4 Fish dead in 3 days

Hi, I posted this on The Reef Tank but wanted to post it here just incase


I had a 55 gal setup for about a month and a half and everything was good to go. Like most people I wanted a bigger tank and stumbled onto a 100 gal with what I believe is a 10 gal sump. My buddy and I cleaned the new tank and got it ready for the transfer. We drained the 55 into different containers and separated fish, coral and LR. I bought new sand and used about 1/4 of my old sand. Set up the new tank and got everything up and running. Checked water params and everything was the same as the old tank

Ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 0
ph 8
sg 1.025

I added the fish Friday evening (We did the tank last Friday afternoon/added fish that night)

The problem started Wed night (5 days later). I noticed the Flame Angel had what appeared to be ich and was acting weird. but everybody else was fine.

Thursday morning the Flame was dead and the FoxFace was breathing heavy. FoxFace was was dead by lunch. Everybody else is breathing heavy. Checked the water everything was as before. Got home from work and the hawkfish was dead. Did a 20% water change. Checked water at night and all perams where as before. Fish still breathing heavy

Friday morning the chromis is dead. The Humu and moroon clown are in hiding. The only fish that dont seem to be affected are the Kauderns and spotted cardinals. Checked water at lunch

Ammonia .25
nitrites 0
nitrates 20
ph 8
sg 1.025

Did a 20 % water change when I got home from work and added Smart Start to help with ammonia and nitrates. Checked water last night

Ammonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 10 or 20 (hard to tell)
ph 8
sg 1.025

Humu looking pretty bad. Bagged him and had my buddy put him in his 75 gal. Maroon looking better and Cardinals still ok. Lawnmower Blenny still breathing hard. Some corals look ok and some dont.

This morning Cardinals still good, Maroon Clown looks to be back to normal and cant see the LM blenny to see how he is. Checked water

Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate between 0 and 5 (hard to tell)
ph 8
sg 1.025/26

Temp of tank has been between 79 and 80 the whole time. The water hasnt been cloudy other than particles in the water but not cloudy.

Did my tank have a mini cycle?

If you have any questions/suggestions/advice I would love to hear it.


Thank you in advance,
Tony

 

Welcome to 3reef.

You had a mini cycle.

The stress of moving and the mini cycle was enough to cause the deaths.

There was not enough beneficial bacteria to complete the nitrogen cycle when you added live fish and started feeding them.

Seems like you really tried to avoid a cycle and took a lot of good steps, you probably just did not wait long enough to add the fish.

Sorry for the loss.

 

Hi Coralline,

Thank you for getting back to me. There were a lot of tings I ready that could have been the problem ranging from lack of O2 to new powerheads having a coating on them but between you and my friends that have SW tanks it seems like the general consensus is a mini cycle. Does it sound like the cycle is on the down side or should i be worried that others will die in the near future?

thank you again,
Tony

 

Sorry for the loss.

Like coralline said it was probably a mini cycle. When you removed 3/4 of the established sand you lost alot of the beneficial bacteria.

 

Well Tony I suspect the cycle is on the down hill.

Keep feedings light.

The 55 gallon was very young and while providing some seeding material it just did not provide enough in such a short period of time.

Monitor the parameters, add the appropriate seeding products ie: Dr.Tims, MB7, be prepared to do more water changes.

Lesson learned, and I learned it the same way. Research soft cycle, it may assist you in the future.

 

sounds like a mini clycle

 

Well, it makes me feel a little better that there is an explanation. I have been in the dark as to what has caused this since Wednesday. Sucks I caused my fish to die. The Foxface and Chromis were the originals so it's sad that they passed. I will continue to be a meticulous noob with testing and water changes.


Thank you again,
Tony

 

Sorry to hear of your losses. That's rough.

 

While it sounds like a mini-cycle is the primary culprit you also want to ensure that you have plenty of water surface agitation to help increase gaseous exchanges. This can help reduce build ups as well.

 

+1 to this and I am very sorry about your losses