DeeBlue
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2017
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
- What state or country do you live in
Dear R2R Community,
im hoping for your help, since we are out of options, and just dont know how to continue on atm.
Our 320g mixed reef was thorn apart this april, because some fish presented with symptoms of velvet. Also some deaths occured in this acute outbrake. I must say at this point that velvet could not be confirmed using body/gill swipes, but at least cryptocarion was present for sure.
It is worth mentioning we had several fish since october we lost a few days after introduction into the tank, without obvious symptoms. We didnt QT fish at that time.
As answer to the suspected velvet outbreak all rockwork/corals were taken out, the fish caught and treated with cupramine (fish group #1) or CP (fish group #2) in hospital tanks/QT tanks.
Fish improved, and were back to obvious full health.
The DT was left fallow for over 80 days. In this period a lots of coral (the tank was rich in SPS/LPS) deteriorated. Professional water analysis was conducted (ICP-OES), water parameters turned out to be great (despite some elevated aluminium and decreased strontium). We figured, that the corals might actually be dying because a)the absence of fish and b) the stress of removing them from the tank, during the "catch all fish" session.
.
Anyways, fish matter more to us than coral, so we continued with the fallow period (full 80 days). We lost about 60% of coral during this time, and the deterioration of coral seems to move on.
On saturday some fish of fish group #1 (1 Naso tang, 1 Scarus wrasse, 1 N. Decora, 1 Banggai cardinal) were returned to DT after careful acclimatization. Fish were feeding extremely well back in the DT, and looked very happy to be back in DT again.
The happiness lasted for 24 hours. After that the scarus wrasse concerned us, because she was sleeping outside a hiding spot. It was dead the next morning. Within the following day our large Naso (a really personal fish, i could cry right now...) died. Yesterday we found the N. decora on the sand bed. She looked almost like paralyzed and was easy to catch. No abnormalities on the skin. No heavy breathing. We got her out and put her in heavily aerated new water, but she died within a few hours. Microscopic examination didnt show parasites on the skin.
The last survivor in the DT is the Banggai cardinal. He doesnt eat, looks skin-wise 100% normal, but breaths in a strange way. The rate isnt increased, but the breathing seems to be "deeper".
I have absolutely no idea what is going on. Maybe the coral deaths and the fish deaths are interconnected.
What was ruled out so far:
- Ammonia
- Lack of oxigen
- Toxic inorganics (by ICP-OES testing)
- Velvet/Crypto (seems it seems impossible after the QT/fallow tank period to have fish because of this disease within ~ 30 hours)
- Poisoning by household cleaners, etc (we are extremely careful in this respect)
Yesterday is also tested voltage in the tank, but this seems to be a topic with very opposing opinions. I tend to stick with the "bird on a wire" argument. We could detect 70V AC againt ground, with about 1.3 mA current flow. The voltage seems to arise from all pumps together, disconnecting each single pump drops the voltage by a few volts, but there doesnt seem to be a single cause. I would be suprised if this would be the reason for our "Death tank". Experience, anyone?
Im running some DC devices (1 gyre, 1 tunze and 3 aqua medic powerheads as well as the skimmer pump and pump for the UV-C), and furthermore some AC devices like the return pump, the heater and and 2 pumps that supply the media reactor and the frag tank.
None of the equipment seems damaged.
Im so puzzled. We would like to return the other fish from QT, but there is no way putting them into the Death Tank without finding the reason.
#ReefSquad, please help!!!
All the Best!
Dee
im hoping for your help, since we are out of options, and just dont know how to continue on atm.
Our 320g mixed reef was thorn apart this april, because some fish presented with symptoms of velvet. Also some deaths occured in this acute outbrake. I must say at this point that velvet could not be confirmed using body/gill swipes, but at least cryptocarion was present for sure.
It is worth mentioning we had several fish since october we lost a few days after introduction into the tank, without obvious symptoms. We didnt QT fish at that time.
As answer to the suspected velvet outbreak all rockwork/corals were taken out, the fish caught and treated with cupramine (fish group #1) or CP (fish group #2) in hospital tanks/QT tanks.
Fish improved, and were back to obvious full health.
The DT was left fallow for over 80 days. In this period a lots of coral (the tank was rich in SPS/LPS) deteriorated. Professional water analysis was conducted (ICP-OES), water parameters turned out to be great (despite some elevated aluminium and decreased strontium). We figured, that the corals might actually be dying because a)the absence of fish and b) the stress of removing them from the tank, during the "catch all fish" session.
.
Anyways, fish matter more to us than coral, so we continued with the fallow period (full 80 days). We lost about 60% of coral during this time, and the deterioration of coral seems to move on.
On saturday some fish of fish group #1 (1 Naso tang, 1 Scarus wrasse, 1 N. Decora, 1 Banggai cardinal) were returned to DT after careful acclimatization. Fish were feeding extremely well back in the DT, and looked very happy to be back in DT again.
The happiness lasted for 24 hours. After that the scarus wrasse concerned us, because she was sleeping outside a hiding spot. It was dead the next morning. Within the following day our large Naso (a really personal fish, i could cry right now...) died. Yesterday we found the N. decora on the sand bed. She looked almost like paralyzed and was easy to catch. No abnormalities on the skin. No heavy breathing. We got her out and put her in heavily aerated new water, but she died within a few hours. Microscopic examination didnt show parasites on the skin.
The last survivor in the DT is the Banggai cardinal. He doesnt eat, looks skin-wise 100% normal, but breaths in a strange way. The rate isnt increased, but the breathing seems to be "deeper".
I have absolutely no idea what is going on. Maybe the coral deaths and the fish deaths are interconnected.
What was ruled out so far:
- Ammonia
- Lack of oxigen
- Toxic inorganics (by ICP-OES testing)
- Velvet/Crypto (seems it seems impossible after the QT/fallow tank period to have fish because of this disease within ~ 30 hours)
- Poisoning by household cleaners, etc (we are extremely careful in this respect)
Yesterday is also tested voltage in the tank, but this seems to be a topic with very opposing opinions. I tend to stick with the "bird on a wire" argument. We could detect 70V AC againt ground, with about 1.3 mA current flow. The voltage seems to arise from all pumps together, disconnecting each single pump drops the voltage by a few volts, but there doesnt seem to be a single cause. I would be suprised if this would be the reason for our "Death tank". Experience, anyone?
Im running some DC devices (1 gyre, 1 tunze and 3 aqua medic powerheads as well as the skimmer pump and pump for the UV-C), and furthermore some AC devices like the return pump, the heater and and 2 pumps that supply the media reactor and the frag tank.
None of the equipment seems damaged.
Im so puzzled. We would like to return the other fish from QT, but there is no way putting them into the Death Tank without finding the reason.
#ReefSquad, please help!!!
All the Best!
Dee
Last edited by a moderator:
