Toxin in tank, corals dying, fish dead

[T-J]

Is it possible that the UV killed so much stuff that the tank had a mini cycle? Right now I put a tiny bit of Seachem Prime and added polyfilter to cut the ammonia down. I plan on doing a large water change later today once I make enough water.

No.
The UV would only be killing (depending on flow rate) algae, bacteria or pests. There is something else going on here IMO.

 

[ZoWhat]

Why Water-Pik?
4 out of 5 Dentists recommend Oral-B

 

[javisaman]

No.
The UV would only be killing (depending on flow rate) algae, bacteria or pests. There is something else going on here IMO.

It seems to be like clockwork at least with the UV sterilizer. Turn on UV sterilizer = corals angry and fish angry.

Why Water-Pik?
4 out of 5 Dentists recommend Oral-B

Saw it mentioned by another member here. Haven't used it in a little over a month.

 

[javisaman]

Never mind. The rest of the fish and the corals died.

 

[zalick]

Never mind. The rest of the fish and the corals died.

Sorry for your losses.

two things I’ve noticed over the years that seem linked with complete wipeouts like you experienced are splashless bleach and use of silicone with mildew inhibitors.

 

[javisaman]

For completeness' sake, I unplugged my UV sterilizer, disconnected its plumbing, and opened it up. The internal part of the quartz sleeve is bone dry.

I used this PVC cement:

Oatey 8 oz. Regular Clear PVC Cement 310133 - The Home Depot

Oatey PVC Regular Bodied Fast Set Clear Cement is recommended for DWV, pressure pipe, potable water and electrical applications. It is easy to apply with included in-lid dauber and its clear color provides

www.homedepot.com

This primer:

Oatey 8 oz. Purple CPVC and PVC Primer 3075633 - The Home Depot

The Oatey 8 oz. PVC and CPVC Purple Primer, made from a mixture of solvents, is designed to remove surface dirt, oils and other contaminants from the surface of PVC or CPVC piping. Not recommended for

www.homedepot.com

This thread sealant:

And this O-ring grease:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GUNK-Gunk-Plumbers-Silicone-Grease/3350380

 

[czynot]

what UV did you have? cheap amazon UV have metal sleeve inside that will rust in few weeks. open it up. take out the quartz sleeve and look inside.

If your UV is Aquauv or any marine UV will not kill fish. I run 57w and 114w uv in my system. no problem besides heat.
Pulling out GHA or Blowing at rocks with turkey baster or pump will not hurt anything. I blow my rocks all the time.
Fish dying over night can only be toxin or bacteria bloom. water will be cloudy if it is bacteria bloom. Is it possible miss ID of Dino type. One type of dino is toxic. Type that cause the RED Tide.

 

[javisaman]

Lifegard Aquatics 55W Amalgam

Lifegard PRO-MAX - 3" High Output Amalgam Germicidal UV Sterilizer - 55 Watts - R450107

Lifegard Aquatics introduces the Pro-MAX™ UV Sterilizer, featuring a patent-pending, flow-through design with less restrictive angled inlet and outlet ports requiring less plumbing.

www.123ponds.com

 

[czynot]

That UV should not have metal inside. You should double check it anyways.

 

[javisaman]

Yea no metal. I don't think it was the UV itself, maybe the action of it running. There is also a chance that the added flow from the pump feeding the UV irritated everything. Nothing liked it when I blow the rocks in my tank. The fish died after hours of breathing very heavily, the corals were just closed up, snails flipped over. There is something on the rock, that when agitated, seems to be toxic to the tank.


A summary of the tank was like this. A lot of the information is here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/months-of-struggles-high-res-pictures-sorry-long.809314/.

