What happened ????????

ilovemytank

Member
I just went through every tank owners worst nightmare ! Tank crash ! I have no idea what happened and am having a weird experience getting it going again. Parents were in town on vacation and loved watching my tank, especially my 14" in diameter carpet anenome taking in a large shrimp that I fed him every other day. This tank has been up and running for years with very healthy coral and fish life. Went to sleep and everything was ok. the next day the anenome turned massive size rocks over like he was retreating from something. I had three huge different types of soft leather corals witch retreated into nothing. My mushrooms all shrunk up and started falling off the rocks. the sponge growth started turning into jelly gook. the anenome was shedding layers off gook. I checked the water and everything wasa testing right. I have two 100 gallon roll up tubs so I made fresh water and started pulling my live rocks and corals that seemed like I could save them and put it all in the tubs. I kept water movement and lighting on these rocks. All my snails turned to liquid rotten death. I had a massive health population of mushrooms that was always expandeding but they were all dying.in my sump all of my caulerpa algea died. I would have glass anenomes in the back drain area in the tank where my threadfin butterfly coulnd't get too. it all died too. the only things that survived was my 9"think and health Blue hippo tang, My yellow hawain tang he's big too. then mythreadfin butterfie, three clowns a few gobiesand a wrasse.what happened . everything died. zI washed all the rocks with fresh water and then rebuilt the tank. this time i mussed pvc piping to build tunnel systems and a cool habitat. the fish are fime. eating normal.i'm not seeing any detrius or algea in the tank yet i have no cleaners or anything. My skimmer is producing a large thick sludge. anyone have a clue what could of happened ? all water parameters test normal. pleassse help !!!!!!!!!!
 

spanko

Active Member
For that massive of a die off it sounds to me like some type of chemical reaction. Have you been cleaning, painting etc. near the tank? Put your hands in the water without washing them? Anything of this sort?
 

flower

Well-Known Member

OMG..so sorry to hear. +1 on what Spanko said.. Fish are more tolerant than coral and inverts
Also check for electric shock, and double check for nitrates, since the fish are fine but all coral and inverts died. With all that death I don't see how your tests could say all is well, your tests have to be off. Ammonia alone should be sky high. The skimmer is pulling sludge because of all the death in the tank.
 

ilovemytank

Member
I've tested my water several times since this has all begun. My ammonia was high at first but several water changes later its in the normal range. I never thought of it before but during the day before I saw that reaction my father had used a cloth and endust to clean the wood on the outside of the stand and canopy. He put a little bit on a towel not spayed by the tank and then scrubed it. If this is the cause what will it take to put new snails and corals into the tank. A week after getting the tank put back together I bought two small anenomes, five turbo snails and a rock with about six mushrooms on it. I drip acclimated everything and they seemed ok but after transfereing them fully into the tank they were dead by the next day. Question # 2 Why am I not getting any detrius on the sides of the tank ? I haven't had to clean the glass and I'm not getting any algea growth at all. I have asome more caulepora that should be arriveing today or tomorrow for the refugium. Even though I use only RODI water I usualy get a little algea growth where the water overflows into the reef ready section. I have no signs of algea not even on the rocks. Any clues ?
 

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
The toxin killed off the plant life also?
Just guessing
that is hard to do but it is possible.
 

ilovemytank

Member
I had a lot of claulerpa ( not sure if I'm spelling that right ) in my refugium when it happened. it always had a deep green color. It was the last thing I pulled out of my tank and about all of it was a clear almost see through color. Hopefully when I add my new shipment in the next couple of days, it will start bringing the life back into the tank.
 

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
Under stress caulerpa will "go sexual" which will increase ammonia in the tank. It does turn clear in the process. and the tank turns cloudy as well.
I had that happen once in 8 years but I did not have the massive die off as a result. The ammonia want back down very quickly.
Hopefully things are getting back to normal.
Don't know if it helps but I had a similiar things happen after using latex type gloves. I think the gloves had a anti biotic on them. Ammonia pegged the api test kit (8ppm) within hours and I lost a yellow tang in 12 hours. I managed to save the rest of the fish (which were under extreme stress) by moving them to another tank. But lost all my corals (which were easy softie types). The ammonia remained at the 8ppm level for a week until I rerinsed my wet/dry filter media (crushed oyster shells). After that, the ammonia dropped down in a day. NitrItes pegged the test kit for 1-2 weeks then nitrates finally rose and dropped down after a few more weeks.
Your situation does not sound that bad.
my .02
 
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