whats killing my fish

aanthony

aanthony

Member
ok, so i have a 55 gallon, with about 85 lbs of lr, and 80 lbs or ls, this is what i had yesterday:
hippo tang, mandarin dragonette (full sized), percula clown, 6 line, bi-color angel.
and today:
hippo tang dead this morning, mandarin just died 10 minutes ago, clownfish, dead this morning, angel is breathing heavily. all inverts seem ok, except for my coco worm, seems to be not as opened, and my one feather duster is hiding, and the other has this white stuff on its crown.
two days ago i got rid of my canister filter, which was just giving me problems, i removed it (it only put out like 250 gph), so i replaced it with a powerhead which put out 850 gph, and ever since i added that the fish have been hiding and dying, none of my shrimp, hermits, snails, or my lobster have died yet. and the water seems a bit clouded, but earlier today i did a 15 gallon water change, and yet the mandarin still died, anybody have any clue whats happened, why are all these fish dying, yet the inverts are fine
 
reefer545

reefer545

Member
Originally Posted by AAnthony
ok, so i have a 55 gallon, with about 85 lbs of lr, and 80 lbs or ls, this is what i had yesterday:
hippo tang, mandarin dragonette (full sized), percula clown, 6 line, bi-color angel.
and today:
hippo tang dead this morning, mandarin just died 10 minutes ago, clownfish, dead this morning, angel is breathing heavily. all inverts seem ok, except for my coco worm, seems to be not as opened, and my one feather duster is hiding, and the other has this white stuff on its crown.
two days ago i got rid of my canister filter, which was just giving me problems, i removed it (it only put out like 250 gph), so i replaced it with a powerhead which put out 850 gph, and ever since i added that the fish have been hiding and dying, none of my shrimp, hermits, snails, or my lobster have died yet. and the water seems a bit clouded, but earlier today i did a 15 gallon water change, and yet the mandarin still died, anybody have any clue whats happened, why are all these fish dying, yet the inverts are fine
Have you tested you water? Inverts can withstand a higher level of nutrients, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the water than fish usually. How long did the filter switch take? Too long, with a high bio load could have caused a reasonably large spike possibly even a small cycle. Are any things dying off of your LR or leaving the holes of said rock? That is a sure sign that the water has spiked to very bad levels.
Good luck.
 
aanthony

aanthony

Member
no clue what my levels, are, but i just lost my angel, so basically all thats surviving..... so far, are my shrimp, crabs, hermits, snails, feathers, and lobster. along with my 6line
 
reefer545

reefer545

Member
Right on, but how long before a new filter was set in motion. I assume you replaced the canister with a new filtration device and not JUST a powerhead. Or did you replace the powerhead of the canister with a more powerful one? Just to clarify - not to sound rude or stupid.
 
aanthony

aanthony

Member
i was doing a bit of research and posted a few questions on the site (not to blame anybody) but i was told that a powerhead would be fine, and that my live rock/ live sand would provide filtration, but even if this was an unwise thing to do, i would have never thought it would crash my tank within 2 days
 
reefer545

reefer545

Member
You are lucky it took 2 days. Six months after I got my 24 g. I ordered 3 new fish to add to the existing 2, but had to work when they arrived, so my fiance acclimated them. She did not refill the tank after taking out the acclimation water, and the water level was too low to overflow into the filter, and within 4 hours EVERYTHING IN MY TANK DIED including 3 shrimp, a star, all the snails but like 2, a cucumber, and 5 feather dusters. Luckily all the coral survived adn I have since lowered my bio load of fish and inverts to remarkably less, adn added way more coral, just in case the power goes out for a couple hours.
Go out as soon as possible and get a new filter. A hang on tank, which all the media can be replaced with LR except keep a filter pad or two that needs to be cleaned weekly. Or get a new canister. You need a filtration device with almost any size bioload, or you need to do daily water changes. Sorry for the devastation. good luck, and keep us posted. Your corals and inverts should survive if you act quickly, remove all the dead specimens, adn do aggressive water changes. Hopefully your water wont have to re cycle too much.
 
