Destroyed my tank

T

travis32

New member
Well, thought I'd change the description of my post... Since, well, there's no point in saying anything about this is good..

I have a dilemma. I have a marine betta in my cloud of white. he's in the corner of the tank asking me to get him out.. He's right where I can see him. He's still breathing o.k. My question is, will it be too much of a shock to just move him to my QT? The SG's are similar, The QT would be a little lower than the DT in terms of SG. But, not by much.

Temp is about the same, but, obviously alk stuff are going to be different. I probably killed off the hundreds of asterina starfish and and 2 to 3 dozen snails, so those might be causing an ammonia spike.

So, should I move him? I don't really have a way of acclimating him.

What's his best chance for survival? Move him and hope the new water is cleaner enough to allow him to breath or will the stress kill him either way?
 
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I would choose what I thought would give it the best chance; it sounds like the tank is in very bad shape, I hope it isn't as bad as you've described.
 
Well, that article helped give me some piece of mind. The part that scares me a lot. . of Possible tank crash is that, well, I had counted over 200 asterinas on the front glas pain and there were as many or more on the other 3 sides.... As far as I can tell... The asterinas are gone. Period. gone from the glas.. Where'd they go?

My wife indicated that when she got up this morning the light was off and the tank looked fine... She left for some appointments and came back and the light came on and she stuff looked like crap, but, she assumed it was because the light just came on...

At 3:30 she checked the tank and it was as cloudy as it is now. My biggest fear is that enough stuff died including bacteria to cause an ammonia spike. I see an astrea snail turned over in my netting on my overflow. It climbed out of the water and died. If all the snails, starfish died.. well, not sure how much they would give off in terms of ammonia, but, it couldn't be good.

I did a 20% water change. After that is when the betta came out.

I measured PH, I would say it's a shade darker than the 8.6 that the ph test goes to. maybe closer to 8.7. It's extremely close to 8.6 though.

That article is what I remembered and why I told myself to not do anything, I didn't want to overreact. I'm still not too hopeful that the corals survived. I guess if the betta survives then that's a bonus. Do you feed when the water is cloudy or would that just add to the problem?

I took 10 gallons from my 29g QT and change the water that way, hopefully grabbing some of the bacteria from the QT. (sucking up some of the sand and stuff.)

Well, I've learned my lesson.. . . . Don't try making changes unless you research the full impact of the changes!
 
Seltzer water will lower the pH. I'd might move the betta, but it might be fine where it is. I'd measure ammonia and dose some Amquel or the like right away, and start water changes. If there's ammonia, I'd definitely move the fish, and anything else that is likely to survive the shift: snails, etc, would do better with some acclimation.
 
I had white distilled viniger on hand. dosed 1 ml per gallon as per the article. I did a 20 % water change as mentioned earlier and after the water change, dosed a full dose of prime.

The betta almost let me cash him, which isn't a good sign... He twitched a couple times when I nudged him then swam away.

Not a good sign at all. an open brain coral I can barely see through the cloud and it looks like it's skin is gone. On the other hand, my crown leather is closed, but looks like it might survive... (depending on if the tank crashes or not... I would surmise.)

Yeah, I'm getting a 125g in 2 or 3 weeks. was going to move everything to that.. guess I won't be moving much live stock.. :(

If the tank can stabilize overnight, I give the betta a 30% chance of surviving. It really depends on how well the prime works in the chemistry and how much ammonia there really is.

Will the precipitate throw off ammonia tests? the water change water looked green almost... I wonder how much coral crap is ruining the tank chemistry?
 
I would move the fish if possible.

The problem with dosing vinegar in this situation is that it can fuel bacterial blooms, so that approach is no longer recommended. I'd change as much water as possible. Anything that might increase aeration could be useful, too. I'd work for plenty of agitation of the water surface, for example.

If there's a lot of debris in the water, using a mechanical filter might help.

I don't know of anything in the water column that's likely to throw off the ammonia test, except maybe the color itself.
 
Well, the betta is captured and moved. He wanted to be captured. Barely put up a fight. Got him netted and transferred to the clean QT tank.

He's shell shocked right now, but breathing. He swam a little bit. He's missing some scales. Not sure why that would be. He was breathing hard initially, but slowly seemed to calm down over time. All the lights are out and it's dark in there. I dosed a little prime in the QT tank hopefully allowing him to destress and recover from the quick transfer.

I felt this is his best chance at survival, not saying he'll survive the drastic change in parameters, but if one is immersed in poison, there's no amount of acclimation that is going to reduce the damage from poisonous conditions. At least that's my opinion. Now it's up to him to determine if he can recover in the QT or die of shock.

QT is going to be crowded, but it's fully cycled.
 
Fish are better at dealing with sudden SG changes than other animals. A lot of professional dealers gave up on acclimating them, preferring to get them out of toxic water instead. I think the water conditions in your tank are too severe to be worth the risk, honestly.
 
Agreed bertoni. He still may not make it. He's still alive though. hangin on for dear life. He's in great water conditions, so it's just a matter of whether he can pull through or not. The cloudy storm has cleared and well, if I've ever seen a post apocalyptic view of the world, my tank looks like it... The hair mushrooms have stuff hangin off them, shriveled to the size smller than a dime. (they were 4" each and about 12 to 14 of them) Star Polyps (not gsp) all hanging upside down off therock they're on.

Crown leather's fingers are all drooped over (never seen it get droopy).

