MayDay! Everything in my tank is dying!

singapore angels are from my understanding a difficult fish to keep. If it were me I would wait on getting one till you have your system in check and it has been set up for close to a yr. Also can we get a little more info on your tank. IE size, power heads for flow sump size how long it has been set up. I am not familiar with a rp1000 but from your discription it sounds like a filter skimmer combo?

 

If you don't have an RO/DI unit, how are you getting water? Are you buying RO/DI or are you treating tap water?

 

May be due to the paint fumes.

 

I happened to have a mold problem in my basement when i bought my house. I looked into mold inhibitors to paint and spray on. When i got to reading the directions it said caution do not use near streams or bodies of water and that it was extremely toxic to people pets and especially wildlife. The idea is to spray or paint it on. However you arent allowed to rinse it off or it becomes ineffective. I had a discussion with my contractor and decided not to use it because i had planned on having tanks in my basement. If i had used that stuff, i had thought about the possibility of the moisture in the air collecting/absorbing some of the chemical from the walls and ceiling and then circulating throughout the air in the basement. Then, depending on the moisture content in the air, the chemicals could get into the tank via direct interaction (open tank water) or indirect ( chemical humidity settling on fish nets, bottles of chemicals you use for your tank, thongs, gloves, or anything that you would use in your tank that could come in direct content of the water). Perhaps if you were using a mold inhibitor paint, there could have been some of the chemicals in the fumes that somehow got into your tank. Perhaps try using alot of carbon as an attempt to filter the chem out?

 

I'm gunna take a shot in the dark and guess that it's maybe not so much the paint and maybe more the current water. I would maybe check for phosphates, and next time i'd ask what "alittle" high on nitrates means.

 

I agree with Glaspie. In fact I think your "skilter" could possibly be a culprit. From the looks of the link it resembles a canister type filter which are known Nitrate traps.

 

Personally I think you might have a number of things that could be the problem. I would check the water, possibly get some RO water when doing these water changes. Have Pets Playhouse test you phosphates. Don't be afraid to make Nick do something for a change. Start with that, and then see what happens.

 

I am new to this board and certainly don't know everything there is to know about reef-keeping but I have learned some things along the way. "green stinky crap" usually means lots of free algae cell in your water column and that your skimmer needs to be adjusted a bit, more air, less water flow. The goal is more of a dry residue in the cup. 


Lots of free algae cells suggest too long of a photoperiod and overfeeding. I had a similar problem in one of my tanks. It took adding more live rock (2-3lbs per gallon) and 2 water changes a week for a month to get the nitrate levels back down to a manageable level. The tank is very happy and stable now.


Have you checked the ammonia and nitrite levels? Replacing the aqua clear 110 with such a small amount of live-rock may have taken out a good portion of your biological filter and cause your tank to cycle again.


Also what kind of CUC do you have?


Good Luck!

 

+1 Phosphates don't kill fish

+1 on canisters being nitrate traps, actually they're not so much nitrate traps as they are detritus traps that subsequently produced ammonia, and ni-trites/trates. That TOM filter is more like a wet dry filter though I believe, and wet/dry filters are commonly accused of being NO3 factories (which is accurate to a greater or lesser extent). In any case, I would be diligent about taking that thing apart and cleaning out the detritus within it at least once every 3 months.

-Yeah I'd like to know what the nitrates are, but more importantly, I'd like to know what your kH is, if these deaths are occurring over night, a plausible scenario is that your pH is swinging really low with the net increase of CO2 (minus the day time metabolic uptake of CO2 from algae/zoxanthellate/etc.). I've seen that happen more times than I can count.

-Disease is certainly not out of the question, at this point you'll probably never know if that were the case.

-The paint fumes (and antimicrobials) are certainly a possible culprit. Really there are just too many variables to know without doing a full workup. What you want to do is perform kH, pH tests 2-3x/day for a few days.

Of course at this point subsequent water changes may well have replenished depleted carbonate supplies and stabilized water parameters for the time being.

I would like to have some follow-up on your situation, with report on the discrete level of nitrates, and your kH and pH taken at "sunrise" and "sunset" (relative to your lighting schedule). I think even if troubles have subsided and you've written this off to paint fumes, that may not be the case, and a little bit of investigation now could help you figure this out and avoid troubles in the future. Drop me a message or just pop a post, and I hope all is well!

-Andy

 

If you do decide to ditch they skilter you are using, I ran a bio wheel filter minus the wheels just to run carbon in, and a HOB skimmer from octopus. this along with my powerheads and live rock worked great for me on my 55.

 

I ran my 55 with tap water for a year and my fish were fine so thats not it.... How long has your tank been set-up

 

dang man, I just don't get it with you guys who have wives that give em hell about reef tanks. I've got 2 40's laying in the middle of the living room (ones going to be a sump for my 120 and two 40 gallons (one 40 is already up and on this system)), power tools, and pvc and crap all over the place, my wife never makes a peep! She asked me when I might be done with this transition and I said this weekend and she was fine with that!
As for power consumption, does your wife realize that electricity is 10 cents per kilowatt hour? That means an aquaclear 110 (14 watts) = (14watts) x (24hrs/day) x ( 30days/mnth) x (1/1000watts/kw) x (0.10 dollars/kw) = $1.0008/mth
That rapids pro does~ 800gph with head pressure, assume that it requires a 110watt pump (its probably closer to 80) = $7.90/mth
My condolences

 

That's not necessarily true, different localities employ different methods for water treatment. Cedar Rapids has a nasty history of using ammonium chloride.