ronwhite
New Member
Hi guys,
My father has been a saltwater enthusiast since 1972. About 4 years ago he setup a new tank, and everything was stable for well over a year. He slowly got the population of fish up to where he wanted it, and without warning all of the fish died off. He's had several times where a few fish have died off, but never a mass extinction like this; also, it was always due to parasites.
Here are the specs of the tank (2 days before and after the extinction):
Size: 90 gallon
Filtration: Marineland 360 canister filter and a protein skimmer
Coral: 6 pieces of natural coral, and 3 inches of crushed coral for a base
Fish: red coris wrasse, majestic angelish, volitans lion, blue damsil, niger triggerfish, and yellow tang (in that order)
Amonia: 0
Nitrate: 0-12.5
Nitrite: <.3
pH: 8.2
Phosphate: .25
Alkalinity/Salinity: 1.023
Temp: 76-78 F
The story: He fed them and they looked okay in the morning (8am). At 1pm he noticed that the angelfish was gasping. He looked at the temp and salinity (normal), and then performed additional tests (also normal). He decided to do two partial water changes as a precaution, and then within an hour all of the other fish started to gasp. Shortly after, the angel fish died.
At that point, he mixed up new salt water in a 5gal pail, and placed the fish in it (temp and water quality checked out fine). The fish just seemed to worsen, and then within 6 hours all of them had died.
The water clarity never became cloudy; it was as clear as crystal.
He told me he suspects that it's something about the water supply, because the fish were acting as if they were poisoned. He just wants to try and narrow down what else he could be testing for, to prevent this in the future.
If you guys need any additional information or have any ideas on what could have happened, please ask/share.
Thanks!
My father has been a saltwater enthusiast since 1972. About 4 years ago he setup a new tank, and everything was stable for well over a year. He slowly got the population of fish up to where he wanted it, and without warning all of the fish died off. He's had several times where a few fish have died off, but never a mass extinction like this; also, it was always due to parasites.
Here are the specs of the tank (2 days before and after the extinction):
Size: 90 gallon
Filtration: Marineland 360 canister filter and a protein skimmer
Coral: 6 pieces of natural coral, and 3 inches of crushed coral for a base
Fish: red coris wrasse, majestic angelish, volitans lion, blue damsil, niger triggerfish, and yellow tang (in that order)
Amonia: 0
Nitrate: 0-12.5
Nitrite: <.3
pH: 8.2
Phosphate: .25
Alkalinity/Salinity: 1.023
Temp: 76-78 F
The story: He fed them and they looked okay in the morning (8am). At 1pm he noticed that the angelfish was gasping. He looked at the temp and salinity (normal), and then performed additional tests (also normal). He decided to do two partial water changes as a precaution, and then within an hour all of the other fish started to gasp. Shortly after, the angel fish died.
At that point, he mixed up new salt water in a 5gal pail, and placed the fish in it (temp and water quality checked out fine). The fish just seemed to worsen, and then within 6 hours all of them had died.
The water clarity never became cloudy; it was as clear as crystal.
He told me he suspects that it's something about the water supply, because the fish were acting as if they were poisoned. He just wants to try and narrow down what else he could be testing for, to prevent this in the future.
If you guys need any additional information or have any ideas on what could have happened, please ask/share.
Thanks!
