my whole tank wiped out

psufan43

Member
I did my regular water change yesterday, today i woke up all epexct my koran are dead. I can not belive it. the only thing i can think of. is that somehow something must have gotten in my bucket that i make water changes left. all fish had for way over 3 yrs. dead over night. i can not belive it. I have posted picutres of most of them over time on this board. i just cant belive it. i moved the koran to my QT tank immiedtely but it does not look good, im currently draing the entire tank. and gonna take all the gravel out and start from scratch. its a great hobby but when drastic stuff like that goes wrong. it absoutley sucks
 

chrismilano

Member
Its happened to me and I feel for you. Best thing to do is just let the thing cycle and stew for a couple of months until you're nice and recharged for a new start! Its nice to start over when your done grieving - I just restocked after 5 months.
Best of luck
 

psufan43

Member
I did not even bother to check i was so diguested. i checked b4 i did the water change, and it was fine. i was just doing the regular water change. liek i have done for the last 3 yrs in that tank, nothing out the blue. thats why i believe something must have been in the bucket i used. no way ammonia could get like that, in a regular change when your only changing a little big compared to the size of tank. and they were all dead overnight, it defintley seems like something poisoned them.
 

psufan43

Member
i drained all the water out today. tomorrow im gonna take out all the gravel and rock. im in no real hurry. i have a small butterfly tank and african cichlid tank thats been up for a long time. so im just gonna take my time. get it out scrub it down and get it all filled by the wkend. then just let it cycle for a while. no real rush. most fish looses come when people try to add fish too quick. it just sucks though. im gonna loose all the bacteria in the tank. i also defintley think it was posion because the live rock is all dead, and so is the algie that was in there. it seems as if a bomb went off in the tank. there is nothing left.
 

masala4080

Member
Sorry to hear that man. Dont let this stop you, keep on going. Update us about the surviving fish and new tank set up. Good luck.
 

murph145

Active Member
im sorry to hear that...
there most of been something in the bucket like your saying it sucks when it happens like that....

my friend had the same thing happen to him in his fish only tank. he took out some of the decorative coral and cleaned it in the sink with a little bleach. he did not rinse it enough nor let it sit out a day to let any extra bleach evaporate he put them back in and the next morning everything was dead he had 2 sharks a ray a puffer and an eel (had way too much stuff in his 125g tank)
i wish the best to you when setting up your tank over again
 

guineawhop

Member
the same exact thing happened to me a few months ago...i've had fish for long time i'd say 2 years and then i did a water change like i always did and the next morning ALL dead. i lost everything including my koran. i also had a yellow tang and a porcupine puffer and sfe. the only thing that survived was the snowflake and that didn't matter cause 2 weeks later he jumped out of the tank. i tried restocking the tank thinking oh it might have been something i did wrong with the water change...i didn't keep anythingin the tank for like 2 weeks and then i added damsels again and they died within 3 days. so i just drained the tank kept the live sand and added 10lbs more after i filled the tank back up and added salt and everything was fine and dandy again.
 
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thomas712

Guest
Just out of curiosity what did you test before the water change. The main tank, or the water change water.
Also was it a new bucket/bag of salt?
Did it cloud up at all?
 

psufan43

Member
The main water. Now that you mention i thought the water was a little cloudy actually, but i was just thinking it was salt that did not disolve. because it was not like anything really extreme. but i was actally thinking about that cloudy water earlier today
 
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thomas712

Guest
Was there any, residue left on the water mixing bucket or tank? Sortof a white or chalky residue?
You could have had a bad batch of salt? I would mix up another batch and test it before you do anything else. Just to be sure that it IS or ISN'T the salt.
Thomas
 

psufan43

Member
its the same batch i have used for the last 6 months though. i usually buy the tropic marine in the huge buckets. im still have about 20 lbs left. im gonna throw it out though anyway i think and start totally over. but i will make a batch of it up to test it. but i dont think thats it. becasue i did a water change. in my butterfly tank the same day. but i used a different bucket becuase the tank is much smaller. so i mix alot smaller water up. so i only need to use a little container. and the butterflies are fine.
 

lizzard

Member
First, I’m very sorry to hear about your mishap:-(
Plastics can absorb chemicals from their surroundings and actually, plastics can leach chemicals. So if you had stored your water bucket anywhere near them that could have been what happened in your case. I was just reading about another reefer that had stored their buckets in the garage and the same thing happened, total tank crash! If I were you, I would not use those buckets again(at least not for your tank)
 

houndhome1

Member
We had a similar experience. Everything was going great and we got up one morning to a cloudy tank and everyone gasping. We took everyone out of the tank and put them in a 5 gal. pail (it was all we had) and did 100% water change and put in some live rock. Took a water sample to the aquarium store and the guy told us he'd never seen water tests turn such vivid colors! Every level was off the charts. We put everybody back in the tank that evening and, believe it or not, only lost 2 fish. It's been a week now and we haven't lost anything else. The culprit, we discovered, was a dying sea sponge...ick!:scared:
 
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osufarker

Guest
Stories like these make me think I should have guinea pig damsel to test new buckets of salt on. If I have ever got one of these "bad batches" of salt that took out my fish, I might be put in jail for fire bombing Instant Ocean's offices j/k.
I would be furious if I lost over a grand worth of fish because of salt.
 

psufan43

Member
yea im so angry, i cant belive it
lost koran
asfur
clown tang
hippo tang
percula clown
flag fin angel
red sea dejardian tang
300 gallon just decimated, after over 3 yrs of having all those fish, they were all fully grown show sized also, i have put pics up over time on here.
 
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