Everything is dying.........

[SaltyNewbie]

I don't know what the heck is going on! My flame angel was dead when I came home from work yesterday. The tank felt alot warmer than usual, but the heater hasn't been changed. So I turned the heater down to about 74 thinking maybe something was messed up with my heater. When I get home from work today, two camel shrimp and a debrilius reef lobster were dead. My red algae hermit crab looks like he's about to die and my brittle star looks aweful too! What the he$$ is going on?! Salinity is 1.0245. I'm checking nitrates, ammonai, etc right now...

and my tank has been set up with no changes for at least a year now...

29 gal saltwater
35 lbs live rock
cc base
fluval 204 filter
prizm skimmer
jbj pc lighting
2 powerheads

there were: 2 common clowns, 1 blue damsel, 1 flame angel, 2 camel shrimp, 1 reef lobster, 1 red algae hermit crab, 5 blue legged hermits, 1 green brittle star, lots of snails.....

 

[Anonymous]

How do your nitrates look?

 

[ReefMon]

The tank felt alot warmer than usual

Felt? Don't you have a thermometer in the tank?

How long has this tank be set up and running?


Glenn R

 

[SaltyNewbie]

alright, just tested everything:

Ammonia: .25 ppm I don't know why this spiked.........
Nitrate: 2.5-5 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Alkalinity: normal
pH: 8.5


The thermometer I have is a cheap one on the glass that doesn't work worth a $hit. I used to have a glass one that was in there for a long time until it broke. I've never messed around with my set up or heater, thats why not having a good thermometer ever bothered me. I oreded a new submersible heater and digital thermometer last night from Big Al's, so hopefully that gets here real soon.

The tank has been set up now for 1 year and nine months. The clown and damsel have been there since the beginning. Nothing new has been added for about a year.

And I don't know if it makes any difference, but I have been using RO water instead of tap water. However, last week for about 3 days I ran out of RO and had to use the tap (yes I treated it)

I just added some carbon to the filter too.

 

[Anonymous]

Have you considered a water change?

 

[SaltyNewbie]

changed 5 gallons two weeks ago (all RO water with Kent Marine Salt.

note: I don't add any additional chemicals or anything to the tank..

 

[Anonymous]

So it's prolly something that has happened in the last day or so...if you haven't done a water change in 2 weeks, perhaps its a hardware problem...as Glenn alluded to, I wonder what the actual temp of your water is...

 

[MarkO1]

I don't know what the heck is going on! My flame angel was dead when I came home from work yesterday. The tank felt alot warmer than usual, but the heater hasn't been changed. So I turned the heater down to about 74 thinking maybe something was messed up with my heater. When I get home from work today, two camel shrimp and a debrilius reef lobster were dead. My red algae hermit crab looks like he's about to die and my brittle star looks aweful too! What the he$$ is going on?! Salinity is 1.0245. I'm checking nitrates, ammonai, etc right now...

and my tank has been set up with no changes for at least a year now...

29 gal saltwater
35 lbs live rock
cc base
fluval 204 filter
prizm skimmer
jbj pc lighting
2 powerheads

there were: 2 common clowns, 1 blue damsel, 1 flame angel, 2 camel shrimp, 1 reef lobster, 1 red algae hermit crab, 5 blue legged hermits, 1 green brittle star, lots of snails.....

Likely your heater failed. Especially if it felt "warm". Sorry to sound like an a$$, but if you didn't bother to double check the temp when it felt warm, then you got no one to blame but yourself. A decent thermometer costs about $3.
Hope you recover.
_________________
us recession

 

[SaltyNewbie]

I know, I was expecting to get flamed for this.

 

[Mihai]

Could also be a failure of the fan in the hood if you have one...

M.

 

[Bucktronix]

if your heater went nuts it could be leaking electrisity into the water zapping everything! do you have a grounding probe in there? im betting no?

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear about your problems.

Remove the heater if you have not done so.

