Every single one of my fish is now dead...

[dottiekh]

Ok, I honestly have no idea what is going on, how to fix it, or what to do now. I'll try to keep this to the point, but I know you all will need some background. I have a 125 gal fowlr. I set it up on Jan. 2 of this year. I cycled months ago and was going along perfectly. I keep a log of my water, as I look back it's been really consistant. As of this morning my levels are:
ph 8.2
amm 0 (never higher than .25 and only on two or thee occassions, prior to water changes)
trite 0
trates 10
sg 24
temp 80
I use a canister filter that is made for a 200 gal tank and I have a protein skimmer
I haven't added any new fish, rock, etc in the last two months. What I HAD in my tank was:
1 df puffer (7 inches head to tail)
1 niger trigger (juvi)
1 grouper (can't remember kind, juvi)
4 damsels
1 green bird wrasse (5 inches)
clean up crew
1 pencil urchin
1 pin cushion urchin
2 pieces of orange tree sponge
1 pink cucumber
1 sandsifting cucumber
Now, here's what has happened...
Around two weeks ago my puffer started acting "funny". He wasn't eating and he was staying hidden 90% of the time. I've had my puffer since Jan 7, so actually survived my cycle (my first of many mistakes). He was a very active fish so this was definitely something I noticed immeditely. All of my other fish acted fine and my inverts were doing great. I tested my water, saw nothing alarming, did several 30 and 40% water changes. He didn't get any better. Last Tuesday I came home to a dead grouper. Last Wednesday my puffer died. Last Friday my wrasse died. I removed my sponges ( I read that red tree sponges can release toxins when dying, so just to be on the safe side I removed mine). Yesterday my trigger died along with my damsels. I did 40% water changes on Wed evening after puffer died, and another water change after wrasse died.
My urchins seem to be doing fine. The pin cushion is all over the place. My crabs and snails are very active.
Today I was just staring at my tank, trying to figure out what the devil had happened. I noticed somethings that I hadn't really seen or thought about before.
Also around two weeks ago, my daughter noticed a transparent "blob", very small, stuck to the front of my tank. Since she noticed it, it has literally tripled in size. You can now see the center of him, see a "blood vessel", and it has antenna and eyes. It hasn't moved any yet, but I can see the antenna and eyes moving. I have checked the hitchhikes site and can't find anything close to it.
While staring at him today, I noticed all of the tiny little bugs crawling around him and on the sand an lr. No idea what they are, where they came from or how long they have been there.
I also have several tiny feather dusters and tiny anemones. I am assuming they came in on the lr. They are thriving.
I am lost. I LOVED my fish. Right now I'm just going to sit back at see what happens to my levels. I would love to hear your thoughts on what could be my killer. I am frustrated to the point of just selling everything and being done with it. I put SOOO much time and effort in it, but everything is dead despite that. Please, any ideas would be great. What killed my fish?
Thank you all...

 

[saltfan]

Sorry to hear that. I haven't got a clue for you.

BUMP

 

[dottiekh]

I appreciate that. I can not tell you how much it sucks! (sorry for the language) I really loved them, especially my puffer. He was awsome. I've actually posted his pic on this site several times.

 

[seannmelly]

do you know the locations of your cucumbers?? had a guy tell me that if he didnt catch it in time, he would have lost his whole tank due to his cucumber getting stuck in his power head. he said it released toxins into his water and had to do as huge water change. idk if this is what happened to you.

 

[dottiekh]

I just checked on them. The sand sifter is agaisnt one of my shells and the pink one is behind some of my lr. They have both moved since yesterday, so I am assuming they are alive. How can I tell? Since the puffer first showed signs of not being well, I have done three or four 40% water changes. If the cucumbers are the problem, I will take them out. I appreciate the suggestion, there certainly isn't much left that could be causing the problem

 

[oreo12]

did anyone clean the outside of the tank with any kind of spray? Or has anyone sprayed any air freshener around the tank. Could someone have maybe spelled anything into the tank? Just some thoughts. Sorry for your lose I hope you won't give up. I can rember back about 20 years ago when I set up my first 55 gal salt tank I had a nice set up with nice fish someone gave me a fish for a gift and the next day everything was dead so I know how It feels to lose everything. But I have stuck with it and realy enjoy my tanks. Well I did sell everything off once about 12 years ago. But now I am back and have been for about 10 years.

