Everything is dead..

[reeftopia]

When sea apples die they wipe out the tank. why I don't have them.

 

[Chris444]

I have decided to try again. The snails and crabs(apart from 1) all survived and I think are doing good. The anemone and xenia are doing good as well. The clownfish were under the rocks so I had to remove the rocks to take them out and I have decided to change my aquascape(much happier with it now)
The only problem I have now is the ammonia of around 0.35. But hopefully that will get down.

 

[ambrosiozoa]

the tank basically needs to recycle(if it ever actually cycled before) give it time go slow and make sure never to buy another sea apple again an apple a day makes your reef go away......

 

[Hermie]

Just for the record, there is no way on earth that it took Mother Nature only one month to produce that Sea Apple... Just saying...

 

[Hermie]

Whenever bad stuff happens with my tank, I always blame myself, not the LFS. Because if the LFS gave bad advice, it was my own fault for listening to the LFS. I just always take their advice with a grain of salt, and really I don't ask many questions at all. Just browse for 95% of the time.

 

[Chris444]

Whenever bad stuff happens with my tank, I always blame myself, not the LFS. Because if the LFS gave bad advice, it was my own fault for listening to the LFS. I just always take their advice with a grain of salt, and really I don't ask many questions at all. Just browse for 95% of the time.

Sure I agree with you. I am not just blaming them, however I dont think that they have acted alright and fairly. But at the end of the day I think the blame is on both sides, LFS and myself

 

[Dolelo96]

Whenever bad stuff happens with my tank, I always blame myself, not the LFS. Because if the LFS gave bad advice, it was my own fault for listening to the LFS. I just always take their advice with a grain of salt, and really I don't ask many questions at all. Just browse for 95% of the time.

It depends on the store and the people that run it. Mine won’t sell livestock that’s not appropriate for your setup. Their “advice” has saved me more times than I can count

 

[BestMomEver]

1 month old tank, with a sea apple in it. that's your problem.

So you're new to this hobby. please research everything you buy before you buy. sea apples are almost impossible to keep, and you just killed your entire tank because you didn't know what you were doing. otherwise, you'll nuke your tank again, doing something else you aren't prepared for, lose a bunch of money, and more importantly kill a bunch of animals for no good reason.

At this point I dont know if anything is going to survive in your tank. but you can try to salvage this. first run some carbon in your system to help get the toxins out. and do a large water change. maybe like 50% if you can. take out all the dead and dying things. take the sea apple out.

For the next few days continually do 10 g water changes, until the water is clear.


If there is nothing alive..... then drain the tank, start over with new water. run carbon. turn out the lights, and cycle your tank anew. dont put anything in the tank for at least 2-3 weeks. at that point, you can add a small clean up crew, and buy a bottle of copepods and throw it into the tank. you can turn on the lights.

After another week or two, do a water change, and slowly add livestock. nothing more than one animal at a time, per week, at least initially. so one coral or one fish. research before you buy.

We’ve all done things that didn’t end well. Your words are a tiny bit harsh...

If it were me, I wouldn’t drain the tank. If your cycle was complete before you added livestock, then do a few water changes, use carbon, and start again. Over the next few weeks, monitor your parameters. If you have any good bacteria left, it will start to do it’s job and your cycle will start again.

If you can’t get your parameters back in check, I would consider draining the tank but I’d give it some time before you do.

I know this is discouraging. Don’t give up. I had a velvet outbreak that killed all my fish in 48 hours. It sucks. I get it. Just take a breath and reorganize.

 

[themcnertney]

@Auquanut
Its a 80g with 15g sump. I have it for about a month. And its the only thing that survived.

Sorry for your losses. Try doing small frequent water changes until things change for the better.

 

[CindyKz]

Good for you for hanging in there. The best lessons hurt most...we've all been there.

I agree with BestMom, I would not drain the tank and I absolutely would not bleach rock or anything like that. Do frequent water changes and run fresh carbon. The water changes will help with the ammonia, which is likely the result of having dead stuff in the tank. Buy some Prime or another ammonia binder to temporarily lower the ammonia for the safety of the 'nem (I would do this) while you wait for the water changes to work. I don't know if or how sea cucumber toxin affects your biofilter; some bottled bacteria wouldn't hurt.

Once the ammonia and nitrites are gone you can start over slowly. Unfortunately we can't buy patience at the LFS! (if I could, I would). I had a sea cuke (not a sea apple but still) die in my tank and all of the corals on that end of the tank suffered, a few died - but there were no lingering effects.

 

[Deezill]

This part of the comment isn't needed here. You may have the wrong forum if you think it is.

