I lost my beautiful yellow tang ... probably my own fault but here's what went on before it died.
Everyone was fine and I decided to get out the rest of the crushed coral from the substrate and rearrange the rockwork a little better. Messing with the sand and coral stirred up a ton of stuff and the tank did get quite cloudy for a while during and after I had messed around the tank. I kept checking everyone and once the water cleared (about 2 hours) I did some tests and everything was great ... Removing the coral even dropped my nitrates almost immediately ... got a reading of between 5 and 10 when they are usually around 30! Ammonia was also nearly non-existant ... between o and .25.
Anyway, I did notice that after the water had cleared the fish were breathing kind of heavily and I figured it was due to all the cloudy stuff I had stirred up and that it would pass. Other than that everyone was great and the water was once again crystal clear. I made sure to rinse the filter media a couple times during and after the cleaning to make sure that not too much crap stayed in the tank to cause those nasty nitrates to go up again. Fed the fish some algea strips (I like to tear them into much smaller strips) before going to bed and all was well except the heavy breathing, which was most previlant in the tang as a matter of fact.
Well, this morning I turned on the light to find my big beutiful tang laying on it's side, dead, on the bottom of the tank. I am so disappointed and sad. I feel like I probably caused this to happen with the cleaning and stirring up crap I did. Do you think this was the cause or could it be something else? None of the other fish seem effected anymore ... no more heavy breathing and all others are alive. Any other thoughts on what happened or did I kill my most beautiful tank resident!? :sad I could kick myself for not removing the fish before doing that kind of cleaning! To everyone else ... learn from my mistake and if your doing anything that will cloud your tank REMOVE you fish for their safety!
Everyone was fine and I decided to get out the rest of the crushed coral from the substrate and rearrange the rockwork a little better. Messing with the sand and coral stirred up a ton of stuff and the tank did get quite cloudy for a while during and after I had messed around the tank. I kept checking everyone and once the water cleared (about 2 hours) I did some tests and everything was great ... Removing the coral even dropped my nitrates almost immediately ... got a reading of between 5 and 10 when they are usually around 30! Ammonia was also nearly non-existant ... between o and .25.
Anyway, I did notice that after the water had cleared the fish were breathing kind of heavily and I figured it was due to all the cloudy stuff I had stirred up and that it would pass. Other than that everyone was great and the water was once again crystal clear. I made sure to rinse the filter media a couple times during and after the cleaning to make sure that not too much crap stayed in the tank to cause those nasty nitrates to go up again. Fed the fish some algea strips (I like to tear them into much smaller strips) before going to bed and all was well except the heavy breathing, which was most previlant in the tang as a matter of fact.
Well, this morning I turned on the light to find my big beutiful tang laying on it's side, dead, on the bottom of the tank. I am so disappointed and sad. I feel like I probably caused this to happen with the cleaning and stirring up crap I did. Do you think this was the cause or could it be something else? None of the other fish seem effected anymore ... no more heavy breathing and all others are alive. Any other thoughts on what happened or did I kill my most beautiful tank resident!? :sad I could kick myself for not removing the fish before doing that kind of cleaning! To everyone else ... learn from my mistake and if your doing anything that will cloud your tank REMOVE you fish for their safety!
