Woke up and everything was gone :(

[benb5906]

Hey everyone… I’m 3 months into the hobby and so far everything was good until 3 days ago. First it started my royal gramma having ich so my LFS recommended a UV sterilizer due to all the other fish starting to show signs of ich. I installed the UV yesterday at 3pm and monitored it until 8pm - zero issues noticed. I woke up this morning… gramma dead, wrasse dead, 2 clown fish dead, all snails dead and now my Duncan coral is looking horrible…. As soon as I saw the crime scene i unplugged the UV and added a bag or carbon. The tank is a 20g AIO and I have had zero issues until this happened… super discouraging and idk what to do from here. Pics of tank and parameters attached.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Sorry about your losses. Unfortunately, a UV sterilizer typically cannot cure an infestation once it's gotten that bad. They are useful to manage Ich, and to prevent an outbreak from occurring. Once it's as bad as what you saw, the fish all really need to be treated in a medicated quarantine tank.

Going forward, if all of your fish have died, you can let the tank run fallow (fishless) for at least 45 days, and this will starve out the fish parasites in your tank, without a fish host to complete their lifecycle. Then, consider either purchasing pre quarantined fish, or quarantining new fish yourself.

Good luck!