Tank crash overnight!

Brazzy · Oct 3, 2017

Humblefish said:
Or leaking stray voltage, as cheap heaters will sometimes crack. A voltmeter can be used to check for stray voltage in the water.

Wouldn't stray voltage kill all of my fish??

Brazzy · Oct 3, 2017

fishybizzness said:
I also have a cannister filter and all the trays are filled with pond matrix.

I run a tray of coarse filter, phosguard, bioballs, and fine floss. How is the pond matrix working for you? Always looking for the best setup for the trays.

Brazzy · Oct 3, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
But when it is low O2, that usually affects bacteria populations too, and there would be ammonia.

I also have a powerhead in the tank to help with flow. Been thinking about adding another one.

roberthu526 · Oct 3, 2017

I suspect it was a chemical pollution. Marine velve does not kill all fish within 10 hours with no signs

Brazzy · Oct 3, 2017

roberthu526 said:
I suspect it was a chemical pollution. Marine velve does not kill all fish within 10 hours with no signs

So here is what is really weird....I also have a 15 gallon biocube in the same room. I do the water changes on both tanks during the same time on the same day. I do one then the other. All the water comes from the same place, same salt, same buckets etc. Both tanks are completely covered tops. I'm baffled. If I got something into my large tank I would think that it would have gotten into my smaller tank as well. These tanks are across the room from each other maybe 15 feet. The guys at my lfs are baffled as well. It's just a mystery. Going to let my tank run as normal with water changes and cross my fingers! Lol

roberthu526 · Oct 3, 2017

Do you have corals in the tank?

fishybizzness · Oct 3, 2017

Brazzy said:
I run a tray of coarse filter, phosguard, bioballs, and fine floss. How is the pond matrix working for you? Always looking for the best setup for the trays.

It was running for about 2 months before Irma and seemed to be starting to be effective. I'm only running it on a limited cycle now due to being on generator power so I can't really say.

Humblefish · Oct 3, 2017

Brazzy said:
Wouldn't stray voltage kill all of my fish??

Depends upon how much was/is in the water. It can also be an intermittent problem.

Brazzy · Oct 3, 2017

roberthu526 said:
Do you have corals in the tank?

I have some zoanthids (sp?) and a small mushroom, neither seem to be effected. I'm beginning to think that maybe I had a fish die that I didn't notice and it caused an ammonia spike to kill the others but my levels are fine so I'm still clueless on this one.

Brazzy · Oct 3, 2017

Humblefish said:
Depends upon how much was/is in the water. It can also be an intermittent problem.

Ah gotcha, I can check the water with a multimeter tomorrow.

Dom · Oct 3, 2017

Brazzy said:
So I lost all my fish except two flamefish today! Came home from work today and immediately noticed my pearlscale butterfly fish dead on the bottom of the tank. Got to looking around and then found my sailfin tang, foxface, and yellow tailed damsel fish were also dead!!

Checked all my parameters and they are just the same as usual

ph is around 8
Ammonia is 0
Nitrite is 0
Nitrate is 0
po4 is around 2mg/l

Now I know that the po4 is high. This tank has always run with a high phosphate and I don't know why.

The only thing that has changed lately is that I put a small amount of PhosGuard in a media bag into my canister filter to try to lower the phosphate. Everything that I have read has said that this will not harm the fish but it is the only change to my tank in the last 2 weeks.

75 gal
8 hr cycle for lights
Canister filter
Cuc of hermit crabs and snails
Tank is 5 months old.

Any ideas on what has happened would be appreciated!! Thanks guys!

Velvet? Just a guess. But when you lose that many fish in such a short period of time, I think its a good guess.

Dom · Oct 3, 2017

Brazzy said:
Wouldn't stray voltage kill all of my fish??

There are a few different schools (yes; that was a pun) of thought on this.

I had a stray voltage issue in my tank last spring... 45 volts! I choose to go with the grounding probe. Some people object to the grounding probe because when you give the voltage someplace to go, you create current... which is what kills.

