Loosing fishies.. any ideas?

dawgdude;392455 wrote: None of those will affect fish much except ph and alk. Its something either biological or toxin.

Is there any good way to test for this?? I have done several water changes over the past few weeks..
 
One thing that I just found - I was doing some reading and found that most people don't recommend lava rock in a reef or any type of salt water tank. What are your thoughts on this. I remembered after I read this that I had some in there that I put in a few years ago, I went ahead and took it out just to be safe.
 
strangpod;392549 wrote: One thing that I just found - I was doing some reading and found that most people don't recommend lava rock in a reef or any type of salt water tank. What are your thoughts on this. I remembered after I read this that I had some in there that I put in a few years ago, I went ahead and took it out just to be safe.

Lava rock should be inert; it shouldn't do anything for or against you. BUT, it could have metals that it could leach into your tank.

Do you run carbon at all? If not, it would be a great idea to run some, just in case there are some contaminants in the water column.

I'd also advise some monster water changes; 50% + type wc's. This will bring your water chemistry to an equillibrium.

And to answer your question about "which is worse..": letting a fish acclimate to a tank (at the store) and re-acclimating at home, is better. Why? It'll give time for any parasites to show and the store a chance to treat the fish. It'll also give them the opportunity to "train" the fish to eat prepared foods. Lastly, you can see its personality. Your fish was special though ;)
 
Skriz;392616 wrote: Lava rock should be inert; it shouldn't do anything for or against you. BUT, it could have metals that it could leach into your tank.

Do you run carbon at all? If not, it would be a great idea to run some, just in case there are some contaminants in the water column.

I'd also advise some monster water changes; 50% + type wc's. This will bring your water chemistry to an equillibrium.

And to answer your question about "which is worse..": letting a fish acclimate to a tank (at the store) and re-acclimating at home, is better. Why? It'll give time for any parasites to show and the store a chance to treat the fish. It'll also give them the opportunity to "train" the fish to eat prepared foods. Lastly, you can see its personality. Your fish was special though ;)

I run carbon about once every few weeks for a few days, but after finding this out I put it back in. Other than that I don't know of anything else that might be causing and ill effects.
 
I am guessing you have a very virulent disease. I really frustrate when people so easily suggest toxins before dsiease. Especially when people are just throwing fish in their tanks without QT, and out of shiopment bags. You are asking for a fishless tank by doing that. Do you see ANY symptoms on the fish prior to death? Sliminng, lesions, heavy breathing, ragged fins? Fish do not die "for no reason".
 
Die for no reason. In the three years that I have the tank set up I have NEVER had any what I would consider a 'disease', like ick, lesions, being pick-on (except I some that were explained on that front) and I am just wondering if with this lava rock in there so long that maybe JUST maybe I have had this problem for SOME TIME and just put it off as - well the fish were 1 1/2 years old etc etc etc...

I went over my tank last night thinking thinking and thinking (my brain started hurting) and went over everything that I could think of. I have the following in the tank:

90 AGA reef ready
264w PC (soon to go to either T5 6 or 8 bulb or 2x250 MH) the tank is 26inchs tall
100lbs of live rock with good corline growth
100lbs of sand
Three chamber 20gal long sump
2 koralia 4's
1 return (600gph) return pump
skimmer (semi custom one from some place in Fl, skims good nice and yuckie)
200 or 250 (can't remember) Jager heater (i must say one of the better heaters I have ever had) that sits in my overbox (out of site but still in the 'tank')
 
I hate to sound like a broken record, but fish DONT die "for no reason". There IS a reason. How experienced are you with fish husbandry? I dont mean this in a derogatory way, but some of the comment you have made sound very impulsive, and very inexperienced. Some diseases, like brookynella, uronema, or amyloodinium can have subtle symptoms, but are VERY deadly, and VERY contagious. And, if you added a fish that was just recently in a wholesalers tanks (which has MASSIVE diseased fish turnover), the possibility of these fish having this is extraordinarily high.

In light of not beating a dead horse, if you do not wish to believe there was a reason for the fish death, that is your choice. Having not observed your fish, I cant say its one thing or another. But, alleviating your responsibility by saying they died "for no reason", is not a corrective mentality, andI hope more fish to meet the same fate because of an oversight from ego. JMHO.
 
What I mean is one day they are fine, feeding etc and then the next.. well missing. Also I have one PJ that has been in the tank almost since day one (3 years) and two other fish that have been in at least 6 months. I am not saying that there is nothing wrong with the tank, just at this point it is almost unexplained. I also have other people that are better than I look at this and don't really know - has to be something somewhere.. HAS TO BE.. and 95% chance it is going to be SIMPLE, most problems end up that way - as I always say.. The only other thing that I am going to get is a grounding probe, although I measure current in the tank and found none, just to be safe, and say 'yea, did that'
 
OK, heres another weay to look at it. When people lose the majority of their established fish collection all at once, I would say 99% of the time it is velvet (amyloodinium) or Brookynella. 1% of the time its environmental (flatworm teratment/poisoning, introduced toxin, etc). And most of that 1% know EXACTLY how it happened. Again thats on an established system, with established fish, which you say you have. These a re just my "estimates", but in the near 20 years Ive been working with marine aquariums, that is what I would estimate. SO, IMO, worrying about voltage, or soaps or other contaminants that may have entered the water is pointless, unless you can 1000% eliminate a potential disease as the cause.

At any rate, good luck.
 
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