Sudden Invert Deaths

[Aceaviator182]

Hello all,

I have a modded biocube 29 that is about 4 months old. I just did my weekly water change and about 10 minutes after, I added a green bubble tip anemone that I bought today. I always pre mix my water to 1.025 and pre heat it to 78 degrees before adding it. All of my corals are doing fine and all of my fish are doing fine (clown, firefish, royal gramma). Almost immediately after adding the anemone, I noticed my emerald crab stumbling around the rocks and eventually falling to the sand bed where it is still moving slightly but not in good shape. My skunk cleaner shrimp then fell to the sandbed and is laying there, still moving but also not doing good. Also, a large number of amphipods seemed to start fleeing out of the rockwork and started to die off. I am absolutely clueless as to what happened. I know my salinity is good, as I am using a recently calibrated refractometer.

Any help will be much needed
Thanks

[Aceaviator182]

I just learned that the water system was just recently flushed out in the kallamazoo area where I am. I there any way that some large amount of copper got though my RO/DI system and caused this?

[Sounds Fishy]

Test your filtered RODI water with a TDS meter.It should read zero.

[BrianKC]

I would get to your closest LFS ASAP and get some poly filter. Put it in a high flow area of your sump. It should help remove any metals, and will turn color if there actually was copper / other metal. You might also want to do a big water change (only if you have a poly filter to verify your new water is clean).

[wrott]

Chloramine could pass through, maybe try adding a shot of Prime??
Do you use a refractometer? Could any pesticides like Raid have been sprayed on the bag the nem was floated in?

edit: I see that you do use a refractometer

[kelrn98]

Of fish are fine and inverts are dying i would suspect copper. do you use carbon?

[Aceaviator182]

I run chemipure elite in a media basket. I threw in a poly filter pad in the basket and I will see what happens. I ran down to the LFS and picked up 12 gallons of their RO/DI water and I am mixing it now. I also picked up a copper test kit and both my tank and the water I originally used that caused the problems both tested negative for copper. Also, my city does not treat their water with chloramines.

Also, my RO/DI system is showing zero TDS.

[Aceaviator182]

Chloramine could pass through, maybe try adding a shot of Prime??
Do you use a refractometer? Could any pesticides like Raid have been sprayed on the bag the nem was floated in?

edit: I see that you do use a refractometer

I doubt the bag was sprayed with any pesticides but there is no way for me to know. The only thing I can think of is the bucket I used to mix the water was the same one I used a few days prior to dump used coral dip solution into. The coral dip method I use frequently is the Bayer insecticide method. I made sure to rinse the bucket out completely. I doubt any small residual amount could cause such an instant die off.

[Aceaviator182]

Both the emerald crab and shrimp died along with a large amount of amphipods that are piled up on the sandbed.