Bad Bad news

[zimonie]

Well guys i got back from my trip to six flags, and i really wanted to go to shedd aquarium but things dident work out. Wile i was gone i had someone take care of my tank. (my father took care of it before many of times so nothing is new) well i got home late and went to bed sice the lights where off anyway, and when i got up i went to look at my tank like i always do!! And low and behold there is no fish swimmen hmm i said this is odd, well come to find out they all died!!! all the levels are perfect nothin is out of the norm. So then i talked to my dad and he mistakenly used tapwater to unthaw the shrimp when he fed them. OMG!!!! so i am thinking that is the reason the fish are dead, snails and corals seem to be doing ok. I know it was a simple and honest mistake, he feels like absolute crap there is nothing i can do about it. But i loved my fish like my dog, so i dunno what i am going to do now!?!?!?!?! If u have anythoughts on how they died pls let me know thx

 

[autofreak44]

do you have a consumer confidence report for your tap water? you can probably look it up on line. btw its just me but if i were you i would stop drinking the tap water (if you are drinking it)... in the consumer report, check for arsenic levels, also ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. also any heavy metals.
in a nutshell, the tap killed the fish so you dont have to look up the report unless its out of sheer curiosity. sorry to hear about the fish, its a serious bummer. i guess the best thing to do would take out everything dead, and do 30% weekly water changes for the next month then go ahead and restock. make sure to feed your live rock so you dont start a mini-cycle when you put fish back in

 

[zimonie]

kk Thx for the info all the better so doing a 30% water chang each week wont affect my anemonie at all or corals? and 2 cleaner shrimp lived threw the whole ordeal.

 

[zimonie]

also i use the tap water to do my water changes i use stress coat for every 5gal i add.(add it in the 5gal) It removes chlorine and neutralixes chloramines, and i never had a problem before that is y this is all so wierd pls give me some more thoughts

 

[fish addict]

Sorry to hear about your fish! pretty sure the tap killed all the fish. you should use RO (reverse osmosis) you can buy it Wal-Mart or other grocery stores Wal-mart sells it for about 25 cents a gallon. I use 5 gallon jugs works well since I only have a 29g. If your tank is kinda big I would buy a RO filter since if your tank is big it is a pain to drag water from the store.

 

[otfurball]

Oh man that stinks. sorry to hear. I have RO water delivered to my house. It is about $5 for a 5g jug. totally worth it and it tastes good too.

 

[miaheatlvr]

Originally Posted by otfurball
Oh man that stinks. sorry to hear. I have RO water delivered to my house. It is about $5 for a 5g jug. totally worth it and it tastes good too.
Im sure it wasnt your tap water, I use tap water to unthaw some krill to feed my fish all the time with never a problem, AND here in Miami, the tap water is PURE CRAP, Adding stress coat to your tap water will not remove any of the toxins. And you have an anemone? anemonies require optimum water conditions, you really need a RO/DI unit.

 

[jennythebugg]

sorry about your fish but ya really need to use ro water , we live in west texas and our tap water is brine so if even some of it got in our tank it would kill everyone...rip little fishies

 

[scsinet]

While RO water is best, I highly doubt the tap water caused this. The miniscule amount that would have entered the water... there would have to be something pretty horrible in the water to cause that kind of damage.. and it doesn't make sense that your inverts would have survived if it were a toxin or something else.
Besides, if you are using tap water for your water changes... then if it was the water, it would have to be the difference of the stress-coat treatment, but nothing that stress coat takes out would reasonably exist in sufficient concentration that the tiny bit of water introduced on the food would cause it. Heavy metals, halogens, toxins, etc, none of these are removed by stresscoat.
I'd be more inclined to think that a fish died and ammonia spiked, killing the rest. Also, if all of your fish were dead, your levels were not perfect, no way they could be, so if you tested your water and that's what you got, then your test kits aren't working right and for all you know there are other problems you aren't seeing.

