DIY Canopy Paint and Fish Loss

[bcheriyan]

Hello All,

Recently build a Wooden Canopy about 15 inch High (Feature plans to house DIY led's), On my 6 foot tank. Every thing went well with the build . Had open top , Also have a fan blowing in air. On the back side it pirtialy netted with eeg crates for the air to escape out. Also Painted the inside and out side. Inside a white paint, Outside Black . I give it 2 days for curing. After a week from I put the canopy i started loosing fish (Last week)? I lost the biggest Naso Blond first then one Wrass and a Gobie .. I lost three last week,

Initialy I was thinking 1) Reduced oxygen .. or 2) The paint fume

This week I removed the canopy; still I saw white spots on Clowns and then two of them died the next day.

Water parameters are as below.
Alk-10
CA-460
NO3-0
PO4-0
Sal- 1.026
PH= 8.1 -8.34 a day

ORP: Last week was or usuall in 460's today I saw that drop to 360.
Yester day I did do a 20 gallon water change . Will do another 20 by the end of the week. Also I am planning to reduce the Salanity from 1.026 to 1.024 . Hopelly this does not affect my clams. Also will slowly adjist the PH to fall in between 8.1 and 8.3

I do carbon dosing using viniger 5 ml pere day. Also Kalk for topoff. Uses Active carbo for filtering. Use to use GFO .. I stoped that for this week.


I am thinking the Paint fume with less oxygen caused might have caused the Initial loss .. But also after that this week the stress on thes fishes might have made more loss.. So far all the corals are doing Ok.

Please advice .

[bcheriyan]

Also I will add that I have some sreen alge on the sand .. I have introduced some carbs to clean up those . Also the temperature is kept between 77 and 78 .

[redfishblewfish]

If the paints were latex, highly doubt it was the paint. Most paints are low VOC’s, reducing the likelihood of causing a problem. I’ve painted the entire room, including the ceiling, where my tank sits, and saw nothing in the way of stress or death. In addition, the two days of curing would have allowed most volatiles to blow off.

Now if it was one of the “oil” based paints, like Kilz Complete, I could believe it. That stuff is nasty in a closed room. But even with this stuff, if you’ve waited two days, very little volatile stuff is left.

You've got something else going on.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'd be surprised it it was either of those two causes (low O2 or fumes).

Do you have a skimmer? Where does it draw air from?

[tmz]

Sounds a bit like an outbread o cyrtocaryon irritans(ich). If the tank was unlit for a period it may have increased "hatching" or may just be coincidental. Have any new fish been added recently? Has ich been in this tank before?

[bcheriyan]

Paint is latex,
Randy, the Skimmer and Sump sits underneth the Tank, more like a closed space.
tmz, I have the green/Slight Brown stuff on the sand and on the sand, rocks and on the rear glass. Coupled with the Caron dosing will the green alge boom can cause that ?

[bcheriyan]

Another stuff want to add is a month ago I switched to RebSea Coral Pro Salt mix. Also I see a small amount of hair line alges at some places

[anbosu]

Maybe I missed it, but when was the last time you added a fish or coral?

[bcheriyan]

anbosu : I have added a sand shifting gobie and Orange Firefish around three weeks ago .. Did not add any corals lately.

[bcheriyan]

Please look at the pictures .. I am seeing some yellow worm .. Please let me know if this is a cause.
Thx
Bill

[bcheriyan]

I lost my yellow tang today, if this is caused by ich
what are my options. also do Uv stralizer help. not sure if any. one of the survived clowns has the white spots on them

[tmz]

The only effective treatments for ich, require leaving the tank fishless for at lest 6 weeks, preferably 10weeks, and treatment of infected fish outside the display tank with copper, hypo salinity or the tank transfer method.

Quarantine for new specimens with preventative treatment is good practice.imo.

[tmz]

BTW, dropping the salinity wont help the fish. 1.026 is fine. Dropping it may stress the corals and clam.

[bcheriyan]

Fish less for eight weeks will do that. Are Inverts Ok . At this time carbon dozing is OK and every thing else would be good , I was trying to see if we Removing the fish should not affect my tank negitevely.

The yellow worm in the adove picture is it harmfull also I have the brown string alge if that cause any Issue.

[tmz]

If it's ich it will not harm the inverts.
The ich cysts generally "hatch " within 3 to 28 days, some have persisted to 72 days but rarely. Once they hatch the y must find a fish within a day or die.

The worm look like a sipunculid, a harmless filter feeder.

The aglae won't kill the fish but may indicate high phospahtes or nitrates in the tank but they won't kill the fish either.

[bcheriyan]

Going forward I will be less number of fish that are benifical to Reef acqurium. But is is still worth to keep a UV Steralizer ?

[tmz]

No; not imo. I used uv for years and don't anymore. I have several on the shelf. They are over rated for disease control in aquariums;the parasites are too large to be effected and they only kill what passes through them.They do kill some of the relatively small bacteria that might be otherwise beneficial.

Going forward quarantine of new specimens is a really good thing to do.Quarantine with preventative treatment for ich via the tank transfer method is even better,imo.

[bcheriyan]

Thx Tmz ; It was a bad two week or my fish !! Will need t be more carefull in adding livestock

[tmz]

You are welcome. Sorry to hear about the loses.