Acans are all shriveled, not sure if they're dead though. Looks like they might still have flesh, not sure though, they appear to have shriveled to the calcerous shell.

1 -- 1 as in ONE! lowly snail is on the front glass pane and was almost at the water line. I suspect he's trying to make an escape from the nuclear holocost(SP?)

To top it all off we had a 64 mph wind storm last night and it knocked the power out twice. The second time my return pump motor runs, or vibrates, but the impellor won't turn (been having issues with it.) so my return pump and overflow were down all night.

Thankfully the skimmer is HOB of the main tank and it's pump is still submersed, so some air is still getting in.

Not that it probably matters at this point. There's no fish in the tank, and I don't know how much oxygen corals actually consume. Especially dead corals.

On the bright side, I ignored my wife's wishes to have me move my two 2-3 month old clowns from the QT to the DT since I'm getting a different tank in a couple weeks. If I had moved the clowns, they would have been burnt toast! So Now I got 2 oscellaris clowns and my dieing betta in a 29 gallon tank... We'll see how this goes.. The clowns are staying on their own side of the tank and the betta is hiding.......

If he dies where he's hiding it's going to be a pain to get his corpse out.
 
I know I'm a bit at a loss for the destruction I caused, and I know blame and anger over it aren't going to get me anywhere. So, I just wanted to say I appreciate all the feedback, instruction, and help everyone offerred. I want you to know the advice was well taken despite my situation, and I really do appreciate all the support people offer here. Hindsight, I wish I would have asked here before thinking stirred lime water was better than not stirred... Such a simple simple simple mistake. lol.

I'm getting a 125g RR from the person that started a reef club in Northern MN. He's tearing it down and working out a plan for him to deliver and assist me in setting up. It sounds like an awesome setup, and I guess my 9 month old 55g was my prototype test run at this. Now, if only I can keep myself from performaning ignorant changes. :)

Anyways, Thank you's sometimes get missed. So, Thanks for the help! I appreciate it!
 
bertoni said:
You're welcome for the help! I hope your remaining animals all make it!
Click to expand...

Nope, well 99.9% of them did not. I say not 100% because my Betta is still borderline alive. He's wedged himself kinda sideways in a hiding spot. I can see him from the bottom of the QT and he looks down at me and will move if I tap the tank, but he's not eating at the moment. It's only been 24 hours since the nuclear hollocost, but, I would put it at still around 30% chance he'll survive the radiation of the nuclear hollocost.

I tested the DT today after work (bought new API test kit for ammonia). 24 hours after the nuclear hollocost radiatiation... err I mean ammonia levels are at .5 .. That's 24 hours later and after a 20 % change of water.

I've seen 2 necarious snails alive. Not sure if they can hibernate in the sand away from the ammonia or what. But 2 were on the glass tonight.. I'm guessing they should have stayed hidden. It's a total loss though...

The tank is just horrible now that the light is on and the cloud has dissipated... And the tank is smelling up the whole room of mushrooms...

Teh 12 inches of hair mushrooms are all just strings now. So, I can't imagine what that's doing to the water.

RIP my 55g softie reef...

Started 1/29/2010, nuclear attack and radiation fall out 10/26/2010.

9 months to the day almost.
 
Oh, sigh, sorry to hear about the extent of the losses. :(

Keep up the Amquel and the water changes, I guess. Or just tear down the tank. :(
 
So, with all that said, what should I expect to happen to the rock? I'm assuming it will recycle now? In 2 or 3 weeks that ammonia will most likely drop to 0 and be completely cycled again.

Will new life emerge from the rock or are the rocks equivalent to being cooked dead rock? More or less dead of all critters? I realize the bacteria will likely rebuild itself.. But, other than bacteria will there be anything left on or in the rock? And what happens to the dead coral flesh? Like my huge crown leather that's all drooped over. Will it just disintigrate or will it just be left there. Or is there a chance when all this clears that parts of it could come back to life and start over?

I'm dosing prime to try to salvage what critters could have survived the nuclear blast, but, as with most nuclear blasts... Well, most thinks just vaporize..... I may post some pictures later. It's rather depressing to look at and smell. My only hope is to ressurect this into the 125g I'm getting 2 to 3 weeks. The previous owner has 75 -80% of his corals he couldn't sell off and he's giving me all the sand he has in it. So, it should be relatively well established.
 
Thanks Guys, Much appreciated! Fish getting ich, tank getting oodinium, parasites on corals. All that I can understand. Some times can be self inflicted with lack of QT or other procedures, but in general some diseases and death is to be expected. Lime water over dose.. Self inflicted. heh... expensive learning method.

I'm looking forward to the 125g though. Ironicly I was wondering how I'd get rid of my plague of brown button polyps taking over the tank. Well.... Not that I wanted everything destroyed..... I wanted to have a clam, some bigger fish, and have room to place a lot of nano frags to watch them grow. Well, now'se the chance to start over. And I wanted a sand bed safe for a wrasse and get rid of the CC...

Plus, the safety of drilled vs. my overflow, and the fact I need a new return pump. In all, this change will be good.. Plus I'm switching from PCs to Canopy with 2 250w MH,1 400w MH 2 actinc VHOs led moonlights built in fans, comes with all the wiring and ballasts.....
 
The live rock will work for filtration, but it might have lost a lot of the small animals in it. I'd keep it, and just wait for the tank to cycle again.
 
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