Flame angel died.. could this be reason?...

[the croc hunter]

Hi all...
This morning I awoke to a dead flame angel in my 60 gal. reef. I was late for work so I did a quick ammonia test and it was a little high.... like .1... Now.... I took my skimmer off last sunday and replaced it with a hang on ECOSYSTEM macro aldae filter... Could that have something to do with it? I figured that after 4 days, if the ammonia was going to spike, it would be more than .1.... the fish dead all night could have caused that, right? Could it be that it was just the Angels time to go? I had him for a year or so... Full grown when I got him.... Please help me if you can!

 

[heavenly damsel]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[carrie1429]

Were your water parameters maybe too high before he died? And did he seem fine the day before he died?

 

[fallen04]

its not the change in filters because you still had the ls and lr in there and the eco wont cause any ammo. it just runs and becomes efficient as the algae grows. you didnt do anything wrong.

 

[the croc hunter]

Im just scared because I havent had a FISH die in years.... I moved houses 8 months ago and the new house wasnt grounded.. Killed half the tank befopre I figued out the problem.. But I resolved that and I was just thinking things were getting better and stablized then POW.. I wake up to a dead fish.....
He was fine yesterday and ate last night... I just dont know what happened...

 

[irishstout]

I am sorry for your loss. As stated above, changing filters wouldn't be the cause for the death. Your LR and LS should have kept things in check. I do have a question for you. If your house wasn't grounded, how did you resolve the problem. I'm having a similar problem myself.

 

[the croc hunter]

Since it wasnt grounded.. I did 2 things...
this one is the more efficient:
I found the cold water pipe outside my house... where the hose nozzel is.. I sanded it down to the copper and attached copper wire to it. I then baught a grounding probe and put it in my tank. I ran the copper wire into the house and attached ot to the grounding end on the probe.
I also hammered a copper pipe 6 feet into the ground and ran another wire from it to the probe.
Hope this helps..
I might not have been to clear... if you have and ?s, just ask

 

[irishstout]

Thanks for the info. Now all I have to do is find a way to do that from the second story of an apartment complex Hopefully a wire running into our window won't draw to much attention

 

[me-n-my-fish]

If you can find any metal pipe in your apartment, it should run to ground. Just start looking. There has to be a ground somewhere......code.

 

[beth]

Removing the skimmer could have caused the problem. Your tank is basically used to running with a certain equalized bioload given the filtration devises [skimmer, LR, LS] that you have going. You removed a skimmer, which is a major filtration device, and basically replaced it with nothing, as the eco is not a viable filter choice at this point because you just set it up. I'd suggest that in the future, before completely eliminating one filtration mode, that you have your alternative [and in this case, established] filter in place and at optimal performance before completely eliminating the filters that you have already have in place. Also, when you shut down a filter completely, you need to monitor your water quality closely to see what effect the shut down is going to have on your system.
In the absence of any sign of a problem with the fish, I would think that this was the problem; however, if the fish did “just die”, then that alone could cause the ammonia spike.
My suggestion would be to reinstate the skimmer until your ecosystem is developed.

 

[anthony812]

hey croc hunter it might be the fish died of cyanide poisoning? i remember some people use cyanide to catch fish and some of tehm use the cyanide in their body and probly die with like 1-4 months? correct me if i'm wrong

 

[pufferfreak]

I heard the same thing about the cyanide but i heard that they last from 1 month to a year.

 

[fallen04]

skimmers are a personal point. i have tanks ranging from 18 to 240 and i have never run a skimmer on any of them. as long as you have algae in the eco filter its working and since you have to put in calurpa to set up the filter it starts working from the get go. i want to put a eco on my 240 but i am planning on getting rid of my tanks. i have just lost interest in them, they are more of a pain then a joy.