Please Help--tank Crashing

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newreefers

Guest
I came home from work today and this is what I found:
all fish dead
starfish dead
flame scallop dead
no corals opened up
shrimp molting
leather coral excreating this yellow looking stuff, looks like he is peeling like you do after a sunburn. see picture
I tested my water, here are the results
salinity 1.024
temp 80
ph 8.3
trite 0.5
trate less than 5
amonia 0.5 ( probably from all the death)
what has and is happening to my tank?????:eek:
 
saltyrich

saltyrich

Active Member
I'd do an immediate water change and then add some Kent's detox until you work it out. The detox will knock down the ammonia and nitrites.
 
bdhough

bdhough

Active Member
Wow... Somebody dropped a bomb in there. My guess is something died right after you left and has been throwing your water off all day and thus everything freeked. BUT it had to have been drastic. Was your equipment off? Maybe there was an electrical spike in the tank caused by a powerhead or something....
 
N

newreefers

Guest
all equipment on, no power outage today, I put some detox in already, I checked the tank this morning and all was ok. My husband just told me when he put some livestock in there yesterday, he said he didn't net it, but dumped the lfs water into my tank. I have a really bad feeling about that--do you think that is what happened?
 
N

newreefers

Guest
the stupid cucumber was the one thing that survived and was doing fine, however, I removed him in case he started to stress or anything later on.
 
N

newreefers

Guest
just found out the lfs puts copper in their tanks, and now is in mine, how do I get it out, what else is lost?.. all my lr or ls??? I am moving all corals to the qt tank in order to try to save them. please help..
 
beefcake

beefcake

Member
I heard that some fish stores put copper in their water to make their fish look better. If they have any parasites the copper will not cure it but it will make the fish look like a perfect specimen! I wouldn't buy from them again.
 
azonic

azonic

Active Member
If your shrimp is still alive the copper concentration can't be overly large. I wouldn't worry about it. I think you can get test kits for it....
I would do a MASSIVE water change, like 50%. Do 2 or 3 of these over the course of a few days....your ammonia hasn't spiked much at all..your levels don't show what caused the crash in the tank...because copper would not kill fish....hrm..
Anything sprayed in or around the tank? cleaners, etc?
 
N

newreefers

Guest
no cleaners at all, nothing out of the ordinary, except the lfs water.
shrimp now dropping like flies, corals are melting, do you think the mass die off of the melting corals could have released something in the water to kill the fish? what will this do the the lr and ls???
how long can my corals live with out my powerful lights, this other tank has zip for lights, it's just a qt tank.
main tank now yellow and cloudy. most everything that isn't dead or melting is now in the other tank.
Am I transferring the problem to my other tank now???
talk about stressing out - I am in overload now.
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
newreefers
What livestock was added along with the LFS tankwater ?
Do you use any Rio powerheads ?
I suppose if I was in this unfortunate situation - I'd get a copper test kit and see if I could detect any levels in the tank.
Might have to start over - or at least as already suggested - start a series or large water changes over the next several weeks.
Sorry to hear of this :(
 
N

newreefers

Guest
hubby added a fish, called me to tell me about it and I told him to quick get it out of the main tank and into the qt tank which he did. By the way, that fish is fine, eating and swimming great in the qt tank. I don't usse rio's heard too many bad things about them here on the bb. The leather coral (see pic) was the first thing to go south. what ever that yellow stuff was coming off it leached into the tank and turned the tank yellow, It was everywhere. Would that have poisoned my tank?
how long will me corals last without the pc lights?
 
broomer5

broomer5

Active Member
I don't know how long corals will survive without lighting - but I would imagine they will shut down and be okay for several days.
They travel great distances when harvested and shipped overseas to the distributors - then they in turn package and ship them to us again. They still live.
I'd start doing water changes, run a ton of carbon and get some polyfilters.
Change the carbon everyday, and watch the poly's for color change.
I believe they will turn color depending on the toxin they remove.
Copper test kit.
More water changes.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Start mixing up batches of saltwater - like 2-3 times what you normally mix up ....... you're going to need a lot of new aerated saltwater my friend.
Good luck - I feel for you.
 
N

newreefers

Guest
I am running carbon, detox, phosguard, and polyfilters, I am going to do a 50% water change today, and every 3 days for a total of 4 water changes. I am going to take water to lfs for testing for copper and such that I don't have a kit for when they open today. I figure by the time the water changes are done, my corals are going to have to have some light. I'm gonna put them back into the tank, but not add fish for a few weeks. My polyfilters are pulling green/brown stuff out, skimmer is it's usual brown gunk, do you think the lr and ls will be ok?
 
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