reefer545

reefer545

Member
Also, restock slowly. You may want to rethink the tang and angel. A dwarf angel would be GREAT in your tank though. Also, a mandarin may not be added for some time too. Once again, sorry and best wishes.
 
aanthony

aanthony

Member
its ok, ill get over it, im 17 though, so it really hurts when your too young to make enough money, but you lose about 150 in fish in one day, but anyways ill get over it, my next question is do i really need to set up my canister filter again, because basically i have an invert only tank right now, i dont ask out of lazyness, its just its 1230 at night for me right now
 
reefer545

reefer545

Member
I hear ya brotha. I cant give any insight to what will happen in the next day/ month. Its a real kick in the pants, but a learning experience, and you are not alone. Everybody on this site has had something like this happen or they are liars, well almost everybody. You can keep it invert only for as long as you like, but I would suggest a water change as soon as possible, and a filter is still a must -- in some sort or another.
 
aanthony

aanthony

Member
so since everything almost dead, does anybody want to help me with my new stocklist
this is what im thinking
2 percula clowns
1 hippo tang (i was thinking about a 1 or 2 inch hippo) i know its still frowned upon, but i just loved that fish
1 yellow watchman goby
thats all i can think of for now
and i hope my shrimp dont die, if they dont im going to buy about 2 more cleaner shrimp, if they do die, then i guess i have to buy 4, and another coral banded shrimp.
 
old_salt

old_salt

Member
I had something similar to this happen on a 110G tank earlier this year. We were replacing the sump and added several small powerheads for adding oxygen to the water while the main pump was shut down for 24 hours. Everything seemed fine until the next morning when over half of my fish were dead and several others were lying on the bottom about to die. Even though everything wasn't 100% dry in the sump I immediately started the pump and the fish that weren't dead all recovered. The total loss was about 7 or 8 fish. Without testing your water there is no way to tell if it was a lack of oxygen or something else that killed your fish. Ammonia spikes will also cause your water to get cloudy and will kill your fish the same way you have described. When you removed the filter you removed you probably removed a good portion of your good bacteria. I hope you get this sorted out and that you don't lose any more of your livestock.
 
aanthony

aanthony

Member
ok, so here is my update, no i have not tested my water yet, i eventually went to bed at about 1:30am, and am just about to leave for work, as far as an update, i am happy to report that none of the inverts have died, all three shrimp are alive, all hermits, crabs, snails, and the lobster, along with the xenia and feather dusters. the water has cleared up substantially, so im guessing the cycle has done its worst. but now that i think of it, i saw a few "cuts" on my angel previous to it dying, at first i thought it was from my lobster, now im thinking maybe ammonia burns
 
larryndana

larryndana

Active Member
ok, i didn't read the whole thread but here goes....

you need to be able to test your water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph, temp, cal, alk at minimum.
i'd also recommend more research before buying anything else.
also, invest in a good starter aquarium book like, The New marine Aquarium.
 
o2ngk

o2ngk

Member
Originally Posted by larryndana
ok, i didn't read the whole thread but here goes....

you need to be able to test your water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, ph, temp, cal, alk at minimum.
i'd also recommend more research before buying anything else.
also, invest in a good starter aquarium book like, The New marine Aquarium.

I agree .. water quality should be your number one priority .. whenever you change your equipment and/or part if you can soak it first overnight .. just to get rid of possible bad stuff .. then do a water test after you install it and an hour later and few hour and next day .. just to make sure nothing spike out of the ordinary.
Also, if you can please do not add your livestock all at once. Try to phase it out to one weekly if you can. The idea is just incase if that new fish stresses out. It will have a better chance to calm down instead if you have all of them stress out at once.
Good Luck.
 
aanthony

aanthony

Member
o yah, dont worry, i will space that out, but before adding the fish i will qt them, then perform hypo, im usually carefull with my tank, its just i guess i didnt realize that removing my 10 year old canister would crash my tank, i figured those hundreds i spend on lr, ls, and inverts would be enough filtration, well, you live, you learn
 
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