Cloudy water and fish death

I was hoping someone with knowledge on this could help me out. Saturday morning I noticed my tank water was cloudy. Almost looks like it's full of micro bubbles but it isn't. My Naso tang was acting lethargic but the other fish were fine. Tested the water to make sure nothing was wrong and all checked out ok. My calcium is low but I've been battling that for some time now.

I was hoping it would clear up after a day and maybe it was a bacterial bloom. I've never had one but I've heard of people having them. Last night the water was still cloudy and the Naso was even more lethargic. The powder blue tang was showing signs of ich. Right before the lights shut off last night the Naso was sucked up against the pickup for the closed loop. turned off the pumps and he swam off slowly and laid on the bottom of the tank. This morning he was dead.

I'm heartbroken over this because that was the first "nice" fish I added to my 180 after tearing it down and setting it back up.

I guess in all of this rambling I just want to know have any of you had a similar issue? Does anyone know anything about bacteria blooms?

I'm at a loss. If I lose the powder blue tang I'm going to be really bummed.

 

Kris, before we go into an in depth answer, what did you do different? What are the params? To me it sounds like a bacterial bloom, thats what cloudy water typically is. How are the other fish?
Until you answer, good luck!

 

I did a routine cleaning Friday night but nothing out of the norm. Other fish are fine except for the powder blue which has some ich but he comes in and out of that. Always eats good so I can med him. He's still acting fine and eating like a pig so I'm not worried about him yet...

Amonia=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=0
po3=0
dkh=13
mag=1450
calcium= 360-380
ph= 8.1 to 8.2 depending on time of day
ORP= 405 this morning 420 last night before lights shut off
temp 78 this morning, doesn't swing much

If this is something I've done it had to be something on my hands Friday night while cleaning but I'm careful to wash up before my hands go in the tank. The thing that worries me is this shouldn't have killed the naso right? he was eating great Friday night and as soon as the water clouded up he would hang out at the bottom of the tank in the corner and wouldn't eat anything.

I'm at a loss. This hobby really bums me sometimes.

 

bacteria blooms can use up Dissolved Oxygen very quickly. This can sometimes cause fish to "drown". Depending on how bad the bloom is, pH can drop too. Provide additional aeration temporarily and see if one of your friends has a UV sterilizer you can borrow.

 

I haven't noticed a drop in pH or ORP levels.

 

Hmmmm

Your ORP should have dropped by a lot if this was a bacteria bloom. The fishes behavior indicates low DO levels. When was the last time the probe was re-calibrated?

 

Both the pH and ORP probes were calibrated on 8-3-08.

 

Hello KO, well it is somewhat of a mystery. I wouldn't think it is necessarily an algae bloom given the numbers (orp) but is still possible. I believe you have an open top tank and many contaminants can enter the tank. The only thing I can now give you is this article; http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2002/feature.htm which is quite thorough and helps us understand toxicity in our tanks.

 

Link goes to something I can't read.

I'm just going to let it ride. If everything dies I'll have an accurate representation of what the worlds coral reefs will all look like in 20 years anyhow.

Thanks for the input guys.