Tank Crashing

[RaphaelReef]

:sleep::uhoh3:Ok so try to make this short but informing. My tank is 150gal w/ 30gal sump. water test are good nitrates and nitrites are at 0. salt 0.024. Have 130lbs live rock and 120 live sand 4" sand bed. Tank has been running for about 4months. Everything was going great until about a week ago I bought a juvenile emperor angel. All fish were eating just fine the fish seemed good. So a week goes by and I rescape my rock. The next day my emperor is dead. So I go to my lfs and get my water tested everything is good. 3days later my flame angel is dead. Today my goby and Copperband Butterfly are dead along with a turbo snail and some crabs. I have no clue what is going on I NEED HELP FAST before I lose my whole tank. All that is left is 4clowns, yellow tang,Blue Hippo Tang, and a mata tang. I fed them with garlic and I turned up my water from 80to82. WHAT DO I DO!!!!:sad2::mad2:

[E Rosewater]

It's possible that the emperor brought in some disease if you didn't quarantine. The death of a bunch of fish in the tank could have led to a small short ammonia spike which caused the death of the crabs.

[Dapg8gt]

If water quality is good it has to be disease/parasite.. I would treat all fish remaining with a broad spectrum medication just to be safe.. An expensive lesson on why QT is needed.. I've never done QT before in 13 years but know that i have a new build going up and a lot more at risk I know the right thing to do is QT every single new addition for the recommended time..

If I were you I would move this over to fish treatment and disease forum and ask again and include signs of what the fish looked like after death and what you noticed.. Keep a close eye on them to look for any out of the ordinary behavior like darting, gasping, scratching, appetite, visible signs of parasites on body/gills and slime coat.. I would personally get a hospital tank setup asap and start treatment yesterday to save the fish that are left..

Are you positive you moving your rocks and sand around didn't foul your water? You could have released a bunch of hydrogen sulfide or like the other poster said other things may also be dead like snails just rotting away.. Does the water have any smell to it?

Good luck hope it works out for you

[Reefmedic79]

11 fish in 4 months? New tank Syndrome?

Why did you increase the tank temp? Decreasing it will slow things down, as well as, increasing the amount of dissolved O2 in the tank, which can relieve some stress as well.

[Goss]

something happened when you moved your rock. I would run carbon. It could even be something as simple as waht was on your arms or hands before you did the rock work. It could be something died when you moved the rock and its releasing some sort of toxin.

[thegrun]

What is your ammonia level? Assuming it is zero and also that your salinity is actually 1.024, not as posted 0.024 (which is great for a fresh water tank but less than optimal if you plan on keeping saltwater organisms alive) a disease is almost certainly the problem. Sorry for your loss, quarantine of new fish is very important.

[Sk8r]

CHeck your heater for cracks and any other source of a short or contact of electricity with water? Any change in heater when you added fish? Is your thermometer right? Overheating can reduce oxygen level, reduced oxy level can have fish gasping near surface. Disease is a real possibility: I agree with the others---quarantine is the best policy. But is that tank on GFI circuits? In such an instance, I'd get everybody out to really clean new water in a qt tank, just as a precaution.

The thing which raises the biggest alarm bell to me is 'rescaped my rock.' If you kicked up dust from inside the sandbed that could account for everything: ammonia spike and lethality. Ammonia doesn't always kill so quickly, but the sequence of events, the rock moving and the angel's death, followed by others, could indicate an ammonia event and a cascade of problems stemming from that.

[RaphaelReef]

I have checked my air pump and thermometer everything seems right. And yes its 1.024 sorry miss typed. I turned the heat up to try and kill any parasites if there are any. My guess is that im an idiot and shouldnt have rescaped since when the emperor died that was my first thought that I stressed him to much or kicked up something toxic. How big of a water change should I do?

[PatmanM3]

What are the characteristics of the dead bodies? Did the gill areas look inflamed? Are the remaining fish lethargic but breathing fast? Did the bodies look like they were covered in a slimy coat? Any reddish/velvet coloring on the bodies?

Reason I ask is because a similar situation happened to my fish tank when I first got started. Several months of a new tank running and fully cycled, had a 9' clown tang, 8' passer angel, huge clown fish...I introduced a half inch $3 damsel without QT'ing and within a week, all my fish died all within a day of each other. Happened to be marine velvet disease. Characteristics of the bodies had all inflamed gills, and their bellies had a reddish hue and cloaked in some kind of film and fins looked like they were eroding like HLLE.

As far as the snails dying? Not sure since velvet disease don't affect inverts.

Sorry for your loss. But as everyone is saying do an emergency QT. good luck!