Attn: Bob Fenner... Reef trouble... hlth. diag. 9/1/2009
Bob,
Hey..How are you?
<Fine thanks>
Its been awhile since my last email. All has been well with my Reef tank until 4 days ago..
I have a 49 gal cube tank with a 10 gal sump and 10 gal refugium. My fish are Two Spot Bristletooth tang, a mated pair of True Perc Clowns, a Banggai Cardinal, Orchid Dottyback, and one yellow tail damsel who lives in the Fuge. My corals are mostly mushrooms, Zoas and 2 orange Monti caps.
Over the past 3 months I had been battling Dinos, which up to about 2 weeks ago started to fade out. Allot of my cleaning crew had been lost. So 4 days ago I added about 40 nass snails
<Wow>
and 30 periwinkle snails
<Too many...>
and some larger turbo snails. Up till I added the snails, all the fish were very active and eating well. It seals like since I added the snails, The Dottyback hasn't came out of his cave in 4 days, and both my clowns have pretty much stop eating and are very lethargic.
<Mmm, do you suspect something "came in" with the gastropods?>
Normally whenever I put my hand in the tank anywhere near where the clowns lay their eggs, the male would bite at my hand. Today I stuck my hand right by him and he pretty much hovered over my hand. Both clowns look like they can barely swim. I'm ready to put both of them in a hospital tank.
I took a flashlight and shined by the Dottybacks cave...he just laying in one position barely moving. If I stick my hand by there, he will swim around and move like normal. But then returns back to his same position in the cave. The Dottyback has also stopped coming out to eat. When I acclimated the snails,
Before I added them, I rinsed them off with tank water.
<Mollusks of many kinds are vectors of parasites of MANY kinds>
The tank has been set up for a little over a year and I've added snails many times with no problems.
My water parameters are as follows:
Salinity - 1.025
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 0
Nitrites - 0
PH - 8.6 ( i know kinda high)
Alk - 13 dKH
Calcium - 420
Phosphate - 0
I do 5 gal water changes weekly with 12 stage filtered RO/DI water, I run my skimmer 24/7, and I have a Phosban reactor which I run carbon. But I haven't had going in about 3 weeks. Should I move the affected fish to a hospital tank?
<I would try some (serial, daily) large water changes myself... but have the other tank ready... And I'd remove most of the snails>
I would appreciate any help you can give me...Thanks!!!!!!!
<Welcome. Bob Fenner>

Aeration and massive fish kill  8/12/09
I have a 200 gal reef aquarium, built above a bar, so the water level is about 7' above ground. Geometry is a bit too deep for surface area (L shaped tank) as the tank is Plexi and the two covers have about a 1/2 in. gap for air exchange. Lighting is enclosed with forced air ventilation (actinic & metal halide). 25 gal sump with mechanical filter and protein skimmer.
Separate bio filter with own circulation. Additional mechanical filter with own circulation. Main circulation from a weir through sump at 1400gph.
Tank is 3 years old. Lots of live rock, snails, hermits, serpentine starfish, bubble tip, and:
Hippo tang
Flame Hawk
4 Damsels
Sail Fin Tang
Chrysurus Angle
Striped Wrasse (2)
Sergeant Major (2)
Neon Dottyback
For first 9 months, fought dropping ph. Alkalinity way too high for ph.
Tested container of water with aeration while monitoring ph. Yep, rose very quickly. Too much carbon dioxide (carbonic acid generation).
<Not uncommon.>
Put a couple of air stones in sump with small aeration pump. Helped. Got 6 CFM linear air pump, large aeration stone, and installed in sump. Put pump outside for less CO2 in source.
<Good>
Tank ran great for next 2+ years.
Linear pump died, so ordered another. Replaced with small "air bubbler type" pump until new one arrived.
Normally clean/10% water change each week, but schedule resulted in a 3 week cycle.
Got new pump, installed. Next day (yesterday) all but a small Sergeant Major were dead! No problem with inverts.
<!>
Full chemistry showed nothing! ph 8.2; Nitrate .5ppm; 0 ammonia and nitrite; SG 1.025; No copper; temp 79 (chiller installed). Did have higher than normal smell of nitrogen from bio filter flow.
Any idea what happened?
Ralph
<Only a general guess... some sort of "wipe out syndrome" that did not affect the invertebrates, and left the one, hardy damsel extant amongst the fishes. Please read here re: http://wetwebmedia.com/toxicwipeoutf.htm
and the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

Re: fish death  8/13/2009
I'm unable to find Poly Filters here at present time the available products
I can get are Purigen and Chemi-Pure. Will either of these products work?
<For the purposes of toxic removal, yes. For diagnosis of identification by colour, no. Bob Fenner>

More Re: Cardinal gill problem 11/13/08 Hi Scott, Thank you for your response. <Welcome Wendy.> I haven't added anything new for quite some time. No painting or spraying of any kind is allowed near the tank, not even to clean the glass. I use a refractometer to test my SG and it's been calibrated with RO/DI water. Since he's acting normal otherwise I'll wait for a response from Bob. <I will drop this in his box right now. He is only a day or two out at this point.> Thanks again, Wendy <Thank you, Scott V.> <<Most "cases" in which there appear to be "hard breathing", more or less permanent distension of gills are due to issues of gas distribution (low DO mostly, Dissolved Oxygen) or some sort of in situ poisoning... I see that there is appreciable Blue Green Algae present in this system... this might well "be it" here. Please see/search WWM re BGA et al. toxic effects. Perhaps start here: http://wetwebmedia.com/toxictkendof.htm Bob Fenner>>