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If anyone can shed some light that would be great,
I lost 12 fish in one evening, my PH has never been higher that 7.9 and everything else was ok, ammonia was zero, nitrites were less than .1 but my nitrates had rocketed to over 50 in 4 days (tested weekly), I was doing 20% water changes weekly and everything was flourishing. My kh level is 20.8 so am confused if the PH crashed.
fish lost:.............................Fish Survived:
3 yellow tailed damsels.........1 Mandarin (Female)
1 yellow tang.......................3 Green Chromis
1 Magestic Angel
1 Scarlet Hawk
1 Green Chromis
2 True Clown Fish
1 Regal Tang
1 Coral Beauty
1 Royal Gramma
PS3 sand sifter starfish and a fire shrimp survived.


kind regards
Terry

I am so sorry about your fish. Now I don't no if you have salt walter or fresh. But I had the nitrates shot up on mine I had to do a fast water chang evry to days for a week. It came down good and is staying that way. Do you clean your gravel every week if it is a fresh water tank?

edith

Did the affected fish have any symptoms of illness? For that many fish to die that quickly, it sounds like something toxic might have gotten inside the tank. Have you used any cleaning products in the same room as the tank? Or is it possible you had something on your hands and then worked on the tank?

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I'm worried about those water parameters. The normal pH in marine aquariums is between 8.2 and 8.4, not below 7.9. Plus, any measurable level of nitrite is a bad sign. Could you give us a few more details? How large is the tank, what form of filtration does it have, and how long has it been set up?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

The pH does seem to be unusually low, but I think the nitrites are probably just from the ammonia that resulted from the minor decomposition of the fish after they died (before they were discovered and removed).

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

That could be true, and it raises another question. Were those test results taken after the fish died, or before? It sounds like you haven't tested for pH since the incident.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

That's alot of fish. How big is the tank and is it a FO setup or how much live rock is there? Most marine fish do not handle nitrates well and a reading of 50 by itself is enough to kill many but usually a sign of something possibly more serious going wrong. I wonder if a fish died resulting in an ammonia and nitrite spike that went unnoticed but would also cause the nitrates to be that high. While the ph is low if it was consistently at 7.9 it's not that big of deal and not likely to have crashed. If the ph has not tested at least 7.8 every time then I would question it. More things affect ph than just what a kh test measures. Allowing lots of detritus to build up around the rocks where it's not easy to clean can cause not only high nitrates but potentially lower the ph as well.

Also useful would be how much filtration is on the tank (what type and how many total gph of water movement), what substrate and how much is on the bottom of the tank, what salt mix you use, and what your source water is(RO-from a home system or fish store, distilled, or tapwater)?