The Puffer Forum

Greetings All- I had my Valentini puffer (Antonin) for two weeks and my royal gramma for a few months when suddenly they both died last night. I put a papuan toby last night too and at first thought it was a fight. i brought the fish and a water sample to my LFS and the lady said my pH had really dropped to around 7.5. I do 15% water changes every week and always buff as well. my water tests indciate a pH of around 8.3.... I used two different test bottles and both had similar results. despite what the tests said I rebuffed a few hours ago.

THe green chromis and clownfish appear to be okay in the tank. the papuan toby is on his side and breathing although a little heavy. sometimes he gets up, swims around and then sit back on the shells. amonia, nitrite, nitratae are 0, 0, <20.

ANy ideas?

Id' say their test is wrong then. If you are using a buffered salt & have aragonite sand in there, your pH should always remain >8. Can you add an airstone?

the toby just died....

i can add an airstone....i really have no idea what is going on now...

That's terrible! Add fresh carbon to your filtration. Any chemicals been near the tank?

thanks for the help pufferpunk.

I used some windex to clean the outside glass of the tank last Tuesday afternoon. I made sure to clean UNDER the top of the tank. Everyone was fine Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then died late Friday night. I mean the conditions somehow got bad enough that the toby died in 18 hours!! I have seen that toby in my LFS for about 6 weeks so i assume that fish was healthy before brining brought home.

I added a pair of new Koralia 1 powerheads yesterday evening. I have used Koralia 2s and Koralia 4s in the past and not had any issues! Could some chemicals from the motors have entered the tank?

I was tought not to spray cleaners onto the glass but to spray them on a cloth, away from the tasnk, so no over spray can get into the tank. I would never think to clean the hood with it. I always remove my hood & clean with vinegar & hot water in the sink.

thanks for the help. i did not spray the cleaner directly onto the glass but intead onto a papertowel (as you mentioned). I did not clean the hood with anything except every so often using a wet paper towel to take excess salt off of it.

the green chromis passed away last night. i moved the two clowns out of the tank and they are both still alive this morning.

What could have essentially killed all the fish in 24 hours?

Could some toxin been released by the Papuan Toby?

Right now the 30g tank is empty, what do you think I should do with it? Should I move the live rock to a different tank or could that be contaminated? What should I do with the filters in the tank? Finally how do I know when the tank is 'viable' for marine life?

Oh, I thought you had the chromis left too.