• Slow downward health of corals/fish (lower PE, color, fish hide) over the course of months
• Check parameters (hobby test and ICP), everything seems normal but zero phosphates/nitrates, maintain regular waterchanges and feed more
• Downward health continues (SPS STN, zoas close, snails dying)
• Do large water change (30%)
• Nothing changes, still downward health
• Blow rocks and do regular water changes
• Nothing changes, still downward health
• Do large water change, but this time blow rocks and remove as much detritus as possible.
• SPS RTN, 3/5 fish die
• LPS start losing heads (polyp bailout)
• Install UV sterilizer
• First few days corals don't open at all, clownfish breathing heavy, so only run UV for 3-4 hours a day
• Stop UV to make sure no stray voltage, wait for multimeter
• Multimeter with precise AC measurement shows 0.03V AC (aka very little stray voltage) with UV on
• Run UV for the entire day, fish/coral seem okay during the day.
• Let UV run overnight, next morning everything dead/dying.

 

[javisaman]

If there is any interest in my aquabiomics report--here it is. Too late to really matter, but everything is dead except for a few corals (in another tank now) and the clean-up crew. My biodiversity awful (Vibro took over), and there was apparently some bacterial fish pathogen too. I emailed aquabiomics, hopefully they'll send me an eDNA report on the dinoflagellates (if I really had them).

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Hi All,

Sorry for a second thread. I've been posting regularly to my other thread about struggles with what I suspect are dinoflagelletes here. Since the beginning of that post I've lost all of my SPS, many of my LPS and zoas. After a disaster last night, I thought I should post a more recent thread.

I've tried numerous things (not at the same time):

1. Small water changes
2. Large water changes with siphoning out as much as possible
3. No water changes. Measuring phosphate and nitrate every day and dosing Microbacter7 (daily) and/or Dr.Tim's Refresh (weekly)

Yesterday after a couple of weeks with the third one I thought I would try and do a large waterchange since hair algae had taken over. This was approximately 40% (I did the math wrong in my original thread). I made sure that the salinity (1.026) and temp were exactly the same betwwen the tank and the brute trashcan (I use this from the beginning to hold RO/DI). I even tested the salinity and temp of the tank after doing the water change.

Parameters so far:
Alk 7.0 (Hanna)
Phosphate 0.06 (Hanna)
Nitrate 4ppm to 8ppm (Red Sea Pro)
Salinity 1.026 (Milwaukee and Refractometer, both calibrated)
Ammonia 0 (Salifert)

My corals do not look better or worse from the water change. My inverts like cleaner shrimp, hermits, and snails unchanged.
However, 3 of 5 my fish have died overnight. I've had them for over 8 months all have been fully quarantined with copper and prazipro.

I suspect two things might have caused the issue and I'm hoping someone can give me some insight on how to proceed.

1. Part of the procedure for my water change. Use waterproof handheld waterpik to blast the rocks clean of dinos, scrub and pull hair algae. All of this was done with the pumps on and with a water stone. I kept my skimmer, carbon reactor, and filter socks (10u) in the sump. This may have caused a large die-off causing gill damage to fish. However, I would expect there to be ammonia in the tank.
2. There is a contaminant in my RO/DI water. I replaced all filters last month and bought the BRS 5-stage kit for chloramines. I've never registered more than 0TDS from my water. However, is there a chance something like chlorine can still make it? Or some other contaminent?

Pretty heartbroken that this has gone on for months and everything is basically dead. I would like to try again, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be successful.

I am a scientist and am willing to try anything and everything to figure this out, so all suggestions are welcome.

Have you tested your product water for ammonia could be chloramines

 

[javisaman]

Tested for total chlorine--zero chloramines. I might have mentioned it in a later reply to the one quoted.

 

[javisaman]

Aquaponics emailed me telling me there was a bug in their first report. They have since corrected it and apparently, my diversity score wasn't so bad. I'm even more stumped now...

 

[missourimud]

I ended up here for similar reason! I fired up my lifeguard aquatic 25w uv last night and boom this am i have 3 lethargic fish and ticked off coral. I am battling prorocentrum dinos.

 

[missourimud]

i wonder if lifeguard has something toxic to fish in their manufacturing process? how long was yours on before you saw adverse reactions?