Help! All Fish Dying Quickly

deejeff442

Active Member
a check valve has rubber as a stopper and the saltwater will eat it away pretty fast.how old is the check valve?
i tried that once and it failed a few months in.
 

mr&mrs.o

Member
Well, it was a part of the setup when we got it...so not sure how old it is.
However, we also have other valves in the plumbing that could be shut off once the problem is noticed or if we're here and it fails.
I guess we have to hope for the best on that one or make sure we test it sometimes.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Not all check valves use rubber to form a watertight seal check which ones your sytem uses But you must move your returns to the top of your tank IMO. Goggle Flexible Ball Socket Joint Tubing it is a very straight forward operation
 

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
Just out of curiosity, did you also check for stray voltage? Some people have had an issue with voltage and the smaller koralias. Also do you have a heater in your sump? is it cracked, or is there water in he heater itself? I'm just sayin', cause this happened to my aunt once and just about everything in the tank. The electric shock only happened once before the saftey tripped, but it was powerful enough to kill almost everything over the space of a couple days.
Obviously, don't use your hand to test. Get a multimeter and check it out.
And by the way......so sorry for your loss!
 

rlablan

Active Member
My thought also was voltage. Is your tank grounded? I am not expert but I hear that can cause problem. Sorry about your poor fishes.
 

deejeff442

Active Member
i would assume she put her hand in there to get the dead fish out ,she would have felt the voltage.
joe,i have never seen a check valve that isnt made with a rubber seal or metal.what other kind is there?
i just wouldnt trust that set up.180 gallons on the floor .
one time i reached in my 150 gallon and turned the durso pipe i broke the seal by the time i could tighten it back up half the tank was on the floor.
luckilly the tank was on the wall between the gararge and the water went under the wall into the gararge .still a big mess.
 

mr&mrs.o

Member
I think we'll leave the returns for now and hope nothing crazy ever happens.
We didn't consider the voltage, and didn't feel anything when removed the fish. But we'll look at the heater just to be sure.
We also ordered the Koralias last night. We decided to add them just to make sure we have plenty of water flow.
We just feel like we'll never feel better about this since it's pretty much our fault. Lesson learned but it's just heartbreaking :(
 

scsinet

Active Member
Current leaks in the tank are possible, but it's unlikely that it is harming your fish.
"Stray voltage" does happen from time to time, but most people will tell you that they discovered it by feeling a shock in the water, but their fish showed no signs of problems. To be sure, if the current is strong enough to affect the fish, you'll definitely feel a shock if you put your hand in the water. In the end, it's more myth and fiction than anything else, and IMO most times when it's blamed for fish loss, it was never actually the problem.
Feel free to inspect your equipment, but I'd look elsewhere before concluding that your problem is such.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
joe,i have never seen a check valve that isnt made with a rubber seal or metal.what other kind is there?
deejeff I believe you can get check valves that use nylon or ceramics to produce the seal I know these company’s make check valves that are non corrosive . Cepex Ball Check Valves , Hayward Polypropylene True Union Ball Check Valves and Nibco Chemtrol True Union Ball Check Valves
 

deejeff442

Active Member
wish i knew that when i did my experiment.
i put the return pipe in the tank a check valve so i could run a return opening half way in the tank and then at the top.
the rubber disinigrated in a couple months.also it took away from the pump having to push the valve open.
i am surprised on a return line it would work because the water has to have eneough pressure to open the valve spring.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
My good friend I learned the hard way. If you look into check valves with a flapper type system and non corrosive parts you need not worry about excessive pressure to get influent
 

mr&mrs.o

Member
Hi Again Everyone
We have done two water changes and checked parameters again last night. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 pH 8.4. We have put the clownfish back in the tank as everything seemed to be better. However, they aren't acting "normal". They usually swim around some and stay up higher. Right now they are swimming down near and around the rocks and they're not swimming as "actively" as usual. (They usually have a wobble to their swim...but now they're just slowly moving along without a wobble.) The larger one is definitely breathing hard but the other isn't really breathing hard.
If water parameter are checking good, does anyone have any idea what is causing this?? Is there something we're not seeing?
P.S. We also moved the powerheads back up higher to agitate the water more. The bubbles that used to come up from the rock (which stopped when the powerheads were lowered) are back. The Koralia has been moved out from the corner. The two new ones are still on the way. But I truly do not believe it is lack of oxygen at this point as the conditions all appear to be back to normal and there are only these two fish in the tank.
 

florida joe

Well-Known Member
The bubbles that used to come up from the rock (which stopped when the powerheads were lowered) are back
can you tell me a little more about this
 

mr&mrs.o

Member
The picture below kinda shows. Originally the 4 powerheads were up higher in the tank....and we always had bubbles all over the rock. And you would see bubbles that would float up off the rocks. But then my husband moved the powerheads lower and these bubbles stopped (on the rock and floating up). Now that the powerheads have been moved back up, it's back to the bubbles. The powerheads were moved down not too long before all the fish died. We're thinking that moving them down really lowered the amount of agitation in the tank or at the top. All was well prior to the powerheads being lowered.
 

mr&mrs.o

Member
I've been sitting here reading about our BTA as well. From the time we got it, it's always been small. When we introduced it into the tank, it chose to live under a rock rather than in the light. Any time it moved, it would choose somewhere under a rock. About a week and a half ago, it moved further out into the light but still on the same rock. We took this to be a good sign that hopefully it would begin to stay in the light and grow. But for the past few days, it's been closed up. It does not appear to be expelliing anything and there is no odor. It is turned toward the back of the tank so I can't really see it's mouth. But from what I can tell, it just seems closed up and not the mouth gaping open. Should we go ahead and remove it? Could this be what is causing all the problems?
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by Mr&Mrs.O
http:///forum/post/3112018
I've been sitting here reading about our BTA as well. From the time we got it, it's always been small. When we introduced it into the tank, it chose to live under a rock rather than in the light. Any time it moved, it would choose somewhere under a rock. About a week and a half ago, it moved further out into the light but still on the same rock. We took this to be a good sign that hopefully it would begin to stay in the light and grow. But for the past few days, it's been closed up. It does not appear to be expelliing anything and there is no odor. It is turned toward the back of the tank so I can't really see it's mouth. But from what I can tell, it just seems closed up and not the mouth gaping open. Should we go ahead and remove it? Could this be what is causing all the problems?

A dead anemone looks like stringy snot…what you describe is normal.
 
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