 

[maxalmon]

Aren't cucumbers very sesitive to water quality? I would think that if there was a water problem, they would be the first to show signs of distress and it's when they die they turn their stomachs inside out and release toxins. You done so many water changes that I would think anything would be so diluted that it would be minor. I would track them down and make sure they are alive. Whatever that "blob" is would concern me as the time line is very odd that your problems started when this thing appeared, I have no clue what to tell you, but maybe it was a toxic hitchhiker that came in on LR and has now either died or is causing problems or there is some external source for polution, burning strong scented candles, pledge, I duno
...........................................................................................................................This happened to me once, many years ago I had an awesome fish only tank, it had been up for a few years and everything was perfect, then we threw a party and had those sterno burning heaters under the warming dishes and the table was about 4 feet from my tank, next morning the puffer was the first to go and then it was like a cascade effect with one by one my fish dying off, nothing I could do would save them, figured out it was the fumes from the sterno things,.....Good luck, wish I could help you more..

 

[turningtim]

Wow! thats rough! So sorry to hear that! My first thought was as others have stated, an outside polutant of some sort. Maybe something on your hands, in the air.What your water source? Something had to change. I would agree with Max, I always thought that inverts where more sensitive then fish and would have suspected them to be effected first.
Very Strange.......
So sorry
Tim
BTW Don't give up you'll miss it and so will the family.

 

[dottiekh]

I really appreciate everyone responding. I was thinking the same thing about the inverts. I could not understand why my inverts seem to be thriving, but my fish are all dead. It's just so frustrating. My tank is in my playroom, it's a really wide and high tank rather than skinny and long. So my kids couldn't have reached it, the oldest is not yet seven. I'm always really careful about outside "stuff", but maybe I missed something. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I'm open to any ideas. I guess right now I'm just going to let my tank do whatever it is doing, keep testing the water and see what happens. I just don't want it to happen again, but if I can't figure out what happened, then I can't prevent it

 

[sleasia]

dottiekh...I read through these threads fast. Your parameters seem fine but I did not notice if you said you are using r/o water or not. If you use tap water this may be the problem. Did you check alkalinity as well? So sorry for the loss of your fish....I don't think you should give up if you love the hobby. You will likely figure out what happened from members on this site and will be able to correct it.

 

[dottiekh]

I have used tap water since set up. I know it's not recommended, but r/o is not readily available for me. I did buy an additive when I set my tank up that you are supposed to add whenever you add tap water, and it's supposed to "make it safe". I can understand where that would be questioned, however, it's what I've been doing since day one. I really do appreciate your help...

 

[sleasia]

Also your tank is only 4 months old. It may not have had an adequate biological filter yet to handle the amount of fish/inverts/corals....I'm doing FOWLR and inverts, so I shouldn't give reef advice, but I'm not convinced that cannister filters do much on their own. If I were you I would consider going with a wet dry, or tons of live rock and a refugium. You can build a cheap wet dry yourself which is much more efficient than any you can buy

 

[sleasia]

Ok... I had this same problem for my first two years...when Ihad one 55 gal goldfish tankand one 55 gal saltwater tank. I used eheim cannister wet drys on both tanks and tap water. My fish would live 4 or 5 months at the most then suddenly take ill and die. I thought I was filtering my tap water because I filtered it through carbon etc. before using it....but unfortunately it took me a while to realize that something in my tapwater was killing my fish...and it was something carbon was not removing. Once I put out the $200 bucks for an R/O unit (I got the Typhoon III), and I ran a uv 24/ 7, Qt'd all my fish for 3-4 weeks, my problems were solved. I suspect the tap water is your main problem....some people just have really bad tap water (not for people, but for fish). I had alot of other start up problems one of which was buying a boxfish which eventually got sick and spewed it s poison and wiped out my tank...so I was near giving up to a couple of times. But there are alot of very knowledgeable people on this web site who can get you back

on the right track.

