Cyanobacteria poisoned my tank after die off

[Hepatitis]

Ok, so its 100% my fault that this happened, as I did 0 manual removal on a heavily covered tank. I just did a blackout, then treated with chemiclean after. It was all in the water column and still on most of the rocks, and it died extremely fast.

Corals were good until day 2 of treatment, now every coral is dead. My inverts (all snails and my porcelain crabs, feather dusters, conches) are all dead, exception to the hermits and shrimps. One last little astraea snail is apparently the strongest and he's still rocking along, hasn't moved much, but he's alive.

Fish are ok it seems, my 2 clowns are kinda hiding out in the cave my tang resides in, which is very unusual as they're usually front and center all day swimming around. My tang is just fine for now, goby is good, and my firefish is being his usual self (he got pinched in rockwork during the blackout but has healed up quickly and wonderfully). My marine betta died 3 days ago, but he stopped eating after the treatment was done.

I've done a 100% water change (drained everything and put the fish/inverts into a different tank during). Changed the sandbed as well. This was done when the corals died. I've done a 10% WC daily after the 100% Timeline is treatment 4 days before Christmas, corals dead Christmas eve (most are still bleaching/being devoured by the hermits as they're dead).

How do I come back from this? Are the fish going to live? Is there anything I can do?

 

[brandon429]

Gotta lower light levels too way down from normal steady state that will help lessen bleaching, instate target feeding early mornings if you can tease out feeders with a drop of food twenty minutes before the feed run


regarding fish you’ve done well, can you post a current tank shot


you did everything I can think of to recover so far

 

[Hepatitis]

Gotta lower light levels too way down from normal steady state that will help lessen bleaching, instate target feeding early mornings if you can tease out feeders with a drop of food twenty minutes before the feed run


regarding fish you’ve done well, can you post a current tank shot

I'm running just the blues at a lower intensity right now. Haven't tried feeding, ill give it a shot on any parts not bleached tomorrow.

I cant do a tank shot at the moment, out at work right now. I'll throw one up tomorrow though

 

[Hepatitis]

Gotta lower light levels too way down from normal steady state that will help lessen bleaching, instate target feeding early mornings if you can tease out feeders with a drop of food twenty minutes before the feed run


regarding fish you’ve done well, can you post a current tank shot


you did everything I can think of to recover so far

Photo attached, the brown is diatoms from the new sand. All fully dead corals removed

 

[Hepatitis]

So.... update.

One of my clowns is resting on the sandbed, breathing rapidly, no outward signs of ich, velvet, brooks or anything else I know of.

Can the toxins from cyano really kill everything this hardcore? This is worse than when a cucumber tried to nuke my 150.

 

[Lyss]

It might be the Chemiclean? Make sure the water is well-oxygenated. Point powerheads at the surface and skim wet.

I guess some forms of cyano can be poisonous but IDK. I just got rid fo a blue-green algae cyano issue in my FW tank by doing nothing other than lessening the photo period by 1/2 hour, and adding some rooted houseplant cuttings to the sump for extra nutrient export. The cyano just kinda went away for good then.

 

[Hepatitis]

It might be the Chemiclean? Make sure the water is well-oxygenated. Point powerheads at the surface and skim wet.

I guess some forms of cyano can be poisonous but IDK. I just got rid fo a blue-green algae cyano issue in my FW tank by doing nothing other than lessening the photo period by 1/2 hour, and adding some rooted houseplant cuttings to the sump for extra nutrient export. The cyano just kinda went away for good then.

Chemiclean has been out of the tank for almost 2 weeks. I did a 100% WC after the corals died. And I mean a true 100% change. Fish and surviving inverts into QT, all waterout, all sand out, all new in. I'm really at a loss for this.

All thats left alive is the 2 clowns, a few hermits, a tomini tang, a watchman goby and maybe his shrimp, and a firefish.

 

[Lyss]

Chemiclean has been out of the tank for almost 2 weeks. I did a 100% WC after the corals died. And I mean a true 100% change. Fish and surviving inverts into QT, all waterout, all sand out, all new in. I'm really at a loss for this.

All thats left alive is the 2 clowns, a few hermits, a tomini tang, a watchman goby and maybe his shrimp, and a firefish.

Well, it sounded to me -- at least the way I read it -- that things started dying soon after the chemiclean treatment and before the water change. If you don't already it can't hurt to create surface agitation and increase oxygen to see if that helps the fish. They don't have any outward signs of disease but you never know if stress could have brought on some hidden issue and then they get sick. I tend to not immediately assume the worst but that is b/c I I've had a couple weird things go on w/my fish that ended up being environmental, and they recovered almost instantly once I figured it out.

 

[Hepatitis]

Well, it sounded to me -- at least the way I read it -- that things started dying soon after the chemiclean treatment and before the water change. If you don't already it can't hurt to create surface agitation and increase oxygen to see if that helps the fish. They don't have any outward signs of disease but you never know if stress could have brought on some hidden issue and then they get sick. I tend to not immediately assume the worst but that is b/c I I've had a couple weird things go on w/my fish that ended up being environmental, and they recovered almost instantly once I figured it out.

Unfortunately no, as much as I would like to blame it, nothing started dying until recently (fish wise). I've sent a water sample off to a local aquarium (and paid $300 for it) to tell me what exactly is killing my tank. My only thought is maybe anatoxin, but thats super unlikely.

 

[jtichenor]

Check for ammonia. Chemiclean is a bacteria killer. 100% water change + new sand may have caused a new cycle.

 

[Hepatitis]

Last update -
I had sent in a sample of the initial 100% WC water for analysis.
Test results showed a moderate amount of anatoxin-a and microcystin. They said it may have been higher, but UV light assists in breaking it down. There was also present, but dead, cells from a type of cyano called anabaena.
Some trace heavy metals were in there, but thats most likely from my water I use as I'm too poor to get a RODI system these days.

Fish have recovered, they're eating again yay!
One of the clowns is now insistent on terrorizing my goby though, he just goes over and hits him with his tail constantly until the goby bites him.... really don't know what that's about.

But yeah, not going to rapidly kill anything in the tank anymore. Lesson learned.