Help

[nine28girl]

Somehow my pump got shut down last night. I lost one fish and more could go at any sec. I woke up and all the living ones where swiming in one corner at the top of the tank. The temp is ok but the ph dropped and I don't know what to do. Why would the Ph drop???
Please help.
Sam

 

[gmidd]

If you have a QT tank you should move them.
What is the Ph level? And are your other levels fine? Is the pump up a going again? Just because the Pump shut off I wouldn't think it would effect the Ph... I would think it could cause a slight jump in the Ammonia depending on how many fish you have.

 

[watson3]

Your pump "somehow" shutting down should not have affected just one fish..If it were a short, they would more than likely all be gone..Did you check anything besides temp and ph?

 

[saltynoob]

I have a similar issue. My PH dropped from 8.3 last night to 8.0/7.9 this morning.
I added a small 1" Dori fish to the tank last night after checking my water and aclimating it using the drip meathod.
The skimmer I have is a current Nano Fusion and I have been having alot of issues with it creating small little micro bubbles so I decided to shut it off last night and see how things went.
This morning my Yellow Goby Watchman was a white clear almost goby and was looking rather sad.
Everything else seemed to be fine. I decided to replace both my skimmer filter as well as my main hang over filter. Cranked the skimmer back on as well.
He seems to have rebounded in about an hour he is yellow again and seems peacful.
I have no idea what is going on with the PH though. All other levels were good except my KH (Carbonate Hardness) has fallen from 10 last week to 7 yesterday and today. I use nothing but r/o water from the lfs.
Any ideas? :notsure:
Equipment: 20 gallon tank, 20 lbs LR, 20 lbs LS, Fussion Nano Skimmer, Regent Aqua Tech 10-20 Power Filter, 900 Power Head w/ filter, Sattellite 24" 65w 10K / 460 Actinic PC Light, 200w Stealth Heater.

 

[watson3]

Originally Posted by SaltyNoob
I added a small 1" Dori fish to the tank last night after checking my water and aclimating it using the drip meathod.
IS this all in your 20g ?

 

[nine28girl]

Well Ph is back up to 8.2 and things appear to be getting back to normal. Pump is working, fish are swiming etc. Looks like I lost my flame angel and more than likely my velvet wrasse. I am sick. I also found several red looking small worms dead on the sand and a ton of those tiny spinning things that live on the rocks. I am confused as to why they would be so affected???
Sam

 

[saltynoob]

Originally Posted by watson3
IS this all in your 20g ?
I have 2 turbo snails, 15 hermits, i scarlet red leg hermit, yellow watchman goby, and a chromis.

 

[nine28girl]

anyone?? I don't understand... why would ph drop and why would my cyclopeds and worms die??

 

[watson3]

Originally Posted by SaltyNoob
I have 2 turbo snails, 15 hermits, i scarlet red leg hermit, yellow watchman goby, and a chromis.
And a regal tang...Please start another thread asking if this is ok...

 

[hatessushi]

The pH drop is due to the non movement of the water so there was a loss of oxygen in the water thus drops the pH. One thing that keeps the pH up is movement of the water. When your pump stopped the water stopped moving and oxygen depleted. The biggest immediate issue when the pump is off is keeping the pH up. Also, a sudden large drop in pH could cause fish to die but especially invertibrates.
Also, someone suggested that if the pump was off that ammonia levels would rise. How is that? The only time ammonia levels would rise is if something was decomposing or the fish were excreting.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally Posted by Nine28girl
anyone?? I don't understand... why would ph drop and why would my cyclopeds and worms die??
pH always drops when the lights are off. Algae gives off oxygen during photsynthesis. At night, algae gives off CO2. This lowers your pH.
This is the reason many folks with refugiums run the lights opposite the display tank. So that there is always photosynthesis taking place to keep the pH from swinging.
How far did your pH swing? A move from 8.4 to 8.0 isn't unheard of.

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by 1journeyman
pH always drops when the lights are off. Algae gives off oxygen during photsynthesis. At night, algae gives off CO2. This lowers your pH.
This is the reason many folks with refugiums run the lights opposite the display tank. So that there is always photosynthesis taking place to keep the pH from swinging.
How far did your pH swing? A move from 8.4 to 8.0 isn't unheard of.
I forgot, lights can cause a drop to so a combination of lights off and no water movement could have caused a drastic drop and probably a large enough one to cause a huge problem.

 

[nine28girl]

Hi, thanks to all who responded. I really appreciate it. I now have a better understanding of what happened. The ph went from 8.4 to 8.1. It has now gone back up to 8.3 and seems to be holding. I lost my flame angel and may still lose my velvet wrasse. Everything else seems to be back to normal- not sure what the fallout will be regarding the corals and anenomes yet. I guess I will have to wait and see. Do you think any of the cyclopeds or red worms lived? Also the dead Flame angel is behind my live rock and I am unable to reach it... any thoughts on this?
Thanks again,
Sam

 

[hatessushi]

Originally Posted by Nine28girl
Hi, thanks to all who responded. I really appreciate it. I now have a better understanding of what happened. The ph went from 8.4 to 8.1. It has now gone back up to 8.3 and seems to be holding. I lost my flame angel and may still lose my velvet wrasse. Everything else seems to be back to normal- not sure what the fallout will be regarding the corals and anenomes yet. I guess I will have to wait and see. Do you think any of the cyclopeds or red worms lived? Also the dead Flame angel is behind my live rock and I am unable to reach it... any thoughts on this?
Thanks again,
Sam
A change in pH from 8.4 to 8.1 would not cause the fish to die unless something else happened also. On it's own the only way pH would kill anything right away and not over time would be for the water to go from acidic to alkaly. That would mean you had to go below 7.0. But even a sudden drop from 8.3 to 7.5 could possible cause problems.
What are all of the parameters of your water? pH, temp, ammonia, nitrites, alkalinity, SG.
Did your temp change big time? Usually if the pump is off and wateris not moving the heater may stay off once it has heated the water around it. If your water dropped in temp 5 or 6 degrees might have helped problems along.

 

[uberlink]

Rearrange your rocks if necessary to remove the dead fish. It will almost certainly cause an ammonia spike as it decomposes, which could well harm your other tank inhabitants.
Sorry for your loss!
What happened (if anything) to your temperature while the pump was out? And how is your salinity, just for curiosity?

 

[nine28girl]

Okay here is where the chips fell ...
Ammonia .25
Nitrate 0
Nitrite .25
PH 8.4
The one dead Angel fish is still under a rock and as much as I want to get it out of there it is nearly impossible It is under the largest of my live rock - it's about a 50lb rock which has a bunch of corals etc on it I don't know what to do
Sam

 

[nine28girl]

Originally Posted by uberlink
Rearrange your rocks if necessary to remove the dead fish. It will almost certainly cause an ammonia spike as it decomposes, which could well harm your other tank inhabitants.
Sorry for your loss!
What happened (if anything) to your temperature while the pump was out? And how is your salinity, just for curiosity?

>sorry for your loss
Thanks
Temperature when I first saw it said 74 but once pump came on it went right to 78. I use a regular tank heater that is controlled by a seperate control box purchased at an ac/heat store (commercial grade) The part that senses the temperature is in the skimmer housing where the water flows. Which is weird because you would think the temperature would have went through the roof because the water in the housing was regular room temp because no flow and I didn't run heat last night (I like it cold when I sleep) and it got down to 40 something here. Not in the house of couse but it was pretty cold in here this morning. I don't get it at all - not logical to me.
Sam