 

[my way]

Originally Posted by sleasia
Also your tank is only 4 months old. It may not have had an adequate biological filter yet to handle the amount of fish/inverts/corals....I'm doing FOWLR and inverts, so I shouldn't give reef advice, but I'm not convinced that cannister filters do much on their own. If I were you I would consider going with a wet dry, or tons of live rock and a refugium. You can build a cheap wet dry yourself which is much more efficient than any you can buy
If this was the cause the Ammonia a Nitrite levels would be up. So I doub't that could be the problem. My guess is a parasite that was not noticed or as stated before something airborne contaminating the tank. I used to service tanks for a store I dealt with and I had one tank in the lobby of a company that I could not keep anything alive for more than a few weeks. I asked numerous times about the possiblity of the cleaning company getting something into it. I was told no way, well I puprosely scheduled to service it on the same day the cleaning company was there and sure enough they were spraying chemicals all over the area where the tank was and it was getting sucked into the canopy of the tank.

 

[dottiekh]

Ok. I really appreicate you all taking an interest and trying to help. My husband does not know the full extent of death in my tank yet. I am a stay at home mom of three, and my children tend not to pay very well, so he has financed this little hobby of mine from the beginning. I can't really vent to him, and he certainly can't tell me what has happened.
My trites have remained zero through out, my trates haven't gone above 10 and my amm hasn't gone above .25. I'm racking my brain trying to think of any contaniments it could be, and I'm coming up with nothing. I'm maybe leaning towards some type of parasite? My puffer was sick for a full two weeks before he died, then everything else followed. It's definitely the quickest way to flush $300.
I'm feeling better, still really frustrated at the intangible. I deal better with facts, then I can work with them. I'm not good with ghosts. Again, thank you all for your help...

 

[promisetbg]

What do you have in the tank for circulation? It is possible the tank is short of oxygen. Do you have a glass cover on the tank? Is the temp fluctuating?

 

[dottiekh]

Originally Posted by promisetbg
What do you have in the tank for circulation? It is possible the tank is short of oxygen. Do you have a glass cover on the tank? Is the temp fluctuating?

I have three powerheads in addition to the one on my skimmer. I had some issues when I first set my tank up, and people on this site helped me out. One of the things I had to do was increase water movement, so I bought a couple of heavy duty powerheads. I'm fairly confindent that isn't it. I have a 3/4 glass cover on the tank. One side is covered, the other side is half covered. I had to allow room for my skimmer, filter, etc.
Also, nothing has changed. If oxygen were the problem, I feel like it would have been a problem from the get go, and my inverts are doing well. As well as the mystery critter that is growing :thinking:
Please don't think I am shooting down your idea, I really appreicate your help. It's just that I've tried to think of everything it could be, so I've ruled out everything I can.

 

[maxalmon]

How old are your children, do they watch you service the tank and maybe while you weren't looking they try and "help" out by doing something. There was a prior post about a youn girl who put some bubblebath in her dads tank because she thought she was helping to clean it. A friend contaminated his tank, he had a show tank and had to really stretch to reach the bottom and his deoderant got into the tank, weird, yes.......One thing that puzzles me is you mentioned that you Am never goes above .25, it should spike and then never go up unless there is a problem, should always be 0.... Is there a canopy? and is it child safe? Did you find the cucumbers? Whats alive in your tank as of today? Did you remove the blob? If you use tap water I would leave it in a bucket for a few days with powerhead to circulate it.

 

[maxalmon]

I would get ride of the mystery critter or put it in a QT all by it's self....How were the fish acting and what did they look like before they died. A question for the experts, would a parasite cause the fish to die, but not the inverts? Sorry to ask so many questions but there is a lot for everyone to learn for this, hopefully with enough brainstorming we can figure it out

 

[turningtim]

A couple years ago I had a cichlid tank and on that message board. Someone had a similar problem and what they came up with was the tap water. The public utility had changed something in the water system and this changed the water quaility. If I'm not mistaken they were added chorimines (sp?) to the water. As well there were several posts about back flushing the main lines and cleaning the public water system. The result was that even though a water conditioner was being used it did not remedy the new water additives or the public water cleaning process.
This is just from memory and may not be the problem but I would maybe call the water company and see if any changes had been made to the water.
We as hobbists can only test for so much and take for granted that our water will stay consistant but if the base water changes so will everything else.
Just a thought
HTH
Tim