Dying sea cucumber?

[csreed]

Help! I messed up my tank & now my water is a cloudy white. My shrimp are all dying. I have a pink spiny cucumber & a green long tentacle anemone. The nem was attacked by something a few days ago, lost 1/2 its tentacles & looks rough. The cuc was doing well until about the time the water turned white. I can't be sure but I think he may have been injured. Would either one of these turn the water white?

Sal 1.023
PH 8.0
KH was a little high before tonight's water change - 200 ppm
Mg 1200 (trying to bring it up)
Ca - 440 ppm
Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites all zero.
Still fighting a phosphorous of 0.5 to 1 ppm.

Running act carbon & phos ban, changing water as fast as I can but limited by my RO/DI system (& now I'm out of salt for the night).

Any bright ideas??

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yes water changes now. ugh. po wont do it. thats fine
got an air stone? wal mart maybe for salt and bottled water?

#reefsquad

 

[csreed]

Any idea why the water is white? No air stone. Pumps are running ok. Should I pull out the cuc? Can I use table salt?? It's a 200 gal tank so I don't think bottled water will help me... I can get another water change done in the morning - think I'll lose more before then?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Any idea why the water is white? No air stone. Pumps are running ok. Should I pull out the cuc? Can I use table salt?? It's a 200 gal tank so I don't think bottled water will help me... I can get another water change done in the morning - think I'll lose more before then?

when my nem went into the power head my water was "white and cloudy.
the air pum is just for more air.
no table salt.
is the cucumber the cuc, id say yea. they are toxic.

do you have fresh carbon?

what did you do to the tank?

I messed up my tank

 

[jsker]

Pull the the CUC they can cause problem if they not healthy.

 

[csreed]

I changed out the activated carbon this morning. Tank looks just as bad. Also changed 30 gallons of water tonight, still looks awful.

Sorry, figured no table salt but never heard of WalMart carrying reef salt.

I hate to kill the cucumber - he's still moving around & extending his mouthparts. Think he's the problem? My anemone just dropped to the bottom of the tank. I think it's time to say good bye - what's a humane way to help an anemone go?

 

[csreed]

I had 3 big polychaete worms loose in my tank. Finally got so frustrated I pulled out all the rock. Flushed with carbonated water & then tried hypertonic saline. Finally got all 3, but not until I'd killed most of my live rock. I've been watching my ammonia, etc levels closely & adding rock back in slowly. Still, things got moved around a lot. My mortality is coming from one of the fish. When I took out the rock, someone went berserk & started attacking everyone during the night. I think it's my cardinal fish [emoji22]. Confirmed that my cucumber has an injury...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

ah gees. so sorry.
gosh I just dont know.

 

[csreed]

Sorry to be a pest - I'm at a loss here. I took out both the anemone & the cucumber & put them in makeshift tanks in case one pulls through. I stayed up half the night doing water changes - 4 of them at 35 gal each. The water is just as cloudy this morning! How did you clear your tank after the anemone disaster?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Morning. It's no trouble.
Mechanical filtration combined with carbon use.
I honestly don't remember how long it took to clear. I'll ask the Mrs in a bit.

No other losses?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Talked to the Mrs
Several massive WC. Pretty much 100% over two days or so.
If it's possible you can look into an inexpensive canister filter and stuff it with floss. I didn't have one back then.

 

[csreed]

Not that I've found, but I haven't seen my last remaining shrimp or brittle star yet. I think the rest of my fish made it (although the cardinal fish could die & I'd be ok with it...)

How often would you change the carbon? I dumped it again last night.

For filtration I've got filter socks & a protein skimmer. Is there more I should be doing?

 

[tj w]

Have you pulled out the nem? If it died they can definitely pollute the water. Lots of water changes and plenty of oxygen exchange are the best options I can give you at this point. Keep changing carbon and filter socks as well.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Depending on how you using the carbon I think. In a reactor probable daily. In a bag with good flow every other day.

A canister is extra mechanical filtration like a Sock. If you have some floss or sponge you could put in the socks you have. I'm guessing what's floating is pretty fine particles so the sock is clearly not quite doing it. But it is early in the process.
Skimmers are pretty slow IMO compared to mechanical filtration.

But I think the good news may be your likely out of the woods.

For the cucumber and nem you probably want to get an air stone and with a t and het some oxygen in there. Perhaps some sachem prime to keep the ammonia down although I don't know how much they put out and they do get shipped quite often and you can likely put them back in the tank soon IMO.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

When our nem exploded it was in a 30 g long. Running two aquaclear hob filters with floss and carbon.
Did 100% WC over the course of two or three days. We lost no fish or coral and oddly no crabs n snail. I don't belive we had any shrimp. So your shrimp loss is what is confusing to me.

You may want to check ammonia and I always add prime cuz it makes me feel better.

 

[csreed]

Thanks, everyone. I knew our anemone was struggling after the attack but I never saw him exude anything so I didn't realize he was polluting. Actually, I didn't even know they could do that while still alive.

Do I have to worry about the remaining cloudiness continuing to pollute? I just did another big water change - we're now over 150 gallons in the last 24 hours. It still looks terrible. After this huge disaster I'm exhausted & soooo ready to just walk away - will it clear eventually or continue to be toxic?

I still can't catch the cardinal fish who went berserk & started all of this. He ripped open my big serpent star & pulled 2 of the arms off my smaller serpent. Any tricks??

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hi. I dint get the notification.
No. The carbon and sock and water changes should start pulling it out.

Cardinal sushi is probably pretty good.

I hope your sleeping.

 

[Sully]

Are you sure a Cardinal fish did this? That just sounds highly unlikely.

 

[csreed]

No, I'm not sure but it only happens at night. I have a yellow tang, a hawk fish, a dragon goby, 2 small clownfish, a basselet, & some chromis (left). The cardinal has always been aggressive to the other cardinal (now dead by attack) but I've never seen aggression from the tang. The dead fish are seriously torn up. Could the tang make big holes? And I didn't think they were active at night?

 

[Sully]

Hard to tell but the cardinal would not be at the top of my suspect list.