Reef nutrition

Bad Fish Mojo...

Looks like this week is off to a rough start... kicking it off with multiple fish issues after coming back from a quick weekend trip. All was well before I left...did a water change even.

These are all in different tanks, too!

List so far...

*Lost 2 ruby red dragonets yesterday
*Lost my humu humu this morning
*magma wrasse male now has swim bladder issues (my guess is he probably smashed himself into the tank on a jump)

4 fish issues over a few days... sigh.



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haven't a clue... at first I suspected the water that I used for the WC... Spoke to guys at Neptune and they tested their water on the spot and it was good.

though, they did lose a powder blue as well...

only thing i did differently is I dosed some essential nutrients but that shouldn't in theory have an impact. I did notice those that some of my nems in my nem tank were acting funny as well. Might just do another water change when I get home just to be sure.
 
You're buying water with all those systems you're running. Ouch! What did they test for?
I'd be suspicious of maybe chlorine/chloramine in the water. Maybe use some dechlorinator just in case? Shouldn't hurt.
I almost always use some after water changes just in case.
 
I buy filtered NSW that they dose for alk and Ca+. So don't think there's an chlorine/chloramine but only thing I can think of is that I was using some older water I had from a week or two ago. Now wondering if the water might have issues as a function of time... :/ only other thing I can think of.

I typically use water within a week of purchase as I buy water to have on hand right after a change. Though, I've used really old water before without a prob. So very puzzled.
 
Could have been a bad batch of water. If not filtered well, and sitting a week or two,
could have ended up with a lot of ammonia.

Check the sides of the storage barrel for unusual crud or precipitate. Might tell you something.

Most people don't bother to test for basic things like Ammonia after the tank cycles.
 
Check for Nitrites (not Nitrates)
Ammonia may be gone, but you might have a tiny bump there.

Multiple tanks makes disease unlikely.
It was not a really hot weekend, so temperature unlikely.
Current parameters look good, so the various snowstorms/PH surges / etc are unlikely.
Nobody around to mess things up when you are not looking.
Things look ok now, right? So it was short term. That eliminates a lot of toxins/contaminants.
Any sign of a power failure over the weekend?
 
no power failure... checked my alarm logs daily while I was gone

and all my tanks are on chillers so even with temp.... it's not an issue. Water from the systems directly look good... and water changes were within 5-10%.

hence, my confusion...

At first i suspected the humu humu may be my fault, i unplugged the circulation pump from the QT tank (have air stones, and a UV pump going) so the temp dropped to 73F due to slower circulation but that window was only 4 hours (went to bed at 3A when i last checked the tank)...and a slight gradual drop to 73F may make it lethargic but not check out to the great ocean beyond... Was extremely active and voracious eater even yesterday morning...

the ruby reds might be due to a salinity swing if my ATO went crazy while away... but that's also a stretch...
 
I think it was that your coworker broke into your house while you were gone and decided to sabotage your home tanks now too. You've got a tank serial killer on your hands.

Joking aside, I can't imagine a gradual drop to 73 would have any effect on a fish. I'm pretty sure that @Ibn had a cold water tank that he ran the whole time at 72.

I don't know about the ammonia or chloramines either though. I'm just guessing but I would think that it would need to be a pretty big increase in either of those to kill a healthy fish. Especially when you think that you only did a 5-10% water change. That would mean that the concentration in the new water had to be that much higher. Did anything else in the tank die? Corals or inverts?
 
That's correct. I kept the tank at 72°F for 6 months while keeping ventralis anthias. No issues with temperatures there even with sps and other corals. Growth did slow down a tad, but overall the colors were all there.

How long have you had these fish in their separate systems? I'm wondering since I recently lost a pintail wrasse with swim bladder issues as well. Eating and behaving normally one day and then the next day swimming on his back and doing circles. He did that for 2 days before passing on. I wonder if it's an issue with the source or how they were collected.
 
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