Help! Soap in my tank!

[Xenos]

My nephew was sitting my tank over the weekend and for some unknown reason, desided to wash the black box in my protien skimmer. He used soap and doesn't remember how well he rinsed it. Now all the fish in my boyfriend's tank are dying. So far the victims include a Koran Angel, a baby puffer, two dominoe damsels, and two percula. The only surviving fish is a yellow tang whom I am about to transplant into a tank at work until I get this figured out. Also a fact I must give is that the last damsel to die so far was COVERed in white spots. My boyfriend's tank was over crowded in my opinion (its a 29gal), but it has been overcrowded for almost three months with no death. Which made me look like I didn't know what I was talking about. Also he did add a cured live rock recently. Let me know what you think killed everyone in two days, is it disease, soap, or have they finally poisoned themselves. If it is soap how can I help the tank recover? I'm changing my carbon now because it is the only thing I can think of.

 

[Gauge]

My boyfriend's tank was over crowded in my opinion (its a 29gal)

It sounds like it was WAY overcrowded. The recommended amount of fish for a tank is 1 inch of fish (excluding tails) per 5 gallons. that's 6 inches in that tank. Also, tangs are supposed to have four feet of swimming room, from what I hear, and I doubt a 29 gal was that long. Aggression should have become a big issue in that tank, and with already aggressive fish like damsels, I'm really surprised it lasted as long as it did.

is it disease, soap, or have they finally poisoned themselves

I would say that it was probably the crowded situation. If it wasn't, it would have been very soon. The soap could have been a factor, but more likely just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. As far as the disease goes, I think it was just taking advantage of an otherwise unhealthy or stressed fish. I doubt it was the cause of the problem, but more likely an effect of the original problem.

If it is soap how can I help the tank recover?

I would recommend a pretty good water change and just keeping fresh carbon in your filter for a while.

I would also recommend that you get a water test done and see what your water parameters are. I would do that as soon as possible if you want to see what the cause of this was. That many fish is a huge bioload for such a small tank. What kind of filtration do you have, how much LR and how much LS?

 

[astride13]

It should be pretty easy to see if the fish were victim of soap or overcrowding. If the ammonia and nitrites are high, then it was most likely the overcrowding. If the ammonia is a bit high, then I would say the soap. I do not think the bacteria would have time to convert the ammonia from the dead fish to nitrites fast enough to be detectable.

You think anti-bacterial soap would affect the bacteria?

 

[Zack]

sounds like the soap was the end of that overcrowed tank. But i think by doing waterchanges and such the tank may recycle, let us know how it goes :|

 

[fishfreek]

water change

water change

water change

Thats about the only way to dilute/remove the potental soap in the tank. Also test the water for your standard ammonia, nitrite, PH, alkinity and salinity.

Oh and make sure the skimmer is set for opimal skimming as this should help remove the soap also.

 

[Xenos]

Well now maybe my boyfriend will believe me about overcrowding AND putting species together that are not compatable. I'm making a new post in Setting Up. I'll give all the details of my tank and hopefully someone will give me a list of potential fish I can house.