Tank flooded with auto top off

[Useful Idiot]

My tank is on the brink of crashing right now. I adjusted the water level in my skimmer slightly higher last night hoping to improve the skimmate production. Woke up this morning and the skimmer was basically just pumping water into the collection cup and into the bottle outside the sump that I have it plumbed to. Water all over the floor. The auto top off pumped all of its contents (7 gallons) into the sump since the level was dropping as the malfunctioning skimmer was pumping water out of the sump.

Salinity dropped from 1.024 to 1.018. My copperband is all but dead. I've removed him and put him in QT with medications but he's laying on the bottom, still breathing but in real bad shape. I expect him to die by the morning. My emperor angel's color is very washed out, a sign of stress. The yellow tang seems stressed as well and both are hiding in the rocks a lot. The ocellaris, chromis, flame angel, cleaner shrimp and all the corals seem pretty much normal.

I did a 15 gallon water change just for the hell of it but is there anything I can do while I slowly raise the salinity over the next couple days? The water change with straight scripps raised it up a point to 1.019. Should I even try to raise the salinity and put the fish through more adjustment? Or just leave it where it is for a few days and let them get used to it before raising it back up?

I added some of that stress coat stuff hoping it would help the fish a bit. Anything else I can do to help their chances?

[Diver Dan]

Let it evaporate to the salinity that you want it at, that will let them slowly adjust back...
It should not hurt too much having it that low...

Fish can handle the salinity change, that is why we can give them FW baths and they are fine... It is the corals you should worry about. Put the CBB back into the display, the QT will most likely stress him out more than low salinity...
HTH

[Techknowledgy]

All great words from Diver Dan. Something else you could do, shut off the skimmer. Replace the freshwater in the autotop off with ready to use salt water. As the water evaporates in the tank, it will be replaced by salt water and bring the specific gravity back up slowly. Sorry about your troubles.

[Useful Idiot]

Ok so I'll just shut off the auto top off for a day or two and let the salinity creep back up. Corals all seem fine strangely enough. Mostly softies and LPS.

I think the CBB is done for no matter what I do. He's gotten progressively worse in the display all day long until he was laying on the sand and I scooped him up. Might as well try some meds on him in QT, I'm certain he'd just continue to get worse in the display. Last ditch effort in the QT.

I'm very concerned about the emperor angel. His coloring is very splotchy and he seems very stressed. Besides the hiding and quick trips from hiding spot to hiding spot his swimming patterns seem normal and his fins aren't frayed or anything so I'm hoping he pulls through. Man, this is rough. Won't be a fun day at work tomorrow...

[Techknowledgy]

Try putting saltwater in the holding tank for the autotop off........... it will bring it back up a lot quicker than just letting it evaporate. Similar thing happened to me and it helped.

[Useful Idiot]

Besides the hiding and quick trips from hiding spot to hiding spot his swimming patterns seem normal and his fins aren't frayed or anything so I'm hoping he pulls through.

Check that, just noticed his tail and fins are starting to fray. He's not looking good, I'm losing a little bit of hope for him. I feel like vomitting. :(

[SuperDragon]

older versions of stress coat will further make your skimmer go nuts because of the thick aloe vera in the old mix. PM sent.

[Useful Idiot]

Try putting saltwater in the holding tank for the autotop off........... it will bring it back up a lot quicker than just letting it evaporate. Similar thing happened to me and it helped.

Ok I'll do that. No problem with the fish going through another salinity adjustment? I almost thought it'd be safer to leave it where it is and let them acclimate to that instead of putting them through another salinity acclimation.

[Techknowledgy]

It will be very gradual so it should be okay. The auto top off just adds a little bit over time........... gradual is what you want.

[Useful Idiot]

Well the fish seem to be getting worse, I really don't know what's going on. All my param's are where they should be. The saltwater top off has raised the SG back up to 1.020. Since last night.

The flame angel who has been fine looks terrible. His fins are frayed and he has a large white patch on his forehead. His tail is frayed to the point of almost being a stub. He's getting more lethargic and is starting to lean on the rocks. The emperor angel's color is more washed out and he's hardly leaving the rocks, along with the yellow tang.

Chromis, cleaner shrimp and all the corals seem normal.

This is very frustrating because all my param's are normal yet the fish are obviously extremely stressed and getting worse. I don't know what else to do, I'm watching my tank die.

[Useful Idiot]

I think I've come up with something. If my param's are fine, then the water quality couldn't be causing the fish stress. The SG shouldn't be effecting them either since it's coming up slowly. I'm thinking the shock of the freshwater in the system stressed them out to the point where they became susceptible to internal parasites. The CBB was a recent addition, so it's possible he could've introduced the parasites. Series of unfortunate events... So I'm going to assume this is the case and go from there because I'm really out of ideas.

Any advice on how to treat or is it too late already?

[Diver Dan]

Put him in your display, QT's are very rough on finicky fish like a CBB! Reread all of the above posts very closely, it is sounding like you have missed some of the very useful info people have posted... Dont panic, you miss the obvious, and you can always buy new fish!

Try to save what is left, by keeping the stress down, don't put any stresscoat in the display skimmers go crazy, now you have even lower salinity! Don't QT anything as that will stress them even more! Take your time and just get the parameters right. You should be fine...

DON'T PANIC! READ CAREFULLY!

HTH Trever

[Useful Idiot]

Flame angel died this morning. Haven't seen the yellow tang in awhile. Emperor angel continues to look bad. I'm almost positive they picked up some type of infection due to the stress of the salinity shock and the new addition introducing something. I just don't see the salinity change taking this large of a toll on the fish and not the inverts/corals. Params continue to be perfect, as they were from the start (minus salinity...).

Am I off base to assume some type of infection has taken place? It just seems so wrong that the inverts and corals are virtually unaffected by the salinity change while the fish are deteriorating one by one over the last three days and showing NO signs of improvement.

[Useful Idiot]

Emperor angel is on his last legs. Found him behind some rocks upside down, still breathing but not for long. The yellow tang is at least out and about more, but we'll see what happens.

The ocellaris, chromis, shrimp and all coral still seem normal.

So where do I go from here? Water change and buy more fish? If these fish were in fact hit with an infection is my tank safe to add new fish?

[Techknowledgy]

I would NOT buy anything new. That would just add even more variables. Do the water changes, not huge, but gradual, and wait.......wait a week or two and then wait some more. When the tank seems stable and healthy again, CONSIDER adding some new critters. Get a good schedule going for the water changes, 20% a week or so for a while. Patience is key.

[Useful Idiot]

I would NOT buy anything new. That would just add even more variables. Do the water changes, not huge, but gradual, and wait.......wait a week or two and then wait some more. When the tank seems stable and healthy again, CONSIDER adding some new critters. Get a good schedule going for the water changes, 20% a week or so for a while. Patience is key.

Yeah, sorry I didn't mean right away. I'd definitely wait a few weeks and do plenty of water changes and keep an eye on the params and other fish.

Thanks to everyone that offered advice and support. Pretty crappy thing to go through, but hopefully the worst is over.

[Useful Idiot]

One final update so you all can rest easy... The remaining livestock are recovering nicely. The yellow tang pulled through so all said and done I lost a PBT, CBB, flame angel and emperor angel. A yellow tang, ocellaris, chromis and cleaner goby survived. Salinity is just about back to where I want it and the fish are all eating and acting normal now. I'll give it a couple more weeks before I start to re-stock. Thanks again for the advice and support, hopefully others can learn from this. It was very hard to stay "hands off" but there are other fish in the sea :p:hideeyes: