Two Dead Fish In Two Days

[ikon]

this is bothering me a lot now. i found my powder brown tang dead yesterday, and this morning my harlequin sweetlips. both were found almost in the same spot at the bottom of the tank, near the back left corner. neither had any signs or symptoms of disease or stress before they died, both seemed to just drop dead out of nowhere. both were eating fine and swimming about up until their death. my harlequin sweetlips was eating prawn and mysis daily for the 3 days i've had him, and my pbt was eating mysis and pellets for the last month ive had him. what could be causing this sudden death in my tank?

 

[ikon]

would low ph (7.9) be causing my problems? should have kept up on that..just added some buffer and will continue until i get back to normal.

 

[sacramonel]

would low ph (7.9) be causing my problems? should have kept up on that..just added some buffer and will continue until i get back to normal.

The Low P/H could have affected theire demise, but I don't know to be honest. My tank has been at an 8.0-8.1 for its duration and everyone is doing fine.

 

[ikon]

ammonia was at 0.2 which i dont think is the culprit.

the temperature of the tank has raised to a steady 85 F as well since i changed tanks..i think mainly because i had to take the legs off of my 4x96w pc to fit in the new canopy so it sits merely an inch from the surface as opposed to 3" combined with the fuge light being on 24/7 instead of on a cycle. i turned off the fuge light and added a couple fans so hopefully it will drop. could this be the reason? none of the corals have been affected by the temp change though.

 

[tmreynolds]

ammonia was at 0.2 which i dont think is the culprit.

the temperature of the tank has raised to a steady 85 F as well since i changed tanks..i think mainly because i had to take the legs off of my 4x96w pc to fit in the new canopy so it sits merely an inch from the surface as opposed to 3" combined with the fuge light being on 24/7 instead of on a cycle. i turned off the fuge light and added a couple fans so hopefully it will drop. could this be the reason? none of the corals have been affected by the temp change though.

Ammonia could have contributed, although its low, anything other than dead zero can be dangerous to marine fish.

 

[Ter]

whats your dkh? that ph is fine if its stable.. but if they your dKH is low then it might be in a swing mode when your lights go on or off...
Ter

 

[MoonTang]

You really need to test the ph when the light are off to know if your ph is dropping lower then 7.9 at night.

Now your temperature is pretty high. Does it stay like that at night too?? Huge temperature swings can also cause death.

If both fish died at night then I would say that it's one or the other causing these death.

Just my 2cent.

 

[afmo]

85F is really a high temp for those fish. I think i'd look to that for the cause of death.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, ammonia + high temp = trouble. Prolly a combo of the two

 

[ikon]

i dont even have mh and the temp is still that high! i figured if anything it would drop when i upgraded tanks from 110 to 200 gallons with all of the same equipment and lights...it was a steady 81-82 in the 110. is there a cheap alternative to a chiller?

 

[SkiFletch]

Lots of fans... You've got a significant amount of room in your sump, consider a cascading water effect somewhere with a fan pointed at the cascade. Mucho evap that way

 

[Navarre]

I would say that a combination of lower ph (possibly even lower during hte night) and high temperature. The higher the temperature the lower the oxygen levels in your tank. remember that tangs are fish that require high oxygen content in water as they live in the surge zones.

 

[silas]

Did you check your nitrates? Lot's of peolpe neglect it and it is sometimes a cause of death if the levels get to high.

 

[FishyTank]

u cycle for 12 wks