My Tank crashed and no idea why...

Shark_Party

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Hello there.
New to the reef world. Did a bunch of research before jumping into this, yet still something terrible happened and I don't know why....
Tank had finished cycling after 4 weeks. So, I added 6 hermit crabs, 3 bangaii cardinals, and a skunk cleaner shrimp to the tank. The only thing I had in there prior was a yellow tail damsel that cycled with the tank. Waitied a few days, they all got settled in nicely. About a week later, I added a royal gramma, and a yellowhead jawfish. They both settled in, the gramma took a bit longer to settle. They were all happy in there for about 2 weeks, then...BOOM!

One night, I noticed that my fish were all breathing fast and hiding in the tank. I had done a water change about 5 days prior to this, using ROand salt. I thought, maybe they had an ammonia spike, so I quickly changed the water again, and added more bacteria to the tank, like i do after each water change.

It seemed to help for a little bit, but they were still being shy amd breathing fast. A few hours later, my damsel was basically white, floating at the top for air, then died.
The next day after work, I found a dead jawfish.
I went to get my water tested at LFS,..nothing.
No ammonia, no nitrite, PH at 8.3, salinity at 1.023, my water temp is at 78F.
My shrimp is still happy as can be running around the tank.
A couple days later, all 3 bangaii cardinals died.... I'm thinking the shrimp is a serial killer....not really...anyway..
For my setup, it's a 36gal bowfront, i have an aquaclear 70 HOB filter, a 660 circ pump, live sand, and shelf rock...

Any thoughts as to why all of the sudden my fish all died....? It's really discouraging and I'm debating on just going back to freshwater...
Thanks.
 

Crabs McJones

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Other than fast breathing, were they showing any other symptoms? White film? White spots that looks like someone sprinkled salt on them? Anything? I ask because if your fish are dead but your inverts are unaffected that usually points to some sort of disease.
 

Big G

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Here's some info on velvet from Humblefish:
Symptoms - Velvet dinospores will usually invade the gills first and sometimes kill the fish right then due to asphyxiation. If this happens, you may never see physical evidence of velvet on the skin & fins. Therefore, it is important to observe for these key behavioral symptoms of velvet:
  • Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
  • Heavy breathing, rubbing, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
  • Swimming into the flow of a powerhead (unique to velvet).
  • Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).
Here's the link to entire analysis of velvet: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499399
 

Big G

captain dunsel
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Sorry for your loss. Most of us have been through this. It's important to see this as a learning event. Velvet is rampant in the industry these days. I have been through this myself. Not fun. Welcome to R2R. Lots of very knowledgeable folks here to help you to enjoy the hobby. Here's the hard part. If it was marine velvet, you have two choices: tear down the tank and sterilize everything with bleach or vinegar - dry completely. Or run the tank for 76 day fallow. Any disease present will die off without fish to feed upon.

Here's a link with info for the quarantining of incoming fish: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/#post-2177961
 
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Shark_Party

Shark_Party

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They didnt have any signs of something being wrong. I thought it may be ick too but those symptoms didn't match.

Other than fast breathing, were they showing any other symptoms? White film? White spots that looks like someone sprinkled salt on them? Anything? I ask because if your fish are dead but your inverts are unaffected that usually points to some sort of disease.
 
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Shark_Party

Shark_Party

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I don't have a quarantine tank setup yet so no they all just went right in the tank.
The only thing I thought might have been a cause, was the parasite that i found on tje shrimp. But after doing research on it, it will only affect inverts, and once its cycle is complete, it will die off and it doesn't affect the shrimp either.
I'll read up on this velvet thing and see if it matches what happened.

Sorry for your loss. Most of us have been through this. It's important to see this as a learning event. Velvet is rampant in the industry these days. I have been through this myself. Not fun. Welcome to R2R. Lots of very knowledgeable folks here to help you to enjoy the hobby. Here's the hard part. If it was marine velvet, you have two choices: tear down the tank and sterilize everything with bleach or vinegar - dry completely. Or run the tank for 76 day fallow. Any disease present will die off without fish to feed upon.

Here's a link with info for the quarantining of incoming fish: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/#post-2177961
 

Humblefish

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Moved to fish disease forum to have more eyes on it.
 

LuckyPhil

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Although they settled for two weeks it's possible (not see where you got them from) from your LFS or supplier they used small doses of copper which masked the disease (sounds like velvet).

I know your new to the reef world but this is exactly why you need to QT and either observe for a month or treat.
If you don't have space or have the money you can use a $10 50L drum/container from the hardware store so there really is no excuse.

While you have 0 fish you can either leave the tank fallow for 6weeks to kill off velvet or 76 days to ensure velvet and ich/white spot is eliminated.
 
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Shark_Party

Shark_Party

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Yeah. It's looking like my hermits and shrimp are gonna have to be alone for a few months.
I got a bigger tank for my freshwater fish, so now I'll just turn the one they were in into a QT. It's just a 5 gal though, i don't think that'll be too bad considering i wont be putting large fish in my 36 gal anyway...?
 

Humblefish

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Yeah. It's looking like my hermits and shrimp are gonna have to be alone for a few months.
I got a bigger tank for my freshwater fish, so now I'll just turn the one they were in into a QT. It's just a 5 gal though, i don't think that'll be too bad considering i wont be putting large fish in my 36 gal anyway...?

I know it doesn't sound like much of a difference, but a 10 gal QT gives you more wiggle room when it comes to ammonia in QT. Things can change fast in a small body of water.
 

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