Neptune Aquatics

BlueSallymandr's 40 gallon AIO tank

Well, my tank appears to be crashing. Everything looked normal this morning, and my fish ate around noon, and I fed the corals. Then the fish started panting and lying around. I tested ammonia at 0 and pH same as before (8.2). I went to the store to pick up some water and carbon, and the wrasse and Yasha goby were dead by the time I got back. The royal gramma is alive but lying in a cave and panting. I lowered the water level in the tank to allow more oxygen exchange (I had thought that the skimmer was the primary source of oxygen exchange), and put in a temporary airstone, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I changed over 8 gallons of water and added carbon in case there is some contaminant in the water. Any ideas?

Both freshwater tanks in the same room/airspace are totally fine and I haven't sprayed anything in the air.

PIF one fish tank. (Joking but not by much)
 
What’s the temperature and salinity?

Ato up and running?

Odd considering tank has been running for a while, also is the return pump still running normally?
 
As far as oxygenation goes, I’ve always gone off of the water surface. I try to have a powerhead or return near the surface to agitate the water. Some rippling is good enough for gas exchange. Even without that, I would think a protein skimmer would be good enough.

I would check other parameters, maybe nitrite, since it can be deadly just like ammonia. Its just very odd that everything went from great to a catastrophe so fast
 
The gramma died, so I'm fishless now.

Tank temperature is 79.7F, and salinity is 1.027, even though I do have the ATO hooked up. I added a little RO water to get it down to 1.026. The water looks clear, except there is some algae scum on the surface. I am having some algae that might be dinoflagellates. I do have the return pump running fine, near the surface of the water, and it does cause rippling.

I buy all my water at High Tide because I live near there, and I am sure that the ATO water came from the R/O water jug. I assume it's safe, definitely shouldn't be chlorinated since it's natural sea water.

The urchin is still alive and well (I can see the little legs moving). My cleaner shrimp is also fine for now. This is just the weirdest thing to me.
 
Really bummed to see this. I’m sure it would make you feel better to determine the cause, so feel free to continue running things by us. Slightly elevated temps and salinity shouldn’t cause complete fish death like this.

How are your corals doing?
 
Did some more testing, but nothing stood out:
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate ~ 2.5
Phosphate - 0 (dosed some after testing)

I wonder how I know when/if it is safe to put fish back in?

Corals are looking fine to me - the weeping willow toadstool is out and usually that's the first one to get stressed by me messing with the tank.

The only thing I can think of is something on my hands, but I am usually very careful about rinsing well before putting them in the tank.
 
BlueSallymandr said:
Did some more testing, but nothing stood out:
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate ~ 2.5
Phosphate - 0 (dosed some after testing)

I wonder how I know when/if it is safe to put fish back in?

Corals are looking fine to me - the weeping willow toadstool is out and usually that's the first one to get stressed by me messing with the tank.

The only thing I can think of is something on my hands, but I am usually very careful about rinsing well before putting them in the tank.
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It’s hard to say when it would be safe without knowing what the issue is. I’m really wondering what other input others will have, because I am completely stumped
 
Can you post pictures of what you mean by algae scum on the surface and possible Dino’s? I’m guessing if you have algae collecting at the surface you don’t have much surface agitation? Even if you did have Dino’s and they were one of the toxic strains like ostreopsis, your CUC probably would’ve died before your fish. If I had to guess based off the algae scum on the surface, maybe it was an oxygen issue for lack of surface agitation? Especially if you’re running your tank at 80F… warmer water has less oxygen. I see you have a skimmer but sometimes those nano skimmers aren’t all that great
 
BlueSallymandr said:
The gramma died, so I'm fishless now.

Tank temperature is 79.7F, and salinity is 1.027, even though I do have the ATO hooked up. I added a little RO water to get it down to 1.026. The water looks clear, except there is some algae scum on the surface. I am having some algae that might be dinoflagellates. I do have the return pump running fine, near the surface of the water, and it does cause rippling.

I buy all my water at High Tide because I live near there, and I am sure that the ATO water came from the R/O water jug. I assume it's safe, definitely shouldn't be chlorinated since it's natural sea water.

The urchin is still alive and well (I can see the little legs moving). My cleaner shrimp is also fine for now. This is just the weirdest thing to me.
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Bummer for the loss. I'm hopefully you can figure out the possibly cause for peace of mindnif nothing else.

I would definitely wait a while before adding any more fish just to observe the cuc. I would give it a week or a little more.

The fish didn't have any visible spots or odd behavior before today I assume?

If I had to guess I would think low oxygen prehaps only based in fact cuc probably take in less oxygen than fish who are larger and more active.

Some parameters being off I would expect cuc to prehaps die first.

I doubt Your listed numbers would cause a sudden total fish death.

Are any of your coral effected at all?
 
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