 

[scsinet]

I just thought of something...
Lions
Puffers
Nudibranchs
Sea Cucumbers
Sea Apples
Anemones
Flatworms
Did you have any of these? You mentioned anemones, did you have any that you can't find or did the anemone(s) you do have look significantly different, perhaps smaller?
All of those things (and more) above.. when they die, they can release toxic bombs into the water that can kill every fish in the system. Anemones reproduce by fission (splitting). The process is incredibly stressfull, and it's not uncommon for one of the resulting anemones to die, or drift around in the tank and go through a filter or powerhead, getting shredded and wreaking absolute biological havoc. If your anemone is significantly smaller or appears to be lopsided, that may be what happened.

 

[slowburn22]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
While RO water is best, I highly doubt the tap water caused this. The miniscule amount that would have entered the water... there would have to be something pretty horrible in the water to cause that kind of damage.. and it doesn't make sense that your inverts would have survived if it were a toxin or something else.
Besides, if you are using tap water for your water changes... then if it was the water, it would have to be the difference of the stress-coat treatment, but nothing that stress coat takes out would reasonably exist in sufficient concentration that the tiny bit of water introduced on the food would cause it. Heavy metals, halogens, toxins, etc, none of these are removed by stresscoat.
I'd be more inclined to think that a fish died and ammonia spiked, killing the rest. Also, if all of your fish were dead, your levels were not perfect, no way they could be, so if you tested your water and that's what you got, then your test kits aren't working right and for all you know there are other problems you aren't seeing.
Beautifully spoken... I was wondering why I had read so many posts and nobody had yet figured out that the dude said he uses tapwater to fill the tank... Thanks for saving me the typing effort.

 

[zimonie]

yes i have anemones and they are fine and not split and ya i know they need good water, my water has always been good only the fish that went right up and ate the food are dead.. 2 shrimp, crab, snails, and hermits are perfect I checked my lvls agian and its pretty close to norm just a hair high on amm and nitrite. I just dont understand the tap water here is descent and i use it for water changes and never had a problem tank is a 120gal and been set up for 6 months.

 

[scsinet]

It could be new tank syndrome then. Tanks under a year old... sometimes things just die for no apparent reason... even many things at once. I lost a Trigger and a Lionfish at once on my FOWLR system a little over a year ago... tank was 5 months old. I waited a few more months, tried again, and had no issues.
Tap water is decent for humans to drink and bathe in, not for saltwater fish. Usually it doesn't manifest a problem to the health of the animals though. If you are treating it, I doubt it will cause any issues to the health of the fish. Where it will cause problems is the introduction of phosphates, which will make your algae nightmares come true.

 

[zimonie]

Well Guys/Gals i did a 25gal water change in my tank, i clean the inside of the glass of alge and now every 3hrs or so a thin layer is back, and my sand is turning a brown color. If i did 25gal change and my tank is a 120 with 70lbs of rock, woud that really start a small cycle?? all my lvls are ok, shrimp and anemones are doing great still.

 

[farslayer]

If you would, post your levels. How long have you had that anemone? If you're getting algae in just a few hours, something is absolutely wrong.

 

[capschamp]

if you did the water change with tap water your algae problem is not going to go away.

 

[farslayer]

Originally Posted by capschamp
if you did the water change with tap water your algae problem is not going to go away.
Agreed. You're feeding the algae likely. But I'd still like to see your water parameters, something is off, has to be.

 

[mommafishinmd]

I am sorry about your loss.

Unlike some I feel as my fish are part of my family. I name all of our fish (although hubby thinks I am crazy )

Our tap water is the best I have ever seen in my life, we tested it when we moved in and it is like spring water not a drop of anything in it. But we still use RO water.
I hope your tank can recover from this. Good Luck

 

[srfisher17]

I'll skip the tap water debate; but if you DO use it--remember that stress coat will slow down, if not altogether stop, protein skimming. Just use a simple dechlorinater. You can buy a pound of sodium thiosulphate, mix it with a gallon of DI(a lifetime supply)--then use 1 drop per gallon.

 

[lesleybird]

Are you sure he did not use untreated tap water for top offs? The amount use in just thawing food would not be enough to kill your fish imo.