Meltdown!

[jtp18]

I came home tonight from culinary school and to my disappointment ALL of my fish are dead except for my clown fish. The inverts did fine except for the cleaner shrimp. I put all the living inhabitants in an extra tank I had lying around (10 gal)The clown still doesn't look good, but I hope he pulls through. My question is when I syphon out all the water and fill it up again, will the tank cycle all over again?B/c if it will i don't want to put my coral and anemone in b/c of the risk of killing them too. As you can see,I'm in quite a perdicament. So all of your help will be SO MUCH appreciated.

 

[zoe]

How long was that tank up and running before everything started to die? What are your water params? You'll need to list those before anyone can help you.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by jtp18
I came home tonight from culinary school and to my disappointment ALL of my fish are dead except for my clown fish. The inverts did fine except for the cleaner shrimp. I put all the living inhabitants in an extra tank I had lying around (10 gal)The clown still doesn't look good, but I hope he pulls through. My question is when I syphon out all the water and fill it up again, will the tank cycle all over again?B/c if it will i don't want to put my coral and anemone in b/c of the risk of killing them too. As you can see,I'm in quite a perdicament. So all of your help will be SO MUCH appreciated.
I agree with Zoe, please list all ur parameters before u do something drastic like drain ur tank and refill it. If your water is very dirty, you change it and put it all back in your going to really stress the animals again. If nothing else tell us what your nitrites and amonia levels are at.

 

[jtp18]

The water perameters were Amonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-20 PH-8.2 temp-80-SG-1.022 and the tank has been running for three months w/ out any problems what so ever. So I dunno? But Also just as a general question will the tank cycle again if I were to drain it and start anew??

 

[oyam1]

how many fish were in the 32..
if over stock = stress and that = death.....
if water seems fine then keep it, dont do more than 5-10% water change. and recheck in 3-4 days.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by jtp18
The water perameters were Amonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-20 PH-8.2 temp-80-SG-1.022 and the tank has been running for three months w/ out any problems what so ever. So I dunno? But Also just as a general question will the tank cycle again if I were to drain it and start anew??
I doubt you would get a cycle again if u removed most of the water, but don't drain it from the sand, that woudl damage ur bacteria growing in it. You definitely need to get your nitrates down to at least 10ppm consistantly. But it seems highly unlikely that it would be cause of your fish death's.
When you say w/o any problems I assume you mean it went through a normal cycle correct?
Your water parameters seem within limits, salinity is low but not much, and ates are a bit high but acceptable for fish. Which leads me to think of other situations what could cause such rapid death. Contamination would come to mind, something falling in the tank? Are you using DI water or conditioned tap?
Are you adding any suppliments? How often do you do water changes? Sorry for all the questions but there are so many variables to slowly eliminate....

 

[jtp18]

Ok...I found the killer. And now I think that it was me. And I feel really bad :nope: I had an additive in my filtration system i forget what it was for. But it was something where when it was all used up it would turn brown, so it turned brown and and i decided to 'replenish' it again. Well to do that you have to soak it in 1 part bleach to 1 part water. So I did that and I rinsed it off in water thoroughly and replaced it back in the filter. So I assume that I didn't rinse it enough and it leaked into the tank. And I'm really sad now cuz I killed them. I know all of you will probably think that I'm unfit to keep fish if I'm going to do this type of thing. But I know its a learning experience and a costly one at that. So what I did was drain the tank all the way and redid it. And now it all seems to be ok. Although my anemone is still a little odd lookin...so I hope it all turns out.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by jtp18
Ok...I found the killer. And now I think that it was me. And I feel really bad :nope: I had an additive in my filtration system i forget what it was for. But it was something where when it was all used up it would turn brown, so it turned brown and and i decided to 'replenish' it again. Well to do that you have to soak it in 1 part bleach to 1 part water. So I did that and I rinsed it off in water thoroughly and replaced it back in the filter. So I assume that I didn't rinse it enough and it leaked into the tank. And I'm really sad now cuz I killed them. I know all of you will probably think that I'm unfit to keep fish if I'm going to do this type of thing. But I know its a learning experience and a costly one at that. So what I did was drain the tank all the way and redid it. And now it all seems to be ok. Although my anemone is still a little odd lookin...so I hope it all turns out.
Well we all make mistakes, we learn from ours and with the board we can learn from others to avoid them ourselves. Glad you figured it out, but bummer at such a cost. Did you totally drain your tank, like bone dry? If so your gonna have a cycle again and you should pull out ur inverts.

 

[jtp18]

No I didn't drain it bone dry. There was still some water left over the sand when I drained it. But I think that maybe the bleach killed the bacteria anyway?? So just in case I went out and bought some live sand to perk it up hopefully. But yeah its all up and running now and everything seems fine.

 

[msd2]

Originally posted by jtp18
No I didn't drain it bone dry. There was still some water left over the sand when I drained it. But I think that maybe the bleach killed the bacteria anyway?? So just in case I went out and bought some live sand to perk it up hopefully. But yeah its all up and running now and everything seems fine.
Well good luck with it hopefully all returns to good.

 

[tizzo]

I am curious to know what the additive was, and why you chose to clean it that way. Were those the manufacturer's directions?? I am curious so that anyone wishing to use the product in the future will learn from your "tragedy". I am sorry for your loos no matter what the cause.

 

[jtp18]

Yes those were the manufacturers directions to soak it in 1part bleach to 1 part water. The product was by Sea Chem. I can't really remember the exact name of the product though....it comes in a little blue box though...so beware of the blue box! LOL.