I'm Bummed!

Well, yesterday was crappy! My 75 gal crashed. Lost rbta, peppermint shrimp, urchin, brittle star, turbo snails, and I think most of my corals. Not sure what happened as everything I tested is usual levels. Here's my question...do I have to scrape out the xenias, palys etc? How about the rock? Fish are ok. I did a 25% water change. Thanks for advice in advance.

Uh, crazy. That sucks. If the xenia and palys are for sure dead I would try and remove as much as possible so you don't have the added die off. Did you just look at the tank and noticed stuff was dying? Temps ok?

Usually there is something dectectable that can cause a crash. Can be anything from parameters (Salinity, Ammonia, Nitrates, Copper, temp) to equipment failure (stray voltage from pump or heater, etc).

Now something that is odd though is that you lost all inverts and majority of corals, but the fish survived. This leads me to more of a low salinity or copper related issue as fish can handle a drop in salinity (hyposalinity for treatment of ich) and low levels of copper while inverts cannot...


Have you added any checmicals to the tank recently?

Any cracked equipment that may have copper coils or other toxic parts inside?

Any metals touching the water like pipe clamps, magnets, bare wire, etc?

If you put your hand in the water do you feel a tingle? (or get zapped)

Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

It happened over night--when the lights came on it did not look good. No tingles, nothing different, salinity normal, can't find any cracked equip. just not sure. I guess I will try to scrub off the rocks and get the deceased off the walls and go from there. thanks

Maybe the nem died first and killed everything else off?

could be

Sorry to hear that, That sucks.

Sorry to hear this. Definitely get the icky stuff out as much as possible. No power failure over night?

...forgive me but the NEM? as in anemone?

One other suggestion while cleaning around look for any money in the tank if you have little kids in the home my Grandkids used my sump once for a wishing well.

What's the latest? Did things balance out for you after your last report?

Fish still ok. My rics are the only thing that made it. I moved them to my other tank and am in the process of cleaning/bleaching all my rock from that tank. Fortunately I had half of my blue cloves in the other tank! I no longer have xenia, mushrooms, palys or kenya trees. I think it will take me a while to restock and I think I am going to be pickier about what I put in there (the blue palys were EVERYWHERE) Still have yet to find the cause.

I've always been afraid of acid bathing. I'm not sure I've heard of people bleaching their rock. Is that really what you're doing? It's awesome that you have another tank to store things in until it's up and ready. What size is it? It would be good if you can start up the old tank again and let it cycle before you have to put stuff back in. I'm not sure if you're going to want shrooms and/or xenia again but I still have some and it's yours if you get to Bemidji. (I keep scraping xenia off my overflow box and it slowly returns! I guess it's so I can keep others stocked.)

Yeah I have done it before. Not a lot of bleach, but rinse, rinse rinse and let completely dry. I still have the fish in the tank with a couple pieces of rock from the 46 gal. I think I am just going to add one piece of rock at a time and let it cycle like that. They don't seem too mind that very much.

the reason for the acid bath is to unbind the nasty things that are in the rock. I am not sure that just bleaching the rock would kill the bad stuff in the rock?

Bleaching is not usually enough to kill it all off. Just for reference, I bleached a rock for 3 days and the HA and GSP came bgack... wierd huh?

Acid bathing will clean up all the locked away phosphates and other organics in the rock. I need to find some acid locally and getthat done on a few rocks of my own.

ok--what kind of acid was that and where do you find it? thanks

Muriatic I believe. I'm trying to find some locally but I have a feeling fleet or another farm supply place may have it. Otherwise you may be able to order it online.