My wife and I went on Holiday for 2 weeks and came back to a disaster. My 18yr old nephew looks after my 3 tanks when we go away. Came back and all my fish in my 75 gallon were looking bad. Flame Angel died, six line wrasse died, Anthias died, Royal gramma died, flame hawkish died, 10 snails died. Surviving fish 2 Cardinals, yellow tang, 3 osc clowns, scooter blenny, 2 bubble tip anemones, long spine urchin. My skimmer was bubbling like no tomorrow . There was some string like jelly hairs floating in the tank.. Water tested fine only high reading was nitrates at 20ppm which is not bad. He put prime in there every 3rd day just in case anything got high. Had to move survivors to my 55gl tank. Seems like some type of chem might have been introduced into tank.or a bad parasite thing I'm at a loss. We did 2 95 percent changes and the fish all were breathing heavy Still that's when I put them into the 55. Now they all seem fine in the 55. If my tank is tainted do I need to trash all 100lbs of LR and 75lbs of live sand and start over? My wife and are Very saddened and at a loss. Please need suggestions. Thank you kindly in advance.
Tank Crash
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Retro Reefer
Slow and steady wins the race!
Sounds like a chemical posing to me also but you may want to check for stray voltage in your tank.. running lots of carbon and maybe a poly filter will help pull any contaminates out of water.
I would suggest running some (a lot) of carbon in a reactor. You should also get some polyfilter (seachem?) and put it in a high flow area. It will detect many toxins by color change.
Retro Reefer
Slow and steady wins the race!
My skimmer is still going nuts. I'm thinking soap or cleaning agent was used when we were gone.He said he used no chemicals for cleaning before I asked him if he did so I'm guessing that is the problem I geuss that the tank is a total loss.Start from scratch?
Did you test for ammonia? You said all testing is normal, but people dont often test for ammonia in an established tank. But if something died and skimmer is going crazy, it would be one of my first tests.
Are you suggesting that cleaning agents are involved because he offered up that info before you asked? No matter; its moot at this point (although knowing would certainly dictate your plan of action).
I would break the tank down and start over fresh. I wouldn't trash the live rock, but I would definitely soak them in distilled vinegar. Also give the tank a good cleaning with the vinegar as well.
Now that I'm writing about it, why not run the tank with fresh RODI and add a few gallons of distilled vinegar to it? If it is chemical, you will be reaching everything that was touched by the chemical... plumbing, return pump(s), power heads...
Just some ideas.
Mastiffsrule
Where ever you go, there you are, so be nice 2 you
Sorry about all the losses. Definitely not a good way to come home.
If you have the tank basically fallow I would try to figure out what happens before throwing in the towel. Poly pad, cuprisorb and MetaSorb can pick up certain metals. I would not expect Ammonia if prime was put in every 3 days.i am wondering if maybe someth8ng was dosed with the prime that could have set off a bad reaction. Can’t hurt to go thru all the things he did just to be sure.
If you have the tank basically fallow I would try to figure out what happens before throwing in the towel. Poly pad, cuprisorb and MetaSorb can pick up certain metals. I would not expect Ammonia if prime was put in every 3 days.i am wondering if maybe someth8ng was dosed with the prime that could have set off a bad reaction. Can’t hurt to go thru all the things he did just to be sure.
Sarah24!
2500 Club Member
Hello,
Not actually knowing what happened while you were away really makes it hard to come up with a plan of action. But first I assume everything is out of the tank (fish and corals). I wouldn’t test it down unless I just hated the rock scape and wanted to start over. If your going to run the tank again, draining the salt water out, then fill with fresh rodi. Find your water volume and then dose vinegar like others have mentioned and do it all at once.
