Dead Inverts

[blemmy_guy]

on my 125 gal tank, rescently i noticed all my snails, crabs and shrimp were dieing off, i thought it might be a rogue fish. Well i replaced several snails with out a thought to it. Next day they were all dead. So i checked every chemical known to man, starting with Copper, even though ive never used it in the tank, but it was totally normal. All other tesats are normal. So i buy some more put themm in the tank, and with in 20 minutes there all dead! It was like they were allergis to the rock and sand, it was really wild!. Any ideas what could be causing this??? Thanx
Todd

 

[beth]

What do you consider "normal"? Also, what about pH and salinity, temp? What is your acclimation procedure?
Blemmy G, I'm going to move your topic over to the reef forum since your problem is not a fish disease. Good luck.

 

[tnn1567]

These inverts can be sensative to ph swings. Could you list your parameters?
ph?
ammonia?
nitrate?
salanity?
temp?

 

[blemmy_guy]

The tank is 3 yrs old,never had any problems like this, salinity is kept at 1.024, ph at 8.2 to 8.3, temp 80 degrees, trates and trites at 0, amonia at o, Phos. at 0.1 calcium about 440. I do a weekly 5 gal water change, protein skimmer, wet/dry filtration, no carbon, 175 lbs live rock 125 lbs sand. Fish are Not affected at all. i drip acclimate everything that goes into my tanks, including the snails. Im not a newbie to this. But this has got me stumped. I have 4 tanks now and a 12 gal. nano with sea horses. And im Lost. Help!!
Todd

 

[blemmy_guy]

bump

 

[laddy]

Do you think they get enough to eat?

 

[bcott]

A while ago, I lost all of my inverts and I figured out my calcium level was very low and killed all of them. I added a calcium buffer and that worked.

 

[laddy]

He states his Ca is 400, that's plenty. I would think infection of some kind however not sure what would cause a total die off of inverts. Temp swing of some kind?

 

[blemmy_guy]

Nope there dieing in less than 30 minutes, its just about got to be chemical of some sorts?
Todd

 

[laddy]

30 min?

 

[candycane]

What do you have in your tank? And I mean that I need a complete list. Hopefully no Sea Hares or Boxfish to start out with.

 

[bsd230]

Have you actually tested your water for copper? Have you added any fish that you may have accidentally added the water from the bag? Some fish store treat their water with copper. It definitely sounds like some type of chemical. I would maybe do some 20% water changes a few days apart and maybe add a carbon filter to absorb what ever is in the water and see what happens.

 

[blemmy_guy]

Yes i have double checked it for copper, havnt added any new fish. And no sea hares, its pretty mucha fowlr at this point, and its looking bad with No clean up crew. Ill try the water change although i do a 20 % monthly on it. And im extremely carefull about Not getting water from lfs in my tanks. That is a good point though. But like i said, i didnt even own a copper test kit till yesterday. I figured that was what it was going to be. But its as clear as it can be. Ill add a boat load of carbon tomrrow and see if that helps any, and do a 30% water change. anything else wiould be helpfull. Thanx for all the responses!
Todd

 

[kogle]

I know you said you tested for copper but I had this same problem although mine weren't dieing in 30 minutes. I had a mass die off of inverts which all but crashed the whole tank. I was stumped. Everything tested fine. I all but gave up on the tank. One day as I was feeding I noticed a penny sitting on the sand in the back corner of the tank behind some rock. Due to the state of the penny it had been in there for a bit. Copper tested 0 but I took the penny out and for the past few months everything is slowly recovering.
Just a thought...
How about stray voltage?

 

[fender]

Try a different copper test kit. Some of them are junk or only detect certain "types" of copper.