Everything dying in an established tank

[BlakeK.]

I have a 9 month old tank. Last week I turned off my return pump overnight due to a plumbing problem. I have a refugium with lots of macro growing in it. When I turned off the power for the return pump, it also turned off the light in the fuge. I fixed the plumbing the next day but noticed the fuge was very cloudy. When I started the pump, hundreds if not thousands of dead pods washed out. I watched my tank closely but params didn't seem to change much so I was guessing my established tank took care of any ammonia. Fast forward to a couple days later, I switched out my sump with a new one. Same rock, new sand. I also added a mantis shrimp to the fuge. A few days later and now all my animals are dying. Everything. Even brittle stars that I didn't know I had are sliding out from under the rocks and dying. What do I do? All the parameters are normal except for pH. pH is about 7.6. I keep doing water changes but what else can I do? Kind of desperate here. I don't want the new peacock mantis to die. He still seems fine along with a new damsel that I threw in there with him, but all the animals that I had previously are slowly dying.

 

[Reeferdood]

Do you have a skimmer??
It sounds like you might have a low O2 concentration due to lack of circulation. Did you fix your plumbing with any glue?? If so, perhaps that could be poisoning your system..
These are where I would look first.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

#Reefsquad, any help for @BlakeK.

 

[HB AL]

I was gonna say
Severe lack of oxygen
Deadly level of ammonia
Some chemical in the water killing the livestock
Or a combination of these 3.
To see the animals dying at a rapid rate points to something seriously wrong with the water.
Ph of 7.6 is a non issue.
I would test for ammonia, make sure tank is well aerated, and add a poly filter. I would also do a huge water change like 75% or more. Good luck

 

[JaimeAdams]

Did you remove the sand bed in the tank when you added new sand or did you previously have bare bottom?

 

[BlakeK.]

Did you remove the sand bed in the tank when you added new sand or did you previously have bare bottom?

I removed the old sand bed with the old tank and installed the new tank with new sand. But there wasnt that much sand to begin with. Maybe like 10 pounds worth, Plus I still have about 70 pounds of sand in my display tank.

 

[BlakeK.]

I was gonna say
Severe lack of oxygen
Deadly level of ammonia
Some chemical in the water killing the livestock
Or a combination of these 3.
To see the animals dying at a rapid rate points to something seriously wrong with the water.
Ph of 7.6 is a non issue.
I would test for ammonia, make sure tank is well aerated, and add a poly filter. I would also do a huge water change like 75% or more. Good luck

I have a reef octopus skimmer and lots of circulation. Something I DID notice today was the water was warm. Not insanely warm but much warmer than usual. Could that have contributed? I turned off the heater because I think it's going haywire. I dont know the exact temperature (I just ordered a temperature controller off amazon). Ammonia has raised a little since I posted. under .25ppm but I still added a couple caps of Prime. If it is the oxygen, how do I up my oxygen levels? I do have quite a bit of flow. I also started turning off the lights in my sump for my mantis shrimp at night. Usually I leave it on 24/7. Could that change in the plants "breathing" cycle be messing with the oxygen in the tank? Sorry for the bombardment of questions. So many factors here and it's so hard to figure out what is going wrong.

 

[BlakeK.]

Do you have a skimmer??
It sounds like you might have a low O2 concentration due to lack of circulation. Did you fix your plumbing with any glue?? If so, perhaps that could be poisoning your system..
These are where I would look first.

No glue, just new silicon... that wouldn't do any damage though would it? I've used the silicon before. Could not letting it dry completely cause damage?

 

[Daniel Waters]

Very sorry to hear about your tank issues! My theory on what happened is below.

It sounds like your refugium is within your sump and also fed by your return pump? It seems your first massive die off of pods was due to insufficient oxygenation due to no flow in the refugium and / or the heater cooking them when the return pump was off.

It sounds like your heater has malfunctioned and stuck on. If your heater is in your sump (and I'm assuming your refugium is there also), then that might have been the true culprit and overheated your water in the sump while the return pump was off for the one night, whereas before with your return pump on, the extra volume of water had been able to deal with the heat increases in a more manageable range. The mass die off of pods obviously created an ammonia spike, which created issues. Removing your sand and your sump also removed a lot of bacteria that lived on the surface area. You may not have had that much sand, but when you figure in terms of surface area, you removed a lot of bioligically active area at once during an already stressful period on the tank. Your tank ecosystem has been severely disrupted and your seeing the manifestation of the problems even days later.

The other potential issue might be a residual chemical on your new sump that you installed. Did you clean / disinfect it before installing it to your main display tank?

 

[HB AL]

I think you found your problem in the heater. Without an actual temp reading, it’s very possible the tank got so hot it was obviously to much for the fish to handle. That would also drop the dissolved oxygen level, coupled with the pod die off creating ammonia and contamination from the uncured silicone all of which would contribute to a mass die off as you encountered.

 

[BlakeK.]

I think you found your problem in the heater. Without an actual temp reading, it’s very possible the tank got so hot it was obviously to much for the fish to handle. That would also drop the dissolved oxygen level, coupled with the pod die off creating ammonia and contamination from the uncured silicone all of which would contribute to a mass die off as you encountered.

Yeah, that makes sense. Well, about everything is dead now. I've got a Mandarin who is surprisingly still alive along with the mantis shrimp and damsel in the sump. But ammonia still seems to be doing damage. Don't know how to get those levels down. I just keep doing water changes. And I cant just keep adding prime.

 

[BlakeK.]

I think you found your problem in the heater. Without an actual temp reading, it’s very possible the tank got so hot it was obviously to much for the fish to handle. That would also drop the dissolved oxygen level, coupled with the pod die off creating ammonia and contamination from the uncured silicone all of which would contribute to a mass die off as you encountered.

Well I found my problem. I used GE Silicon 2 (mold free chemicals) when making my sump instead of Silicon 1. I created a new post asking how to remove any remaining chemicals, but I thought I'd let you know that I found the problem and thank you for all the help! I seriously appreciate it.