I now use a digital titanium heater with remote thermostat. It is cheap insurance (cost less than most fish)

Remove the dead animals, and do a couple of 20% W/Cs to get any built up stuff from the die off out.

If you do not have a ground probe and a GFCI, get one. It will save your life.

How are your animals doing now?

 

[Anonymous]

if your heater went nuts it could be leaking electrisity into the water zapping everything! do you have a grounding probe in there? im betting no?

Not nessicarily. Only if it has a path out (I think). The fish can get irritated (lateral line) but I think if the current stays in the tank (no path out) its like an irritation rather than a electrocution.

If he had a GP and no GFCI however, ZAP!

 

[SaltyNewbie]

No grounding probe. Whats a GFCI? Would I be able to feel the electric current in the water?

Mihai,
The hood has twin fans, both are working great.


The three fish that are left are acting normal and eating well. All the snails appear to be fine, I dont see any dead ones laying around. In fact, there are two places on the glass where snails or something else have laid a bunch of little white eggs overnight(this usually happens once a week). I've seen a few of my blue legged hermits which are lively as ever. My red legged hermit still looks like crap though, unless he is perched to shed his skin again. Starfish is ok, but doesn't seem to be hungry.


Another reason why I thought something with the heat killed my flame angel is because his colors were absolutely brilliant, there were no visual signs of damage on him.


I'm going to do a water change and test the water again tonight. I'll post back and let everyone know whats going on. Thanks for help.

 

[Anonymous]

Pygmy Angels are kinda hard to keep, and from all I have read, can die quite suddenly.

Inverts like snails and such are delecate animals, where anemonefish (clowns and damsels) are almost bulletproof. Small upsets can kill inverts and not effect the fish at all.

Now for your beating j/k

A GFCI is a ground fault circuit inturupter. If the ammount of current going out to your tank does not match the current comming back by less that 10 Milliamps, it will trip. 10mA is enought to make you wet yourself, but you will live before the electricity could kill you. You MUST, I REPEAT, MUST have one of these on a fishtank. You can get them at HD, or Lowes. It will replace your wall outlet. If you are not kosher with the job, get a liscenced electritian. Really, this is not optional as a short in your tank can kill you way before the 20 amp breaker would trip.

The grounding probe is a titanium probe that you plug into your powerstrip and stick in your tank. If thier is any stray current, it will send it to ground, and coupled with the GFCI, shut everything off, thus alerting you to the fact thier is a problem before bad stuff happens. It will keep inducted current from your powerheads and heater from irritating sensitive fish, like tangs and such.

Again, you can have a short in your tank, and if thier is no path back out of the tank, you may not even see anything odd with the critters. You stick a hand in to feed, or mess with the rock, and POW, you could be dead.

Do a search on tis site fr GFCI and Grounding probe, as well as Shock.

 

[MarkO1]

keep an eye on your nitrogen cycle.
And buy a thermometer (or 2).
_________________
Paintball Bunker

 

[SaltyNewbie]

hesaias- Thanks for the info, hopefully I'll have that set up soon.

MarkO- Consider it done.


Update: Everything "seems" to be back to normal. I'm going to check the water quality again later this evening. The red hermit crab was shedding his skin, so that explains why he looked like crap. The starfish is back to his usual hungry self and searching for food in the tank. It doesn't appear that I lost any snails or blue legged hermit crabs. I would think the snails would have been the first thing to die, not my angel, shrimp, and lobster.....? :?

 

[fishgills]

I'm also sorry to hear about your problems, i know how you feel.
_________________
obama stimulus package

 

[Anonymous]

I had a heater cook my tank too. I lost a good 80% of my corals, and all fish but two. And this was on a 5 year old tank.

I feel your pain, buddy.

 

[garagebrian]

Don't want to hyjack the thread, but can you just make a regular outlet into a GFCI outlet? You don't have to modify the wiring back to your fuse box in the garage?

B.