For me, the stray voltage was coming from power heads, skimmer pump and return pump. All A/C powered and submerged. As they have been failing, I have been replacing with D/C versions of the device.

Cherub · Oct 3, 2017

have you checked for stray voltage? Sorry if someone else said this, I didn't read all replies. Just a thought.

eatbreakfast · Oct 4, 2017

roberthu526 said:
I suspect it was a chemical pollution. Marine velve does not kill all fish within 10 hours with no signs

There are some strains of velvet that don't show the obvious symptoms, and yes, it can kill that fast.

John ob · Oct 5, 2017

I run high on my parameters even my salinity since tank is overstocked an all I do is top off weekly. I just do more water changes only prevents SPS in my tank. If a disease fish think you would of caught that O2 may be an issue if your parameters are off but your spot on. Fish swim high if issue with water an disease fish swim low. This just my experience. Think you got a chemical in water maybe did you rinse phosgaurd. Tank being shocked by current you would of been too when removing dead fish. Best of luck start damsel again

videosilva · Oct 5, 2017

I'm thinking HEAT ! That many fish die in one shot ? I am thinking the tank got hot, causing low oxygen and thus death. It can happen very quickly when the water gets too hot. The first sign is the fish gasping for air , coming to to the top of the water gasping and the a quick death.

Bruce Burnett · Oct 5, 2017

I will not contradict any comments here but I would get rid of the API test kits. If you read about them on the forum they should not be trusted.

Dom · Oct 5, 2017

Bruce Burnett said:
I will not contradict any comments here but I would get rid of the API test kits. If you read about them on the forum they should not be trusted.

Yeah... I've heard the same about API. But I wonder if they are really as bad as people say. Personally, I'm migrating away from API kits. But not because I found the tests inaccurate, but because so many people share this opinion.

The truth is that I find them to be close to the other test kits I own. For example, I find the API pH test to be within .2 of my Pinpoint pH probe.

So, while I realize that the consensus in the reefing community is not very high where API is concerned, have there been any studies which show this to be fact and not opinion?

eatbreakfast · Oct 5, 2017

Dom said:
Yeah... I've heard the same about API. But I wonder if they are really as bad as people say. Personally, I'm migrating away from API kits. But not because I found the tests inaccurate, but because so many people share this opinion.

The truth is that I find them to be close to the other test kits I own. For example, I find the API pH test to be within .2 of my Pinpoint pH probe.

So, while I realize that the consensus in the reefing community is not very high where API is concerned, have there been any studies which show this to be fact and not opinion?

Not all API tests are inaccurate. However, their ammonia test seems to show elevated ammonia in saltwater tanks. I have done a side by side test of the ammonia kit with Salifert and Elos. API was between .25-.5 higher than the other 2.

rkpetersen · Oct 5, 2017

After doing a lot of recent side to side comparisons, and comparisons with mail-in spectroscopic lab results, these are my current choices of hobbyist test kits, based on accuracy and reproducibility. None are perfect (but then neither are the pro labs, who often disagree somewhat even with each other.) Also, any of this can change as soon as the next batch of reagents arrives, so even you've established a current 'best' test, you can't stay married to it if the results start to seem off.

Brands tested include full sets from Red Sea, Elos, Salifert, Giesemann, and Hanna; and 2 tests each from Nyos, Hach, Lamotte, and SeaChem.

Alkalinity - Hanna.
Calcium - Salifert. Hanna if you are very precise with your measurements and technique. (Elos and Giesemann ok.)
Magnesium - Salifert. (Giesemann ok.)
Potassium - Salifert.
Nitrate - (Red Sea, Nyos, Giesemann all only ok.)
Phosphate - Hanna ULR Phosphorus. (do conversion in your head.)
Iron - Hanna. (not great, better than others.)
Iodine - All inaccurate.
Strontium - All inaccurate.
Dissolved Oxygen - Lamotte.

I didn't do comparisons of pH, ammonia, or nitrite tests. I would probably just use the Red Sea ones I have, if there were a need.