Was this just a coincidence?

foxface88

foxface88

Member
Basically what happenend was, about 2 months ago I had a 40gal. tall tank with only 1 powerhead and the return flow from my canister filter. My tank at the time was mostly soft corals and a Few LPS. I started thinking I didnt have enough movement inside my tank so I ordered a Koralia evolution the 750gph and put it on the otherside of my tank and pointed it towards the glass so it would create more surface movement and not blast any corals, at the same time I had put in a piece of coral skeleton I had bought somewhere that looked pretty neat. I had boiled the skeleton and rinced it off really well to try and get it as clean as possible. The next day when I came home from work two of my fish were dead :( a coral beauty and a juevenile yellow tail blue tang. the coral beauty I had for almost a year and the blue tang for at least 4 months. I figured it was the piece of coral so I took it out immediately and did a 25% water change. At that time my tank perams where:
amonia/nitirites: 0
Nitrates: 20
pH: 8
Calcium: 480
DKH: 10
SG: 1.025
After that happend I got rid of the canister filter and built a sump/refugium. I added a protein skimmer, 2x32 watt HOT5's, Chaeto and started dosing carbon to reduce phosphates and nitrates. The magnite on the back of my old K2 powerhead lost its attraction to the other cuz I set it next to another magnite and it reversed on me
so i bought another evolution and replaced the K2 with it. When I came home last night two more fish were dead :( they were fairly new i bought them to replace the other. This time I went with fish that were more approriate for my tank. A sixline wrasse and a neon goby. A few of my soft corals were shrunk up like they were in shock. The weird part.. I had a fire shrimp I had just bought the day before in there still alive and my maxima clam was open and doing fine, my SPS all had there polyps out and so did my LPS and other soft corals. My ocellaris pair acted like nothing happened, and the royal gramma was acting weird and wouldnt come out of its cave. I checked my water and then did a 25% water change ( I use RODI water from my LFS). My water params last night were:
amonia/nitirites: 0
Nitrates: 0
pH: 8
Calcium: 440
Dkh: 9
SG: 1.024
The best water I have had in the tank since I started this hobby 1.5 years ago. so was just curious if there is something i'm not doing before I put the powerheads in, I rinse them off really well with warm water before I put them in, or if this is just a coincidence.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
WOW......I have never had anything like that happen....
My first though was you were not rinsing....LOL...BUT then you said you do......I have no clue
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by FoxFace88 http:///forum/thread/382797/was-this-just-a-coincidence#post_3343186
Basically what happenend was, about 2 months ago I had a 40gal. tall tank with only 1 powerhead and the return flow from my canister filter. My tank at the time was mostly soft corals and a Few LPS. I started thinking I didnt have enough movement inside my tank so I ordered a Koralia evolution the 750gph and put it on the otherside of my tank and pointed it towards the glass so it would create more surface movement and not blast any corals, at the same time I had put in a piece of coral skeleton I had bought somewhere that looked pretty neat. I had boiled the skeleton and rinced it off really well to try and get it as clean as possible. The next day when I came home from work two of my fish were dead :( a coral beauty and a juevenile yellow tail blue tang. the coral beauty I had for almost a year and the blue tang for at least 4 months. I figured it was the piece of coral so I took it out immediately and did a 25% water change. At that time my tank perams where:
amonia/nitirites: 0
Nitrates: 20
pH: 8
Calcium: 480
DKH: 10
SG: 1.025
After that happend I got rid of the canister filter and built a sump/refugium. I added a protein skimmer, 2x32 watt HOT5's, Chaeto and started dosing carbon to reduce phosphates and nitrates. The magnite on the back of my old K2 powerhead lost its attraction to the other cuz I set it next to another magnite and it reversed on me
so i bought another evolution and replaced the K2 with it. When I came home last night two more fish were dead :( they were fairly new i bought them to replace the other. This time I went with fish that were more approriate for my tank. A sixline wrasse and a neon goby. A few of my soft corals were shrunk up like they were in shock. The weird part.. I had a fire shrimp I had just bought the day before in there still alive and my maxima clam was open and doing fine, my SPS all had there polyps out and so did my LPS and other soft corals. My ocellaris pair acted like nothing happened, and the royal gramma was acting weird and wouldnt come out of its cave. I checked my water and then did a 25% water change ( I use RODI water from my LFS). My water params last night were:
amonia/nitirites: 0
Nitrates: 0
pH: 8
Calcium: 440
Dkh: 9
SG: 1.024
The best water I have had in the tank since I started this hobby 1.5 years ago. so was just curious if there is something i'm not doing before I put the powerheads in, I rinse them off really well with warm water before I put them in, or if this is just a coincidence.

