Tank Crash

[ReefJCB]

Ugh.

Woke up this morning to essentially all of my fish dead. I'd love some help identifying what went wrong and how to avoid it, here is the time line:

3/5 used 2 little fishes coral epoxy for roughly 3 frags - not a lot but skimmer did go on the fritz. I left the skimmer on but unplugged the collection cup to keep the aeration going.
3/6 Skimmer is still on the fritz
3/7 Did 30g water change (120g tank with ~30g in the sump), everything is still looking fine, Dosed 15 ml of Vibrant, I've been doing this for the last few weeks to help with bubble algae.
3/8 Picked up a few more frags and did about another 4 with the epoxy.
3/9 Skimmer still on the fritz, fish are looking fine and eat well, did not notice any abnormal behavior, used about 4 ml of aiptaisa x, cleaned 3 powerheads with citric acid.
3/10 Wake up and all my fish are dead except for 2 clowns who are not looking well. Corals are all closed up.

I did a 30g water change and replaced carbon this morning. I removed all the fish except a coral beauty that I could not find. Clowns are in quarantine but its not looking great. I've got more water going right now and will do another 30g change when I get home.

I'm thinking this was a combination of the coral epoxy and dosing vibrant without having enough air in the tank. I've dosed vibrant for several months in the past and for the past 30 or so days without any issues. I've never increased the air in the past, but also never had it happen at the same time as using the epoxy.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Losing the fish sucks but I really don't want a total coral crash.

 

[sfin52]

Ugh.

Woke up this morning to essentially all of my fish dead. I'd love some help identifying what went wrong and how to avoid it, here is the time line:

3/5 used 2 little fishes coral epoxy for roughly 3 frags - not a lot but skimmer did go on the fritz. I left the skimmer on but unplugged the collection cup to keep the aeration going.
3/6 Skimmer is still on the fritz
3/7 Did 30g water change (120g tank with ~30g in the sump), everything is still looking fine, Dosed 15 ml of Vibrant, I've been doing this for the last few weeks to help with bubble algae.
3/8 Picked up a few more frags and did about another 4 with the epoxy.
3/9 Skimmer still on the fritz, fish are looking fine and eat well, did not notice any abnormal behavior
3/10 Wake up and all my fish are dead except for 2 clowns who are not looking well. Corals are all closed up.

I did a 30g water change and replaced carbon this morning. I removed all the fish except a coral beauty that I could not find. Clowns are in quarantine but its not looking great. I've got more water going right now and will do another 30g change when I get home.

I'm thinking this was a combination of the coral epoxy and dosing vibrant without having enough air in the tank. I've dosed vibrant for several months in the past and for the past 30 or so days without any issues. I've never increased the air in the past, but also never had it happen at the same time as using the epoxy.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Losing the fish sucks but I really don't want a total coral crash.

Not a clue bump

 

[ThatTennesseeBeardedGuy]

gonna say that the first question is always Parameters?

 

[Uncle99]

I agree with your idea that epoxy can reduce O2 and “suffocated” the fish, not sure the vibrant effect.
Certainly catastrophic error has occurred when all fish die and quickly and together,

Your not a beginner so I doubt your water was that far off in any parameter (except temp) to cause this crash.

Your skimmer would have helped keep O2 in the column, I am not sure water other flow you may have had.

If you had lots of flow, O2 should have been sufficient.

Test for ammonia!

 

[ReefJCB]

gonna say that the first question is always Parameters?

I didn't have time to test this morning
But I did test on Saturday
1.025 salinity
8.7 alk
425 Ca
15 nitrate
8.0 ph

 

[ReefJCB]

Forgot to include that I did about 4ml of aiptaisa x and cleaned pumps with citric acid on Sunday. Pumps were rinsed well after citric acid wash.

 

[Miller535]

gonna say that the first question is always Parameters?

Yeah, parameters would be very helpful.

I have a really hard time imagining vibrant killing anything. They list their ingredients as literally just : Cultured Bacteria Blend, Amino Acids, Vinegar, RO/DI Water . I also do not think epoxy did it (although I'll confess I have never used it). My gut tells me something else is off

 

[Terry Mattson]

The skimmer going crazy is a clue. I use vibrant once a week 7mm for 93 gallion tank. Fugure my water volume is 70 to 75 gallons with all the rock in the tank. Took a while and the bubble is now gone. My cheto production did reduce a lot. So if your using 15 mm of vibrant then your tank is 180 to 200 gallons?

