Water change killed all fish. :'(

[fattail95]

Hi there guys, inexperienced S/W tank keeper here!

 

I had had my clownfish in the tank for about a week and they were doing brilliantly. However, after I did a water change (25%) I noticed my clownfish were breathing extremely quickly and were being blown around by the powerhead. I was concerned and when I check them 2 hours later, they had died :'( . I scooped them out of the tank and just went away and cried, I was so upset that I had killed 2 living animals, and almost decided to ditch the hobby.

 

I decided that I had spent too much of my time and effort on this to ditch it, so I lifted myself up and decided to start again.

 

I went to my tank and checked the water after the fish had died. It was 8.4. It had NEVER been that high. It was always around 8.0, and it was too before the water change.

 

In retrospect, I think I know what happened. I didn't get the water temp and salinity close enought to the tank params, and I wasn't exactly slow in pouring it in.

 

I wanted to ask you guys, was it the shock of having water that wasn't similar enough to the tanks water being poured in that killed them? Or was it something else? And why did the pH go up from 8.0 to 8.4?

 

Thanks For Your Help,

 

Benji

[knives2886]

well water temp and salinity could have been part of it. i try to keep my salinity the same. i dont usuly worrie about my ph its always 8.2-8.4 it dotn fluctuate much. and temp could have a good part in it too.. what i do is i bought a spare heater and i put it in a bucket with my salt mix. and let it set for afew hours and i gradualy add water to my tank through out the day.

[joelq]

I'm sorry for your loss! But stick with it!

 

In my experience, salinity is the big one. You need to be pretty close to your display tank's salinity, or at least be slightly lower. Going to a higher salinity is very stressful on the fish. It's hard to tell without having done a water test on your change water, but my guess is you overshot the salinity of your change water, then raised the salinity of your tank water when you dumped it into the tank, which shocked your clown.

 

How long did you have the change water mixing before you did the change? As @knives2886 mentioned, pH is almost always at the right spot (8.2-ish) as long as you've mixed and aerated your change water sufficiently.

[ignatz]

Sorry you lost your clowns. It really sucks. Considering most recommend a 1 month quarantine, these were very new fish and it's possible they were sick when you brought them home. Since you found your pH to be higher than you expected, it's probably a good idea to check ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and alkalinity just to be sure they are where you expect them to be. If your numbers check out, chalk this up to bad luck. If the numbers aren't right, find out why and consider this an expensive lesson.

[knives2886]

Also how long has the tank been setup and what are your parameters? from adding fish did anything spike? could be possible your nitrate nitrite went up due to adding too much fish at one time. your tank needs to adjust to every fish every time you add one for its bio load to readjust.

[fattail95]

When I bought the fish the tank had cycled. Bacteria bloom, diatoms etc. Ammonia were at 0 all the time, so were nitrates, nitrites and phosphate. The salinity I realised was +0.002/3 out from the tanks water, this is what did it I am sure...

[knives2886]

lol and the ammonia nitrates and nitrites after your fish took a turn?? like i said adding fish can change your water fast due to bioload. so if your tank was good when you added the fish might be ok but afew days later it can change dramatically even if you add more then 1 fish.

 

dont let this 1 issue turn you away from the tank.. youll learn as you go. just stick with cheaper fish that are hardy.

[Gatotsu77]

If the pH had gone that high after a water change, I'd suspect hypersalinity, as was suggested above. Did you check the salinity of the tank and of the water being used for the water change prior to doing so? Did you mix the water yourself, or was it bought as saltwater at the lfs? Did you compare the tank water temperature to the incoming water temperature?

 

If there was no adjustment made for temperature, the incoming water could easily have been 10 degrees cooler than the tank. (when I am mixing up a batch of saltwater, the bottles of fresh ro/di I store under the tank are generally 65-72 degrees, whereas the tank is usually 78-79 degrees. A 25% change with water that was 10-15 degrees cooler than the tank could have easily cooled the entire tank 2-3 degrees very rapidly, which would be a potent shock on inhabitants.

 

If the water was sold to you by the lfs, I'd test any residual water you have to see what parameters were off. If you mixed it yourself, but didn't check salinity prior to pouring it in (ex: measured out 3 cups of salt for 6 gallons of water, mixed and poured it in without checking) you could easily have been way over or under on salinity, a major swing in either could cause a lot of stress.

 

If by some chance, cold water was mixed with salt, and poured straight in without temperature adjustment or checking salinity, the combined effects could easily have been lethal. I'm sorry to hear that you lost your fish, make that your motivation to be exceedingly diligent about checking both tank and incoming water parameters (at least salinity and temp) before performing a water change. I always ensure the salinity is exactly the same, and the temperature is within 0.5F.

[fattail95]

The F/T water was @ 1.022 and the W/C water was @ 1.024/5, so it was way off. The temperature was about 4*C colder. I can't believe I have been so stupid!

[7digits]

That much salinity difference wouldn't do it. You can probably rule out the ph as well. I would think, since you only had them a week, that they were not as healthy when you got them as you had thought. Clowns are some of the hardiest fish, and some even use them to cycle a tank(I do not recommend doing that).

[Coastie]

My salinity is usually slightly different but I also don't do 25% waterchanges. My temp is always within 1-2 degrees though. I've never had an issue but I am going to start matching salinity now.

[fattail95]

The water in my tank is always 7.8-8.0, but when I mixed the water for the W/C, it was right around 8.4-8.6. Why was there such as difference? Oh and I only left the water mixing for about 2 hrs...

[knives2886]

yes but what are you test parameters right now?? are they all reading 0 still?? i will be willing to bet ur nitrate is high.

[Gatotsu77]

4 Degrees celcius is a fair difference... If your tank was at 26*C (78.8*F) and the incoming water was 22*C (71.6*F) the tank would have seen approx. a 2*F decrease, rather rapidly. This shouldn't be too big a deal, but if the fish were blasted with cool incoming water while swimming around, that sudden change could have some effect on them. For an aquatic creature, this change might be comparable to wearing nothing but your underwear in 85 degree weather, and suddenly stepping into a giant meat locker.

 

While the salinity wasn't way off on the mix, it would be ideal to try and match it a little more closely in the future. I'm not sure the salinity change would have been enough to do it, but multiple factors together may have played a role. Is there any chance that whatever you had mixed the water in may have been contaminated by some other substances, or has it always been relegated to aquarium use?

[reef-luva]

R.I.P. clownies....sorry dude.

Think about this also, just because the fish "looked and acted" healthy, there is no way of knowing EXACTLY what condition they were in when you did your water change, maybe it was just enough to take them to fishy heaven.

 

We live, we learn. You didn't do it on purpose, none of us do....

[wmo168]

R.I.P. clownies....sorry dude.

Think about this also, just because the fish "looked and acted" healthy, there is no way of knowing EXACTLY what condition they were in when you did your water change, maybe it was just enough to take them to fishy heaven.

 

We live, we learn. You didn't do it on purpose, none of us do....

 

Did you mixed your salt water in RO water or just tap water from your house? Most likely the Chlorine in the water killed your fish. Even the PH and temp match, the Chlorine will kill anything in the tank within 2 hours.

 

Unless you sure it is distill water or RO water from fish store...

[northstar1357]

or maybe someone was spraying air refreshner around your home while you were doing water change, the only thing you tested was for ph. probably need to test more than this to actually know the cause of death.

[lqdKaos]

Wow, I have not had this problem before. I regularly do a 25% water change in my NC28 by siphoning out 25% and just dumping in salt water purchased at my LFS. I have never heated my new water.

 

I am guessing either the fish had other problems or there was something in your water that caused problems.