I would check for stray voltage just to be sure. My Hippo hid when I had a jolt in the tank. If not that then I would be looking for something being aggressive. Do you have moonlighs to be able to watch at night?
 
foxface88

foxface88

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by BTLDreef http:///forum/thread/382797/was-this-just-a-coincidence#post_3343230
How aggressive are your clowns?
How old are your test kits and what brand?
My clowns aren't aggresive at all they kinda hang out by their anemone at the bottom of the tank, My master test kit is a Tetra has everything but the nitrates and calcium which are both API. There all about a year old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flower http:///forum/thread/382797/was-this-just-a-coincidence#post_3343239

I would check for stray voltage just to be sure. My Hippo hid when I had a jolt in the tank. If not that then I would be looking for something being aggressive. Do you have moonlighs to be able to watch at night?
Yea I was wondering about stray voltage also. I have a voltmeter but does that work in water? guess we'll find out.. heh. I have moonlights and the only things aggresive towards each other after dark are the hermits.. those territorial little buggers.. all the fish kinda went to their area of the tank when the main lights went out. The goby had a little hole in a rock and I have no clue where the sixline went. some cave somewhere.
 
J

jstdv8

Guest
you didn't happen to move the powerheads in a way that they were deeper in the tank than before and didn't allow for any surface aggitation?
This could cause CO2 buildup in the water and they would run out of O2. You'd usually see the fish on the bottom gasping for at least a few hours if this was the case though.
What did you use on that coral skeleton to clean it?
 
foxface88

foxface88

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/382797/was-this-just-a-coincidence#post_3343274
you didn't happen to move the powerheads in a way that they were deeper in the tank than before and didn't allow for any surface aggitation?
This could cause CO2 buildup in the water and they would run out of O2. You'd usually see the fish on the bottom gasping for at least a few hours if this was the case though.
What did you use on that coral skeleton to clean it?
No there is plenty of surfave aggitation, They flow is stronger towards the top of my tank for my SPS. I always make sure the surface is moving because when I first started this hobby I had a fish die and the others were doing as you descirbed thats actually when I first joined this forum and you guys helped me out. As far as cleaning that old coral I have an instant hot water faucet with boiling water i used to rinse it off with. i took that out after the first incident.
 
indy2009

indy2009

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jstdv8 http:///forum/thread/382797/was-this-just-a-coincidence#post_3343274
you didn't happen to move the powerheads in a way that they were deeper in the tank than before and didn't allow for any surface aggitation?
This could cause CO2 buildup in the water and they would run out of O2. You'd usually see the fish on the bottom gasping for at least a few hours if this was the case though.
What did you use on that coral skeleton to clean it?
+1
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
If your kits are a year old, they're garbage. I am not a fan of Tetra and think they're highly inaccurate.
What did you use to clean the coral skeleton?
 
foxface88

foxface88

Member
I knew they had a shelf life to them but I forgot what it was. I have been testing with the API nitrates every week since I started using the nitrate remover and chaeto and it went from 20 gradually down to 0 over the last month.
Im very careful as far as cleaning products goes, I use vinager on a paper towl to clean the glass and dont spray anything around the tank. When I cleaned the coral all i used was the Hot water from my instant hot and let it dry then I stuck it in my tank. I took it out the very next day when I noticed the tang and coral beauty had died and everything went back to normal so I thought that was the problem until the incident last night, thats when I started thinking it was the powerheads.
 
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