Help - Naso Tang died after regular cleaning

[Fernando Parra]

Hello Everyone,

I need your help to understand what might have happened in my tank this weekend.
So, I just had to clean my tank glass because some of the algae was getting in the way and the subtrate (sand). I didn't change any water this time but I swam a lot on the substrate leaving the water totally cloudy.
Ok, after the cleaning done, a few minutes later I realized that my naso tang was lying on the sand and after a few minutes he unfortunately died!
I did not understand what could have caused his death, only he died, my hepatus and my clown fish are super good.

Do you guys have any explanation or can you tell me what might have happened?

Thank you,
Fernando

 

[tlindsey]

Hello Everyone,

I need your help to understand what might have happened in my tank this weekend.
So, I just had to clean my tank glass because some of the algae was getting in the way and the subtrate (sand). I didn't change any water this time but I swam a lot on the substrate leaving the water totally cloudy.
Ok, after the cleaning done, a few minutes later I realized that my naso tang was lying on the sand and after a few minutes he unfortunately died!
I did not understand what could have caused his death, only he died, my hepatus and my clown fish are super good.

Do you guys have any explanation or can you tell me what might have happened?

Thank you,
Fernando

Possibly got to overstressed when you disturbed the substrate possible pocket of sulphuric gas was released a ph swing and the other fish survived through it.

 

[skjl47]

the subtrate (sand).

leaving the water totally cloudy

substrate possible pocket of sulphuric gas was released a ph swing

Hello; tlindsey gave my guess. Sand is known to form anaerobic pockets. In these pockets the anaerobic bacteria make gasses (think swamp gas I believe) and other toxins which are released when the sand is disturbed.

I stopped using sand decades ago and went to a more coarse gravel.

It is my understanding sand should only be about an inch deep. That it should be stirred up at least once a week.

 

[GamerChick5567]

I agree with the others, you probably hit a toxic nitrate/gas pocket accidentally. I would do a water change if you haven't already. I did the same a while ago on my freshwater 90, killed 2 big siamese algae eaters. Would probably have been the same thing on your saltwater tank.

RIP.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; I missed that this is a saltwater tank earlier so the following suggestion may not be practical.

I did this for a while and it worked out well. I had some extra substrate cleaned and ready. During a water change (WC) I would siphon out the dirty tank substrate along with the water. This required a hose with a diameter large enough to pass the gravel I was using. I would then replace the substrate with the cleaned and ready on hand. I would do a different area at each WC and so would eventually get most all of it a section at a time.

I do not do salt water so it may not be a practical thing to discard the treated water from a tank.