If we had an idea of what was placed in it then it would certainly help. I mean for all we know someone could have dropped a battery behind the rock work and it’s leaking chemicals. Who knows. But say they did nothing, and you tear it all down, you have wasted time, but have a peace of mind there won’t be any new problems. Either way you go with this it’s a gamble, one is hope nothing is in it and the vinegar cleans it, but again is there a battery in there (for example or something metal). Personally if I had everything out, and good, I’d tear the tank down rinse all the rock in fresh salt water, rinse the sand and recycle the tank. I’d then test water with an easy coral or a frag etc. I defended wouldn’t throw all my fish and corals back in till I know it’s safe.
Terribly sorry this happened it’s one reason I don’t go on vacations. There is always that risk but hey in theory I’m at the beach 7 days a week in my living room with my little ocean.
Not actually knowing what happened while you were away really makes it hard to come up with a plan of action. But first I assume everything is out of the tank (fish and corals). I wouldn’t test it down unless I just hated the rock scape and wanted to start over. If your going to run the tank again, draining the salt water out, then fill with fresh rodi. Find your water volume and then dose vinegar like others have mentioned and do it all at once.
If we had an idea of what was placed in it then it would certainly help. I mean for all we know someone could have dropped a battery behind the rock work and it’s leaking chemicals. Who knows. But say they did nothing, and you tear it all down, you have wasted time, but have a peace of mind there won’t be any new problems. Either way you go with this it’s a gamble, one is hope nothing is in it and the vinegar cleans it, but again is there a battery in there (for example or something metal). Personally if I had everything out, and good, I’d tear the tank down rinse all the rock in fresh salt water, rinse the sand and recycle the tank. I’d then test water with an easy coral or a frag etc. I defended wouldn’t throw all my fish and corals back in till I know it’s safe.
Terribly sorry this happened it’s one reason I don’t go on vacations. There is always that risk but hey in theory I’m at the beach 7 days a week in my living room with my little ocean.
w2inc
Active Member
Sounds like a chain reaction from one fish dying, or a sea cucumber dying and poisoning the tank. I would wait and see if the skimmer clears things out and how things hold up. If you are worried about metal poisoning get an ICP test for under $50. If you are worried about organic poisoning add carbon and let your skimmer do its thing. Possibly add some kind of algae in your sump. It will pull all kinds of bad metals and compounds out of your tank.
If you skimmer is going nuts then there is a really good chance that it is pulling whatever the bad thing is out of your water. Dont throw your stuff away. One good ammonia spike can burn fishes gills and leave them gasping. It would be gone 12 hours later and you would never know. Just wait.. Then reintroduce a Molly or something you are less attached to. See where things go from there.
Sorry to hear about your loss. Thanks for letting us help you.
If you skimmer is going nuts then there is a really good chance that it is pulling whatever the bad thing is out of your water. Dont throw your stuff away. One good ammonia spike can burn fishes gills and leave them gasping. It would be gone 12 hours later and you would never know. Just wait.. Then reintroduce a Molly or something you are less attached to. See where things go from there.
Sorry to hear about your loss. Thanks for letting us help you.
ScottR
Surfing....
One thing that wasn’t really addressed here was the string-like jelly hair. Was it algae? Is it possible he overfed it? I’m assuming you used an auto feeder. But could be a mass amount of food and caused the nitrifying bacteria to bloom and consume a lot of the oxygen. I would even get an oxygen test from salifert just to check.
w2inc
Active Member
In my experience stringy like jelly hair is bacteria. Who knows what kind, just the kind that loved the extra food it was getting. It always goes away. Most of the time in my system it is coming from something that just died like a snail.
Water changes dilute whatever has gone on and will buy you time while you problem solve. I dont think it is over with for your tank. It would be nice to find out what has happened so you can prevent it in the future.
Water changes dilute whatever has gone on and will buy you time while you problem solve. I dont think it is over with for your tank. It would be nice to find out what has happened so you can prevent it in the future.
ScottR
Surfing....
So if the hair stuff is bacteria, I'm guessing either tank was overfed and/or something died and wasn’t plucked out.
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