NEED HELP...Not a good day.....

J

jfdjason

Guest
Well...I am having a bad day so far.... here is what happened.
I did some re-arrangeing of some live rock in my tank this past weekend. I also did my usual water change at the same time. I woke up this morning..Sunday to the sign of EVERYTHING dead in my tank. My tank is a 46 gallon tall tank, I lost a Spotted Damsel, Stripe Damsel, Yellow tail Damsel, Spotted Blenny, Coral Banded Shrimp, Chocolate Chip Starfish, and one other small fish that I can't remember the type. I do still have a clean-up crew that seems to be working consisting of blue-legged hermits and some snails, also I have a piece of Polups that seem to still be thriving. Here are my levels of the tank
Specific Gravity - 1.021
Temp - 80.7
Ammonia - .25 - .5
Nitrite - 0.5
Alk - says its High
PH - 8.2
Calcium - 400
Nitrate - 2.5 - 5.0
Phosphate - 0
All of this was done with a Red Sea test kits. I understand that sometimes changing things around can cause stress on the animals, but I didn't think they would all go done in one night.
Ever since I have had this tank it has never "done well" in my opinion. Would this be the time to "restart" from the beginning?
 
reefiness

reefiness

Active Member
well ill tell you this SG is too low 1.024-1.026 is ideal
ammonia should always be ZERO.
nitrite should also always be ZERO.
nitrate should be under 5 which it looks like you have for now but you tank is gona go through another cycle which will make all the ammonia turn to nitrite and nitrite turn to nitrate and you will end up with like 30 nitrates
 
J

jfdjason

Guest
to answer the questions. Tank did finish cycle...Tank has been up and running for 8 years.
 
hot883

hot883

Active Member
Stirring up the sand bu moving rocks around caused the spike and crash. Plus the specific gravity is to low IMO. It would be a good time to start over, but let the tank cycle through completely 4-6 weeks.
 
dexter

dexter

Member
sorry to hear about your loss. I echo the comment above that when you moved the rock around it stirred up everything and caused another cycle. With the cycle cam ethe ammonia and nitrites that probably killed your fish, as well as the stress.
I would suggest starting over now. Take everything out and put in tubs with circulation. I would siphon the sand to remove as much detruis as possible. refil with water and test to get salinity around 1.025. Add the LR after 24 hours of salinity check and let tank restart a cycle. Inverts should be ok once ammonia is gone and nitrites are on the way down.
*disclaimer* All the above is merely my opinion and simply what I would do.

Good luck and keep us posted.
Dxtr
 
O

oreo12

Guest
If you stired up the sand you could have caused a cycle But I would not have thought those leveals would have killed everything. Maybe somthing got into your water for your water change some kind of poision ? Dose your spose like your fish?
 
J

jfdjason

Guest
Thanks for the ideas. I can say this. The sand bed was never disturbed, all the rock moving consisted of 3 rocks that were the top of the setup, due to making room for a coral piece that I was going to get...key words "was going to get". I agree with Oreo, these levels should have not killed everything.
 
J

jfdjason

Guest
oh ya by the way...Wife loves the Fish....that elimanates that possiblity.
 
turningtim

turningtim

Active Member
I agree those levels wouldn't do that. Anything on your hands maybe? Something differnet in the WC?
I don't know but it sure seems after 8 years you know whats up. Thats rough in any case. Maybe you're right its just time for a do over?
Tim
 
uberlink

uberlink

Active Member
Did you do anything different with your water change this time? A new bucket or anything? Could anyone have used your water change bucket for cleaning or something? I'm just wondering if some contaminants might have snuck into your water change.
Really sorry for your losses.
 
A

anthonynyc

Guest
Originally Posted by uberlink
Did you do anything different with your water change this time? A new bucket or anything? Could anyone have used your water change bucket for cleaning or something? I'm just wondering if some contaminants might have snuck into your water change.
Really sorry for your losses.
I was thinking along the same lines....
Anthony
 
merredeth

merredeth

Active Member
You definitely should get the salt up to about 1.026 for inverts. Your chip probably died because of the salinity. 1.021 is too low for a chip.
If you are using a hydrometer, they are inaccurate and it is possible that even the 1.021 is not accurate.
Add the moving of the rocks around probably helped cause a spike. I would venture to guess the chip died first and was already on his way downhill and he is ultimately what caused water parameter issues.
I move my rock around and never heally had a spike because of moving rock. With a well established tank from what I have read, it generally has something to do with either water quality or salinity issues.
When you get the ammonia and nitrites down and raise the salinity I think you could be okay. When raising salinity or lowering salinity by quite a bit (which, in my opinion you are), I have dripped the new water into a tank so I don't stress anything. By mixing my water in 5 gallon water jugs and sticking it on a ladder higher than my tank and knoting off the end of some tubing, I shoot for 1 drop per second or one every other second, depending on the situation.
When I mix the water in the water jugs, I throw in a submersible heater and an airstone with some tubing to do the job. When I'm ready to start the drip, I remove the heater and don't experience much of a temperature fluctuation at all.
Just my 2¢ worth.
Denise M.
 
sweetdawn

sweetdawn

Active Member
i would go more with the contaminate idea. something on your hands or something in the bucket. i just did a major rearrange in my reef tank and didnt lose a single thing. and ive got 4 seahorses in there, and clams and lots of other things that are delicate
 
J

jfdjason

Guest
I am still a little baffled because the bucket has NEVER been used for anything other than the water changes. Both my wife and kids are well aware of the bucket and none touched it at all. I believe that the tank is going through some sort of a spike now that I have a large amount of brown algee starting to form in the tank. I am going to check the water levels again and just give it time.
 
mr_bill

mr_bill

Active Member
Looks like a new cycle killed the fish to me, if there was some poison from cleaner or whatever the corals would be gone. The levels you tested could have been alot higher during the night when everything died off, although IMO .5 ammo is high enough to kill fish.
 
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