help all fish died overnight

[lando]

Any particular reason for doing such a large water change? It is likely you disturbed the biological filtration of the tank. This could have been a cause. Very stressful on fish. Did you use aged SW that was the same temp, Ph and SG of the water you removed?

 

[skennelly]

As mentioned in previous posts any sign of ammonia is unacceptable and potentially harmful to the tank. You can't possible say that .25 is okay because its been like that for as long as you had the tank. If that's the case I would have changed test kits as your ammonia levels could very well be higher then what your current test kit is reading. A good running tank should have 0 ammonia PERIOD.

As for the 98% water change that is definitely something that could have and probably did have a factor in your situation. Anybody on this board or any other reef board would tell you to never do more than a 50% water change at one time, and most would probably say 25%. Do such a large water change disrupts your entire tank bacteria levels and will almost definitely cause an increase in ammonia.

Not to be negative here, but this sounds like human error contributed to this and not a fluke occurance.

 

[skennelly]

As also mentioned in previous post a 98% water change would almost definitely have a difference in SG, PH which can have a large impact on fish health.

 

[revhtree]

I think Jay197 was saying that he did a water change after all the fish died....

I think..

 

[lando]

the only thing i did was dose it with the chemicals i ususally dose it with every week... calcium, iodine, and essential elements. Then i put a sponge in the overflow box to quiet the sound. Other then that i did nothing else. I empty the tank out and redid the water and nows theres a clear slimey substance all over the tank and i am not sure what it is.... Any ideas?

Now you have me wondering...
Hey Jay, did you do the 98% water change before or after the fish all died?

 

[jay917]

i did a water change after all the fish died becuase i still have coral in the tank and i wanted them to survive... As for the ammonia, it is probably due to overfeeding becuase my fish had a little ick and i wanted to feed it a little more so i can grow a better immune system.

 

[steve-s]

for some sorta reason my ammonia is always at .25 even tho i had a small bioload so i dont believe thats the problem either

I doubt it's the ammonia as well. Some test kits are notorious for showing a 0.25 reading when in fact it's zero. It's actually quite common.

Did the fish still have any color the next day when you found them or where they more whitish looking/pale?

How did your corals/inverts react, what kind do you have? Any losses there at all?

Cheers
Steve

 

[jay917]

most of the corals were shriveled up the day i found the fish dead. i also have an anemome as well. it was opened up but not as big as when the tank was healthy..

 

[jay917]

i think i know what happened to my tank now. I think the sponges i used had dry soap on it. Whats the best way to redo my tank to get all the soap out?

 

[nsu7]

Sorry to hear that, wish I knew what to tell you. I imagine that lots of carbon would help get the chemicals out, but not positive.

What makes you say they had soap?

 

[sdellin]

i think i know what happened to my tank now. I think the sponges i used had dry soap on it. Whats the best way to redo my tank to get all the soap out?

I'm really sorry about your fish, as well. Let us know if you find a way to remove the soap, I'm sure someone will be able to tell you, but I sure haven't found an answer.

 

[Konrade]

Where did you get the sponges and what kind were they?

 

[Konrade]

whoops nvm

 

[mjvincent]

I would believe pwc would be best to get any soap chemicals out of the tank (as well as using activated charcoal).

 

[zacdl]

I know a guy that his wife sprayed windex around the tank. The tank had a cover, just the mist managed to get inside the tank. Within hours EVERYTHING in the tank was dead.

Are you sure that sponge was clean? By "clean" you mean you used it to clean bathrooms, then washed it clean, there might be some of your problem.

I dont know how actually "clean" they come in the package, but I do rinse all that type of stuff off before I stick it in.

 

[zacdl]

Well I didnt see those posts above....

Yep, Get that soap out. Water Changes.

 

[AndyH5512]

Out of curiousity, what kind of sponge did you use?