Fish dying, I'm an idiot.

[mag395]

I have 2 damsels that appear to be gasping. Their gills are opening and closing very fast. I've seen this before, just before a fish dies. At the risk of sounding cold hearted, my damsels are expendable. Everything else in the tank is not. I don't know whats causing it and finding the problem is more important. It's a 30 gallon tank.
My levels:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 30 ppm
SG: 1.022
40lbs LR
30lbs LS
I recently moved from an eclipse setup to a DIY hood and sump. The filter wasn't in opperation for about 12 hours. The protein skimmer wasn't in opperation for about 4 hours. This morning when I saw the damsels, I went and got a HOB filter to filter the tank while I finish the new filter. I underestimated the difficulty of building a filter. Also, I am aware that filters are required for an aquarium.
Any advice on how to keep my fish alive in the meantime would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ktsdad]

Your live rock and live sand is your main "filtration" for that tank.
As long as you have a power head or something moving the water around your rock you have a "filter" in your tank.
4 hours without a skimmer will not kill your fish, 12 hours without water movement would not be desireable though.

 

[mag395]

I had a powerhead in there. It was off for about 1 hr yesterday, I didn't know it was off. But in the time the fish were having problems, I had about 460gph turnover rate in the tank. (15x)
The water is also cloudy.

 

[ktsdad]

Originally Posted by mag395
I had a powerhead in there. It was off for about 1 hr yesterday, I didn't know it was off. But in the time the fish were having problems, I had about 460gph turnover rate in the tank. (15x)
The water is also cloudy.
1 hour without water movement won't kill anything either. We have power outages that last for 2-3 hours at a time, nothing dies.
I would be concerned about the cloudy water. Need to find the cause and fix that.

 

[alyssia]

How many fish are in there?

 

[mag395]

Livestock:
2 false perc clowns
2 damsels
1 cleaner shrimp
3 peppermint shrimp
15 hermits
5 snails
3 featherdusters
I know 4 fish is high on the bioload. Do you think that is the problem? They have been all together for about a week with no problems.

 

[konrade]

How old is your tank, and damsels breath pretty fast. It seems like every one that I have seen breaths hard, they are really hyper. Anyways, i highly doubt it is your bio load, and your readings look fine.

 

[sinner's girl]

when did you add the damsel, you need to do a water change, but nitrate at 40 won't kill damsels. HOw are the clowns acting?
is anyone picking on anyone?
How are your shrimp? IME, if shrimp are good, it's not the water...
the filter and skimmer being off wouldn't do it that fast...same with the ph not being on for an hour.
check your other levels, ph, ca, alk ect...when was your last water change?
btw, your sg is low for inverts, you should slowly bring it up some....

 

[mag395]

tank is about 2 months old
the clowns are acting ok, breathing harder than normal tho
no one's picking on anyone
the shrimp seem fine, business as usual
ph is 8.2 and alk is "high". I don't have a Ca test.
last waterchange was about 2 days ago.
yeah, the sg is low because I had to add more water to they system in a hurry to complete the sump/siphon system.
the 36w UV is now running as well

 

[symon]

Sounds like you have alot going on with your tank, have you disturbed the LR or LS, that may be that cause of the cloudiness! My clowns get all annoyed when i mess with the tank to much! They have even started swatting at me! I think it's funny!

 

[mag395]

this morning the clowns and 1 damsel are breathing normally. My 4 stripe is still breathing kinda hard but not as hard as yesterday.

 

[sinner's girl]

why is alk high? find out... and how high? mine was super high and killed a few inverts (I don't have fish) Was your last water change with a new bag of salt? you should always test a new bag of salt before using it...
(my last bag of IO gave me high alk).

 

[hot883]

How are you doing top offs? With RO water or saltwater? What do you use to check the s.g.?

 

[mag395]

for top offs I use RO. I use a hydrometer to check sg. I'm not sure why it is high. The dropper test I have only has 3 levels, low, normal, and high. My dip test shows a color that isn't even on the scale. Maybe I should go get a better alk test.

 

[mag395]

for top offs I use RO. I use a hydrometer to check sg. I'm not sure why it is high. The dropper test I have only has 3 levels, low, normal, and high. My dip test shows a color that isn't even on the scale. Maybe I should go get a better alk test. My last waterchange wasn't with a new bag of salt, I had been using it for about 2 weeks.
The water is back to crystal clear and the fish have relaxed. I think something is dead because I can see these strings that look like cob-webs but feel like mucous.
Anyone know what they are?