Disaster! Tough lesson learned

[Stylo328]

First off, happy holidays to all.

Unfortunately I have two disasters to report. I'll start with the lesser of the two.

Sitting in a meeting two weeks ago and the phone starts to ring, glance down and see its the wifey. Figuring she just wants to chit chat, I end the call. She immediately calls back! I text her cell with "I'm in a meeting". She replies "TANK IS LEAKING".

Ya'll can imagine how that felt. I run out of the meeting and call her. We start to diagnose the water on the floor. Turns out the ATO and kalk reactor was running non-stop as the feed line to the sump had dislodged and was half in/half out. She corrected the issue and cleaned up the mess.

I came home to find alk had jumped from 7 to 9.8. Did a water change to bring it back down. As a result I have a few pieces STN'ng, worst of which is the efflo which likely will not make it. Lost the icefire as well. That's the lesser of the two!

Being the genius that I am, I decided to add a few fish to a system that had never had ick and had gone a few years without a fish loss. I had a healthy group of tangs and anthias along with a pair of clowns, some blennies and some wrasses that had been thriving for the past couple of years. I went out and purchased a few more anthias, some fairy wrasses and a couple of blennies. All small fish.

I did not quarantine. What a mistake!!!!

Every fish in the system is affected and infected with ick and at least one other affliction. My beautiful Achilles was the first to die, followed closely by one of the established blennies. At this point I've lost all but one of the fairy wrasses and I've lost several anthias. All remaining fish will likely be dead in the next few days, including my spawning Spotcinctus clowns.

I am devastated. I really do feel like quitting the hobby altogether. I hate that I made a stupid decision and now all of my fish are dying. I feel like such an idiot.

Just sharing my sadness and frustration. Thanks for reading.

 

[itz frank]

I think that at one point or another we all have to deal with the deadly brain fart. I've dealt with a lot of problems in my tank since I started it up last January but the one thing I've clung to and my silver lining is that I had never lost a fish in that year.

Two weeks ago, I started dosing vinegar to deal with algae issues and I misread instructions dosing instructions. I started out with a normal dose instead of ramping up and after a week, I had two fish suffocate at night on back to back nights.

It sucks but such is life. Don't give up now. We've all gone through it.

 

[Code4]

Sad for you.

Shelley

 

[Manfredo]

Sorry for your loss, hang in there and things will look better tomorrow. I know the feeling, about a 2 years ago I lost all my fish...it was devastating. The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.

 

[G_Sanab922]

Sorry for your loss. I think most of us have felt like that.

 

[Stylo328]

Thanks for the support. My decision making was irresponsible. Poor choices and consequences...

 

[rovster]

Wow, sorry to hear. I've had my share of bumps but nothing this severe. I had s kalk accident recently too and lost a few choice pieces, including my pearlberry colony! I know the feeling of wanting to give up, but eventually you just get back into it. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

 

[jacyn]

Sorry to hear!! Don't give up though. See it as a Lesson learned and get back up [emoji18]

 

[Blueline12]

Sorry to hear about these problems. We all make mistakes and will continue to do so but hopefully we learn from them and that's one less mistake you will make after you bounce back.

Don't give up. You will be fine.

Nick

 

[knukles55]

We've all had big hic ups in this hobby hope everything turns out okay for you

 

[jonnyu]

We all have been there and we all will all will always have those bumps in the road

 

[stefdvm]

So sorry to hear that; I find that I take all losses personally, not just because I am the fish keeper, but also because, as a veterinarian, I feel a responsibility to save everything, even if it's beyond saving.

A year ago, with my first attempt at salt water, everything was going well; I did a water change one day, everything was fine; did another one the next day (I don't remember why at this point). This was before I had an RO/DI system so I was using well water and that additive you get at the LFS :headway:

I always turned out the lights overnight; next AM, I'm making my daughter breakfast and she walks into the next room where the tank is and says "oh, mommy, a fishy died". "Oh, no" I commiserate, and walk into the living room, flip on the tank lights and it's a total holocaust... every single thing in the tank is dead on the sand. I thought I was going to vomit.

I didn't consider quitting - one of my "defects" is not not accept failure, haha, so instead I spent about $1000 to upgrade my equipment and it was money well spent. I'm on my 2nd upgrade since then and the only fish I've lost have been to the psychotic damsels that I no longer have.

Hang in there! Like someone else said, we all go through it to some extent.

 

[nivram]

Hey Stylo, I've been where you are. I've lost two tanks full of fish. Many I've had for years and some I'll probably never be able to replace due to cost or availability to the hobby. Same situation due to poor decisions.

I now try to QT everything that goes into the tank. But I can tell you that sometimes it's still hard. I have room under my stand for a 10gal tank. And I keep it running with a simple sponge filter.

Hang in there and learn from your mistakes. If you can, try to catch your remaining fish and maybe do a dip in formalin and keep them in a qt tank under Hypo.

 

[Stylo328]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words of encouragement. Unfortunately we're heading out of town tomorrow for vacation, so intervention will be impossible. That's why I've come to terms with the fact that every fish will likely die.

That said, upon our return, I plan on purchasing something north of 75 gallons to establish as a long term quarantine tank. Not sure if I've shared this on here, but we're planning an upgrade to a large tank, probably in the 500 gallon range. We will likely be adding fish for the next few years and I can assure you I will never add another fish to my tank without QT, ever!

I'm hoping that when we get back from our trip some of the fish are still alive, at which point if I can get this QT set up fast enough, I will procure a trap to get them out.

Thanks again and happy New Year's to all.

 

[rovster]

Qt or die! That's the way to go. That 500 will be epic.

 

[AquamanE]

Ive never had a full die off of fish, even though I dont QT, I know its not smart, ive been lucky, :uzi::uzi:

However, many of you know im an SPS guy. Ive had 2 huge SPS die off's as a result of not paying attention. One in 2009, one in 2013. Many where huge colonies, grown from frags over years, so not replaceable!!!. We all make mistakes and learn from them. So keeep it going dude.

 

[McGee10]

Stylo, Sorry for your loss. Just thinking any chance the Ick came from the Alk/ PH swing rather than the new fish added?

 

[Deep Reef]

Dude, I really feel ya. I went through 2 bouts of ich in one year and due to a bad meter had low salinity which killed all but one coral last year. I'm still hanging and just going slow. Hang tight.

 

[firemedix911]

:headwally::headwally::headwally::headwall: Damn so sorry man. Achilles:headwalls: My favorite fish and the reason I built my 330. Hearing of this hurts. I also had an issue with some bad water I got. So now I mix my own water. I almost gave up but that'd have been easier. As a result I should be even better once my DT is ready to go again ICH free. Best of luck to you brother.

 

[Stylo328]

Thanks guys. I've actually been out of town since 1/2 so I haven't seen the tank. My nephew, who's watching it, said I lost a few more anthias since I left but the rest of the fish are still alive and looking better.

I'll post an update when I get back in town on Monday.

I really appreciate all of the support.