Tank Crashed

[dk2nt9]

Short answer was already given: do not rely on what LFS says, read about establishing nitrogen cycle in a new tank (fishless cycling, the same for saltwater or freshwater) and not overloading it by a lot of new additions in a short time, leading to a crash. Quarantine for anything new. Aquascaping that allows access to any spot in the tank, DIY if LFS missed this. If anyone else contributes to the tank stocking and maintenance, the same applies to them too.

More advanced testing that you already have, at least at Salifert test kits level (Ca, Mg, PO4). Not so regular testing as knowing what is going on in your tank at critical points, is cycling finished or not, did you have ammonia and nitrites spike after new addition (if yes, follow "fish-in cycling" routine with dosing Seachem Prime and water changes).

Clean up and do water change. Keep it fishless for critical for this kind of parasites time, then start over after repeating cycling process. Good luck!

 

[Rmckoy]

One thing I haven’t seen any one mention is what to do about the copper in your display tank. I’m not exaggerating when I say this, but if it were my tank, I would drain and clean the tank, replace the rocks and sand, and run some cuprisorb once I got it back up and running. If you plan on keeping corals and inverts, copper, even at trace amounts, can stunt growth, cause tissue recession, and outright kill corals and inverts. There’s a possibility that running cuprisorb (a couple times) might get it out, but your rocks and sand will absorb it and then leach it back out, potentially for years. Again, if it were my tank, just for peace of mind, I’d throw away the rock and sand (or use in a QT/observation tank), the potential for it to completely handicap your reef is too great, I’d cut my loses and start over.

It was mentioned about adding copper to dt .

50% of the fault is the op for not researching and adding too much too fast. .
The other is the lfs for making a sale of that many fish knowing or assuming they most likely are all going into the same setup . Which will 1000% not end well .
Hopefully the lfs will offer to make it right , and the op learns from this costly mistake .

moving forward perhaps we can offer education to the op regarding to do and not to do as beginners

 

[Hellic]

You may want to check out the reef news network podcast. They have extensive, extensive information about reef keeping, and how to be successful at it. Its a great knowledge base when your a new reef keeper.