 

[Joel B.]

Without an Ammonia test it's hard to say, but the only things that kill an entire tank of fish overtnight are large ammonia spikes, O2 drops or external contaminates (ie: bleach).

I don't know of any effects on O2 from vibrant specifically, and while epoxy can cause a film on the water that interferes with O2 and definitely causes LPS/softies to close up for a day or two along with your skimmer to go nuts I've used entire tubes of the stuff in my 120 before without issue, but I do use a Gyre and two tunze pumps across the top of my tank so I have a high amount of surface gas exchange.

If you don't have pumps pointing at the surface causing turbulent movement low O2 is possible, otherwise it was probably an ammonia spike from the vibrant usage.

 

[ReefJCB]

The skimmer going crazy is a clue. I use vibrant once a week 7mm for 93 gallion tank. Fugure my water volume is 70 to 75 gallons with all the rock in the tank. Took a while and the bubble is now gone. My cheto production did reduce a lot. So if your using 15 mm of vibrant then your tank is 180 to 200 gallons?

Vibrant calls for 1 ml per 10g water. Ive got a 120g display and 40g sump so about 160g. Technically I could calculate the water and sand out, but I've never had an issue with this amount before.

 

[Waters]

I think the skimmer going crazy is more from the epoxy....any time I use any of those coral glues or epoxys it sets the skimmer off. Vibrant normally doesn't affect the skimmer at all.

 

[ReefJCB]

Without an Ammonia test it's hard to say, but the only things that kill an entire tank of fish overnight are large ammonia spikes, O2 drops or external contaminates (ie: bleach).

I don't know of any effects on O2 from vibrant specifically, and while epoxy can cause a film on the water that interferes with O2 and definitely causes LPS/softies to close up for a day or two along with your skimmer to go nuts I've used entire tubes of the stuff in my 120 before without issue, but I do use a Gyre and two tunze pumps across the top of my tank so I have a high amount of surface gas exchange.

If you don't have pumps pointing at the surface causing turbulent movement low O2 is possible, otherwise it was probably an ammonia spike from the vibrant usage.

I've got one powerhead directly pointed on the surface and my return is parallel to the surface so there is quite a lot of surface agitation. I can't imagine a large ammonia spike. as far as contaminates, I did clean my pumps with citric acid but I feel pretty confident I did a good rinse, and there was no spike in PH when I put them back in.

 

[ahiggins]

I was for sure gonna say alk drop from the acid and Aiptasia x but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Any cloudy water/bacteria growth increase?

 

[ReefJCB]

I was for sure gonna say alk drop from the acid and Aiptasia x but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Any cloudy water/bacteria growth increase?

Lowest the PH got to was 7.89 last night, which is about normal for my tank at nighttime. Water was a little cloudy yesterday, but it really looked like more microbubbles from the skimmer than hazy with bacteria bloom.

 

[Silent]

I would think there might be some issue with the vinegar in vibrant or the epoxy mixing with the sodium hydroxide in the aiptasia x.
Only possible thing I can see with the information given.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Just to add, I would check for stray voltage, since the powerheads where cleaned. Just a thought.

 

[Glott3133]

It seems that something to go that terribly wrong, there would have to be something toxic in the water. Not saying it was the epoxy or the vibrant, but whatever the case it had to work quickly to deprive the fish of adequate O2. Just my thoughts. And those that said the skimmer is crazy because of the epoxy is absolutely correct.

Sorry for your losses.

 

[ReefJCB]

Just to add, I would check for stray voltage, since the powerheads where cleaned. Just a thought.

Thank you for that suggestion, ill check that when I get home

 

[VA5]

Sounds like a ph swing issue. I’ve used several bars of epoxy in a smaller tank with no issues. It will always affect skimmer though.
do you have adequate flow? Did you make sure a heater did not malfunction .
Usually over night issues involve pH and lack of O2 in my experience.

 

[TheRedBeardedReefer]

Lowest the PH got to was 7.89 last night, which is about normal for my tank at nighttime. Water was a little cloudy yesterday, but it really looked like more microbubbles from the skimmer than hazy with bacteria bloom.

Do you run a UV sterilizer? If so, what wattage and approx flow?
Maybe I missed it, but how are you monitoring PH?