Caustic gill burn / iritation ?

[carbon]

This morning I lost my yellow tang... after I changed the water day before yesterday, yesterday morning he started hyperventilating he got about eight hours of that and then fell to the floor continuing to hypervenilate and expired in another five hours. I have two clown fish that are still breathing heavily after 24 hours since I have noticed this I have left the lights off checked all the water parameters and threw an active carbon pad in my sump. from everything that I can tell I they must have burnt gill from a salinity swing and possible improper aeration of my saltwater... went from 1.025 to 1.027 I accidentally drew from the wrong salt water bucket ( the four gallons PWC to my 46 gal tank was carried out with aerated water 24 hrs old) a couple of top off cups of not properly aerated extremely salty water is what I believe pushed my salinity up.. I readjusted yesterday SG back to 1.025 over an hour, Things have returned to normal as far as SG but the poor guys are still resperating extremly fast I am desperate to find out if there is anything I could do for them other than time, as one fish lost is already one to many.. thank you to anyone who can possibly help...

amonia 0
no2 >=3
ph 7.7
SG 1.025
temp 75 deg
phos .05~1

 

[gdeeber]

Two things I could see. First your PH seems low (8.0 - 8.4) is good and your temp is low for fish only tank bump up to 78 deg. The temp would not effect to fish much but the PH will.

 

[melosu58]

I see a nitrite problem. That would cause problems with your fish. As far as the PH I would check as soon as your lights go off and check the same time all the time. What time of the day did you check your PH?

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Mike. The nitrite level is more likely the cause rather then the SG swing.

How long has your tank been up and running?

 

[carbon]

Thanks for the help guys I think I isolated the problem to poisoning from soap or something being absorbed by my open salt bag in the kitchen everything is better now and I just completed my PWC with different bucket and different salt lost one the others pulled through ...