MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 Still no word on the cabinet build... But I did get my school of 15 blue reef chromis in today. They look awesome, to bad the iphone camera sucks at taking photos under the LED's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 So I have no idea what happened in the tank last night. But 9 of the 15 chromis died (I have only found 4 bodies, but I imagine as I look harder the rest will show up) I have not tested the water yet today but Im at a bit of a loss. Everything has been testing fine, and have tested almost every day since I started the tank up. I have not had any ammonia and nitrates have been pretty steady at about 2.5 (have not tested phosphates) so either a couple of the chromis really went to town beating up the others or something else was up. The remaining 6 do look to have some battle wounds on their sides, but could a fight have possibly killed 9 fish in 1 night? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 do you have a grounding probe in the tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 Nope no grounding probe. But the clowns and royal gramma have been doing great for 2 weeks so I dont think there is a current running through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 So I just tested ammonia and nitrate again. Ammonia is visible on the test now but not enough to get to the first color of.25. And nitrates went from about 2.5 - about 5 this morning. I am putting the increase of both of those numbers on the 4 dead fish I have found and the possibility of the 5 more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 Wow, sorry for your loss! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 Sorry for the loss. I am thinking too many fish, too soon. (Guilty of doing that myself). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 Ryan thats one of my thoughts as well. I am just suprised that from 2pm yesterday to this morning that it could take out that many. But I guess its possible that it was just a mix of that and the normal chromis picking each other off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
epleeds November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 That's crazy. hopefully the other 5 are just hiding in the rocks.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 So I talked to vince @ quantam for a bit and we came up with a few possibilities. One of them is that I had way to much flow and the fish were being sucked into the overflow and right down into the sump or stuck on the gate valve and beaten to death by the water. So I just turned the MP40's down by a good bit as well as cranked the ball valve on the return pump down. As soon as I did it the fish seem to be swimming easier and have moved further up into the water column instead of staying around the rocks and the sand. So maybe they picked off 1-2 of them and a few of them got sucked into the sump. I dont know where the missing 5 are still, but one of my fears is that it went into the manifold and Im not sure how I could ever get them out of there. But the reactors all are running fine w/ normal water pressure. But it has made me thing, how do I stop something from going into the manifold part of the return? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 dont you have a screen on the intake of the overflow??? if not this would be the first thing i would do, otherwise you can always shut down the return pump and undo some unions (im guessing yuo used unions, if not may be good to do some cutting and place them in there) I know i was over at another members who couldnt find a little goby, sure enough i found it in her Carbon reactor (seriously) just chillen above the carbon....couldnt beleive it made it down there. there is always at least one fish that will find its way down where it should not be, ive had wrasses do it before as well Not sure if you saw my question, do you have a grounding probe in the tank. just in case there is any stray voltage??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 Not sure if you saw his response but he said no grounding probe. Other fish have been in the tank for weeks with no problem. Were the chromis QT'ed and for how long? What condition were the dead fish in, mouth or gills spread open? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 Chromis came from quantum and they had them there for about a month the last 2 weeks in a tank by themselves. There were no outstanding characteristics about the fish I found. A little discoloration on the sides and 2 of them looked like they had been in a fight. Currently I have egg crate in the overflow. I have been looking for an 1.5" slip strainer but have not found one yet. My other option that I'm going to try when I have a little time is to use my mitre saw and cut some slits into PVC to make something like a strainer since I have not found one yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 Both the royal gramma and the clowns can be territorial to new fish. It could have been aggression from them more then from fellow chromis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 other way to do it is a drill and a nice big lenght of pvc. drill press make life easier. I may actually have some 1.5 that was a spray bar that came with an old tank i held on to that would work perfect if it is 1.5, ill check tonight its yours if it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 awesome thanks. I dont have a drill press so the best I can do is play with my mitre saw to see if the slits and a cap will work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveS November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 I think in general none of the above problems should have killed that many in such a short amount of time. With 15 new fish, aggression by existing fish should have been spread around enough. Most healthy fish don't go get washed over an overflow, let alone a bunch of them in one night. Maybe all 3 problems came together- high flow caused Chromis' to hide closer to rocks and the clown/royal gramma territory. They got beat up by the clowns/royal gramma more than normal. After getting beaten up and weakened too much, a few went over the overflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtFully Acrylic (Adam B) November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 Scott, if you want to go the route of trying to machine slots to create your own strainer let me know. If you bring over the pipe I will machine the slots with the router for you no charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanM November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 Bet that low ammonia reading you got is due to the dead fish, not the cause of the dead fish. Nitrates going up after dead fish and a small increase in ammonia also seems reasonable since you didn't do any water changes before you took the reading. Sorry so many died. Will be cool to have a big school of fish for the kids to watch, so I hope you sort out what happened and try again. Maybe put a webcam on it after your next introduction and take an overnight movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 So I just took 5 minutes and created a crappy strainer that I then put a cap onto. Its probably not the best solutuion (Adam I will take you up on using your router to cut better slots) But it should keep fish from getting into the sump; unless the jump into the 90* pipe, to which I am going to put a piece of screening on for now until I find a better solution there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 I think in general none of the above problems should have killed that many in such a short amount of time. With 15 new fish, aggression by existing fish should have been spread around enough. Most healthy fish don't go get washed over an overflow, let alone a bunch of them in one night. Maybe all 3 problems came together- high flow caused Chromis' to hide closer to rocks and the clown/royal gramma territory. They got beat up by the clowns/royal gramma more than normal. After getting beaten up and weakened too much, a few went over the overflow. Dave I agree, Im sure not one thing would have caused that many fish to go at once. But a combo of the three probably did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 (edited) How did you acclimate them? What salinity was the water they came in vs tank water? One thing I do that I didn't use to is always check levels (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and salinity) from bag water. Edited November 6, 2012 by BowieReefer84 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 They came straight from quantam. So I did not check their levels, I will check them next time just to see where they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowieReefer84 November 6, 2012 Share November 6, 2012 They came straight from quantam. So I did not check their levels, I will check them next time just to see where they are. Well, I also received some fish recently from them. Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all zero, but salinity was a little low like under 1.020 (closer to 1.017, but I am not 100% my refractometer was dialed in perfectly). If this was the case for you as well and you didn't slowly drip them it could have stressed them making it easy for them to get bullied and die that quickly. Just a guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBVette November 6, 2012 Author Share November 6, 2012 Well, I also received some fish recently from them. Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate all zero, but salinity was a little low like under 1.020 (closer to 1.017, but I am not 100% my refractometer was dialed in perfectly). If this was the case for you as well and you didn't slowly drip them it could have stressed them making it easy for them to get bullied and die that quickly. Just a guess. Good to know they tested 0, but if they are at 1.017 and I am at 1.025 thats a big difference. I will check next time, and acclimate them a bit slower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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