more than i usually do, so they wouldn't splash water as bad .

 

[windemerejack]

there has to be a lot of water surface movement to exchange gasses, it doesn't have to be splashing, just movement.
On your return pipe, have you got a twin splitter or a single outlet?
If single then get a splitter and face both ends pointing to the surface so it creates surface agitation, use your powerheads as you see fit then.
The more surface movement the better
Putting on a glass cover makes minor if any difference, thousands of tanks have glass covers.
Temp swing of 2 degrees also wouldn't have made a massive difference, certainly not to kill anything.

 

[Treetipper]

there has to be a lot of water surface movement to exchange gasses, it doesn't have to be splashing, just movement.
On your return pipe, have you got a twin splitter or a single outlet?
If single then get a splitter and face both ends pointing to the surface so it creates surface agitation, use your powerheads as you see fit then.
The more surface movement the better
Putting on a glass cover makes minor if any difference, thousands of tanks have glass covers.
Temp swing of 2 degrees also wouldn't have made a massive difference, certainly not to kill anything.

When you guys mentioned the water agitation/ oxygen deprivation it kinda felt right, so i added a Herbie style sump an eflow power head and put a splitter on 1 of the 3 return lines. I immediately noticed a drastic pickup in the clowns activity. So i think you guys were spot on ! It makes it much worse that such a simple and stupid mistake of my own killed those fish . The fox face was pushing 10 yrs old which really bothers me . I really appreciate,and wasn't expecting the instant response from everyone. I've been hovering over the tank before i go to work and as soon as I get home since i read all your posts. I was afraid my wife might go finish it off. I'm pretty confident its back on track though. I want thank everyone for their instant insight, as i was really cutting cookies for bit!

 

[Glott3133]

Glad to hear things are looking better. Surface movement makes a huge difference in this hobby.

 

[windemerejack]

Don't beat yourself up about it, we have all made mistakes and most mistakes have cost a fish its life at some point,
Build your fish stock up slowly and don't rush into anything, if you are unsure about anything, ask on here for advice, its what the forum is for.
Start a tank thread, that way you have a personal record of how things are going and we can look at it as and when you need help.
Good luck and enjoy.