I agree with @Demonic, This guy is coming here for help he is already grieving he does not need the extra grief. Who enters the hobby at an expert level? I am very interested in knowing if it was the sea cucumber.
I have heard those things die and wipe out a tank. keyword is if they Die they release toxins. Water change and some good carbon.

 

[Deezill]

When sea apples die they wipe out the tank. why I don't have them.

Agreed. They are beautiful however, they can wipe out a tank.

 

[BeejReef]

I had to giggle a bit reading about "the eye" and the bubble algae. I'm an English teacher who teaches Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell Tale Heart." The parallels to Poe's story and your post tickled my funny bone. You were talking about "the eye" and "seeing" what one wants to see (for you, a new Duncan head) when experience and knowledge are what are necessary to see truth. I think the truth is 'the eye' may become more capable of seeing truth, but it never stops growing sharper. In other words, we never stop learning no matter how long we've been in the saltwater hobby.

Busted.. my wife is an English teacher as well. I sometimes help grade ;Cyclops

 

[lbiminiblue]

I agree with you to an extent but can’t really fault him for scolding someone who just killed a bunch of animals through sheer negligence. That’s not ok in the slightest and he deserves to hear it.
That being said of course we should offer our support to deal with the situation.

OP, my guess is that you listened to and blindly trusted your LFS that the sea apple was a suitable inhabitant in a reef tank, please please don’t do that. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard the most ridiculous things being said by LFS employees.
If you ever see something that looks cool and you don’t recognize it, take 10-15min to browse the web about that particular species, it will save you a lot of heartache in the future.

He does not deserve to hear “scolding” for an innocent mistake that a newcomer is not aware of. No one deserves being berated for making classic beginner mistakes, just like I’m sure you wouldn’t enjoy hearing that nonsense because you made a mistake. There are much more classy ways of telling people that they need to research every purchase, and this talking-down attitude is just embarrassing.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

He does not deserve to hear “scolding” for an innocent mistake that a newcomer is not aware of. No one deserves being berated for making classic beginner mistakes, just like I’m sure you wouldn’t enjoy hearing that nonsense because you made a mistake. There are much more classy ways of telling people that they need to research every purchase, and this talking-down attitude is just embarrassing.

If the mistake was related to anything but live animals I would be in total agreement. However, these are living creatures we care for and that’s a fact that deserves our uttermost respect.
Not researching a new purchase is negligent and it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or not, the end result is a bunch of stuff died as a result of something that was easily avoidable.

And in regards to if I would enjoy a chewing out because I did something stupid: of course I wouldn’t enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t deserve it.

 

[Cell]

How in the world is a beginner supposed to know they shouldn't trust their local LFS? This is one of the biggest issues I have with the hobby and it's a huge failure point in the industry.

 

[BeejReef]

Whenever bad stuff happens with my tank, I always blame myself, not the LFS. Because if the LFS gave bad advice, it was my own fault for listening to the LFS. I just always take their advice with a grain of salt, and really I don't ask many questions at all. Just browse for 95% of the time.

To my mind, everyone gets (1) one "LFS gave bad advise" card to play. There's not a lot of equivalents in retail. You go to the home improvement store expecting to get solid advise on what kind of tile will work as a backsplash. You rely on the guy at the auto parts store to tell you which battery fits in your car. I can't fault someone for expecting the fish store to be a reliable expert on fish... once

 

[CindyKz]

All of the back and forth in this thread about what behavior is acceptable and what isn't is ridiculous. Points are all taken and dead horses beaten. How about we ALL stop being argumentative? If you would like to discuss whether we should berate and belittle each other we could have another thread. None of this is helping the OP get through the current situation.

OP, please let us know how things are going for you.

 

[lbiminiblue]

If the mistake was related to anything but live animals I would be in total agreement. However, these are living creatures we care for and that’s a fact that deserves our uttermost respect.
Not researching a new purchase is negligent and it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or not, the end result is a bunch of stuff died as a result of something that was easily avoidable.

And in regards to if I would enjoy a chewing out because I did something stupid: of course I wouldn’t enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t deserve it.

You can get the same exact message across without chewing someone out for a mistake they easily didn’t know they were committing. You only know to research everything if someone is directly guiding you in this hobby or if you have experience with similar hobbies before.

 

[Chris444]

Just orderded ATM Colony because of the high ammonia which is not going down so I guess the biological filter is not good. It should be with me tommorrow or the other day. I will get some updates once it is added.
Just to make things clear the tank wasnt 1 month old but the sea apple. But still the tank was too new anyway.