All fish dead overnight

[pat_ask08]

I currently have a 55 gal saltwater tank. I have 2 black ocellarus clownfish, 5 green chromis, a royal gramma, green mandarin, yellow watchman goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, 5 blue leg crabs, pistol shrimp, and a couple snails. I recently bought a 125 gal tank and I'm waiting for a sump to be built. When I bought the 125 gal tank, It came with a 50gpd coralife ro/di system. I had it hooked up and everything was going great. I did a water change last night. I tested everything before I did the water change and the nitrates were 0, nitrites and ammonia were 0. I did the water change, tested the parameters and nitrates were <5 Nirtites were <5 ammonia was 0. I went to bed. I came down this morning and all my fish were dead except for my blue leg hermit crabs and my snails. I quickly tested my tank and my nitrates and nitrites were over 80 and my ammonia was 0. How does this happen? I keep a very close eye on my tank so idk what I did wrong

Last night after the water change, I went to my LFS and got some copepods for my green mandarin and added them into the tank but i don't think that would kill everything

I use a reef octopus hang on the back skimmer and a fluval canister filter. I've never had problems with anything like this before

My nitrites were 0 last night and this morning they were 5

 

[54seaweed]

it sounds as if the tank wasn't properly cycled
and that's 1 hell of a stocking list for a young tank

for more help we need more info

how old is tank
how was it cycled how long
how much live rock
full list of parameters
salinity
temp
# 1 rule in saltwater take your time don't rush add stock slowly
overloading will cause your system to crash as it can't handle a big load
sometimes it can take up to 6 months sometimes longer for a tank to establish a good bio load going faster than the tank is working will cause bad things
saltwater is not a cheap hobby and loosing that much livestock is a big blow on your pocket

sorry bout the lose once you get the info we need up we can prob answer your question a little clearer

 

[pat_ask08]

Tank is 10 months old and has been doing great

 

[pat_ask08]

I haven't added any stock in a month. Temp is 78 and the salinity is 1.24, 65 pounds of live rock.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

You mean 1.024 right?

 

[54seaweed]

to have any nitrite showing sounds to me the tank wasnt cycled correctly
or you overloaded the system with live stock to fast

# 1 rule in saltwater take your time don't rush add stock slowly
overloading will cause your system to crash as it can't handle a big load
sometimes it can take up to 6 months sometimes longer for a tank to establish a good bio load going faster than the tank is working will cause bad things
saltwater is not a cheap hobby and loosing that much livestock is a big blow on your pocket

 

[54seaweed]

has anyone used cleaning products on or around tank windex/air freshener/ect

were your hands clean with no contaminants on them before reaching in tank

just trying to rule things out so don't take anything personal cause I know type always sounds nasty lol

what type of water do you use tap or ro/di

do you use any kind of additives in your tank

I know you said you didn't add anything new this month
how about last month what /how many

have you done anything new to the tank
rearrange rocks add or remove

add or remove sand

anything like this that may have disturbed the system

changed filtration

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Wait your nitrites are at 80 ppm? That can't be right, are you sure your testing right?

 

[Dav3]

Wait your nitrites are at 80 ppm? That can't be right, are you sure your testing right?

Probably a result of all the die off.

How old were the filters on the rodi that came with the new tank? Did you test the water coming out of it with a TDS meter. As that is the most recent major change I would point to that as being the cause. Could have been other contaminates in the output that yo could not test for.

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Probably a result of all the die off.

No niTRITE kit that I know of goes anywhere near 80ppm. A nitrate reading of 80ppm I can see, but that would most likely kill the snails and hermits first.

 

[pat_ask08]

I use ro/di water. The only thing I added to my tank was a royal gramma. I haven't moved or added any rocks or sand. No cleaning products were used anywhere near my tank. I always wash my hands before doing maintenance on my tank. One thing I noticed was that all the fish had their mouths wide open when they died. Could it be from lack of oxygen in the water?

The nitrate was 80ppm. I didn't mean to put nitrite. It was just my fish and shrimp that died. All my crabs and snails are still living

The guy gave me the rodi system but no filters so I ordered all the filters from my LFS.

 

[Dav3]

Did you run the rodi and dump the first 5-10 gallons of water made?

 

[pat_ask08]

I ran it 30 gallons and dumped it all out just to be safe

 

[Dav3]

No niTRITE kit that I know of goes anywhere near 80ppm. A nitrate reading of 80ppm I can see, but that would most likely kill the snails and hermits first.

Oh, never paid that much attention to those kits. Learn something new everyday.

 

[Wy Renegade]

Did you test the water coming from your RO/DI unit before you used it for the water change?

 

[pat_ask08]

Yes. I tested the water before and after I put it in my tank and everything was really good

 

[54seaweed]

always wash my hands before doing maintenance on my tank

what you use to wash hands "any soap that has a scent can be toxic"

could the bucket you used be contaminated someone using it to maybe wash car or something

I clearly mark all my buckets "FISH ONLY" and always make sure the lids are sealed tight so no one accidentally uses them

did you wash the front of the tank maybe spraying Windex
or any one spraying air fresheners or hair spray

 

[pat_ask08]

I have special buckets that I keep next to my tank. When I clean the outside, I use the stuff from petco that won't hurt fish but I haven't used that in 2 months