Fish Kill

DSR

DSR

AC Members
Apr 10, 2009
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Tulsa, OK
My wife and I set up a 24 gallon reef tank last week. Using 20+ lbs of live rock, argolite sand (sp). We have the stock pump and I added a Koralia Nano for flow. No media in the filter chambers other than some charcoal put in yesterday (after rinsing).

We added two damsels (snowball and humbug) and recently added a very nice fish (can't recall name... but it was $30 (most I have ever spent on a fish)). ALl was well until I moved the tank to place it on a new stand. Then things seemed to crash. Woke up yesterday and the snowball damsel was dead and the humbug was panting heavily. The cleaner shrimp and nem were fine.

Did a five gallon water change. Tested the water and had ammonia of less than .25, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrates. Tested calcium and alk and they were both in the good to go range.

Had band practice last night but when I came home the new fish was dead as well. Did two more 5 gallon changes. Now my leather coral is looking rough and has completely seperated from teh rock (I am pretty sure it is dead).

If my water conditions are correct, then what could be causing this? Could the nem or the leather be poisoning the tank with chemical warfare? If the leather is doing poorly could it be sending toxins into the water?

The other coral are all doing fine, knock on wood. Your help is greatly appreciated.
 
Leather do send nasty toxins in the water when they die and it is definately one possibility. From the sounds of it though it sounds like the move was the starting point and has now created a snowball effect.. moved tank=released bad stuff from sand into water=ammonia spike=dead fish=higher ammonia/nitrite spike=dead leather=dead tank (if no carbon was put in to remove the toxins from dying leather, but sounds like you got that last part covered).

If you are detecting ANY ammonia then your tank is in the middle of a cycle and nothing living should be in the tank at that time. Even if it was previously cycled, the move could have stirred bad things up and caused another mini cycle, which doesn't usually last nearly as long as a normal 30 day cycle, but still can be deadly to things in the tank if it is bad enough, which your sounds like it is.
 
So I should definately remove the leather. What should I do with the coral I have in there at the present time? It all seems to be doing well. fully open and all. The cleaner shrimp and the nem are also doing well from what I can tell.

I was afraid of that with the move, but more afraid of the tank falling. Now I see that the table it was on before is far more sturdy than the POS stand that is recommended by Aquapod (although the Aquapod stand looks much better).
 
Could be other pollutants as well.

If I were you, I'd move what I could to a QT (if you have one) do like an 80% water change, let it sit for a week, 50% change, sit for one more week, then see where you are at.

I'd test for PH, Alk, Nitrates, Nitrites, Phosphates, and maybe even copper. If it all looks good, move your fish back.
 
Will do. No QT. But I will do a large water change today. The remaining damsel seems to be doing better today. Such a weird deal as everything else seems to be doing fine. The leather as a mess when I first got (didn't know it at the time though,lol). THe zoa and duncan are all open and so is the little hitchhiking feather duster worm.
 
Never heard of a 30 days being the length of a cycle? But I have accidently stirred up quite a bit of my sand in my 36 a couple times and never detected a cycle. Are you sure your LR was actually CURED live rock, or did it take a couple hours from setting up your tank & getting the LR in the tank? That could have caused a lot of die-off and the rock has been curing in a 24 gallon toilet bowl, on top of a couple fish pooping all day.

I've read that ammonia will do a number on corals, so I would remove whatever you have so it doesn't create more issues than you already have. Then I would continue to do daily 5g water changes. Once your ammonia is down to 0, I would leave the tank be for a week and see if the ammonia starts to creep up again, if it does I would count on your LR not having been cured, or your tank never cycled in the first place??
 
Dan06 said:
Never heard of a 30 days being the length of a cycle?
Click to expand...

Now you have. ;) 30 days is obviously an average but for the large majority a tank cycles in around that time.

WaterQualityCyclingNitrogenCycle.gif
 
Good to see, I always thought the cycle was always one of those things that is done...when it's done. ;) My FW have always been less than 2 weeks and my SW tank was cycled instantly?
 
Dan06 said:
Good to see, I always thought the cycle was always one of those things that is done...when it's done. ;) My FW have always been less than 2 weeks and my SW tank was cycled instantly?
Click to expand...

Those graphs generally depict tanks that start from scratch--i.e. no added media, bacteria, live rock, plants, etc. So it essentially holds true for those circumstances, but will obviously vary upon a number of factors. Still, giving a tank a good while to "settle in" never hurts.
 
Tested the water several times yesterday and then, as an added measure, had my LFS test it. The ammonia was less the .25 with Nitrite and nitrate at 0. Everyone seems to be doing fine. I think I just stirred up some nasty stuff by moving the tank incorrectly. regardless I am going to let the tank settle for a couple of weeks before adding any fish. The corals have to stay in the tank, unfortunately, as there is no place to house them in the interim. But so far so good. Thanks for the help folks.
 
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