Bubbles Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 ... bad things happen very quickly. This is a common saying in our hobby, and I experienced it first hand this morning. Saturdays before breakfast is my usual time for doing my 10% weekly water change. This morning I did a bit of tank house-keeping and also scraped the back pane of the tank where a bit a algae had started to build up. Current theory is that I disturbed some toxic algae by doing this. I had no soap and any deodarant on my body (infact my hands were not even in the tank at all). The scraper used is the same one I use every week. I lost 3 fish in the first 5 minutes, with another fish and shrimp within the following thirty minutes. Corals were not affected. I proceeded to do the water change, thinking it could only make things better. I'm currently prepping more water and will do another large change tomorrow. I've cut my photo period by 2.5 hours, and also covered a section of the tank that got natural sunlight during the afternoons. Any thoughts are welcome. Bubs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetskisteve Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 high tide is soon???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracker Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 Very strange, must me more to it than that..... Not good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 sorry to hear about your losses... Seems very strange. You must have added somthing which was not good. Bugger is all I can say. :evil: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 You sure someone else didn't use you scraper for something? Had any trades men at the house? Partner cleaning windows?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDM Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 gutted dude, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles Posted November 11, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 Pretty sure the scraper wasn't used for anything else. Will give it a good clean just to be sure. Whatever it was had to be ingested as not all fish were afftected. No trades people, no pesticides or fly sprays used. Added a bi-colour blenny last week that disappeared after the first night. Didn't think much of it at the time but in hindsight he may have eaten whatever it was. Tank seems fine this morning. Remaining stock are all fine. Still, pretty terrible watching 75% of animals die so quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey Posted November 11, 2006 Report Share Posted November 11, 2006 I just lost one of my fav corals a red monti it started to lose tissue so I dipped it, thats what killed it I can see some small polyps coming back on a tiny piece so i will try to recover it. But like you said "bad things happen fast" :-? my own fault a kneejerk reaction Must be the those those nudi s in fact it was my water quality Alk and Ca out man how stupid :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Posted November 12, 2006 Report Share Posted November 12, 2006 Sorry to hear of the loss. I would be gutted when you put so much effort in to this hobby then something like that happens. Very strange that just scraping the algae of would cause that. I have only been in the marine hobby for a short while so not sure what type of algae would cause the fish to die so quick. I know it happens in the sea from time to time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted November 12, 2006 Report Share Posted November 12, 2006 Any thoughts are welcome do you have leather corals or zoos? The reason i ask is that they can release lots of toxins. try smelling you finger after picking up a leather coral? you get a headace from some of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles Posted November 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2006 do you have leather corals or zoos? The reason i ask is that they can release lots of toxins. try smelling you finger after picking up a leather coral? you get a headace from some of them. Funny you should comment on that as the thought did occur to me. I've been reading through the wetwebmedia toxin section and it's something mentioned there too. I do have some leathers and zoos, but not in the area I worked in. Also the bi-colour blenny went missing a week ago, I would have thought other things would have been affected quicker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted November 12, 2006 Report Share Posted November 12, 2006 also your leathers are very small! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fay Posted November 12, 2006 Report Share Posted November 12, 2006 Bubbles do you run carbon, I think that helps to remove toxins. Where do you get your top up water from? And what are your tank tests like e.g. salinty,nitrate,phospate etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubbles Posted November 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2006 also your leathers are very small! True Bubbles do you run carbon, I think that helps to remove toxins. I do run carbon, should probably change it too now after the weekend's incident. Where do you get your top up water from? The tap I bought a RO unit on the weekend so will be using that from now on. Have been using Rowaphos to help minimise the impact of plain tapwater. And what are your tank tests like e.g. salinty,nitrate,phospate etc All of the above are fine. Haven't got my logbook with me so can't quote accurate numbers. Also, keep in mind this happened before adding any new water to the tank. I had only scraped that rear glass panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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