Mystery Tank Crash

[JDRaschella]

Hello everyone, I've been a member for a few months since I started my 90g SURFline in-wall build. I haven't needed to post much, this place is loaded with great information, but I'm at a loss for how I managed to crash my tank about a month ago. I was hoping to get some opinions if you don't mind. I apologize for the long post.

I have a 90g cycled with live rock for about 2.5 months, the cycle was complete in about a month and a half but I was traveling a bunch and let it go another month to be sure. My first mistake was adding fish with only a HOB canister filter, before I had a chance to set up a proper sump, but I was keeping up with frequent water changes and cleaning the filter every month or so and the water quality was consistently zeros across the board with the exception of low readings for nitrates.

Stocklist:
75g cleanup crew
yellow watchman
Pistol Shrimp (too early, he didn't make it long before any of this)
Pair of percula clowns
Valentini puffer
chocolate chip starfish
there was a tiny serpent starfish that hitchhiked in some rock but only have seen him once.
Emerald crab (never really moved)

HOB Canister
MaxiJet Powerhead
Current Orbit LED with timer/remote

Everything was going great for about 4 months, had some Zoas and Kenya Tree Coral that hitchhiked in that were starting to grow like weeds (i know the KTC kind of is a weed, but I was happy with the growth)

Then one day my Valentini didn't want to wake up, i thought he was just being lazy, but then i noticed my Emerald who never ever moved on his back dead. I did a water test, small ammonia spike, 0.5 ppm. everyone else was acting like there was absolutely nothing wrong.

I frantically started scouring this forum as well as the puffer forum and thought I needed to get him into QT, but the tank was too small and I was having to do water changes every 2 hours, so he went back in the display because by then the DT was back to normal, but then I somehow talked myself back into putting him in a larger QT, to possibly give medicine, until my LFS told me to just stop screwing with him... sadly, I'm confident I killed that fish by just stressing him out, lesson learned.

About a month later, I specifically recall a snail had died, and all the other snails and hermits were eating it, I was watching them just before lights out at around 10pm, everyone else in the tank was acting completely normal. the following morning, at 8am, EVERYTHING but the snails was dead. I took a water test and my ammonia was at about .5 or so, but my Nitrites were completely off the charts, way past 5.0ppm.

for the Nitrites to be high, I must have had an ammonia spike, correct? But could that chain of events have happened in 8 hours?

also, It's worth noting that PH was reading less than 7.4, which I know can kill fish as well, but ph tests with this API kit have always been all over the place, I can take 4 tubes from the same area of the tank and get 4 different readings, so I've never given that particular test much credibility since the fish seemed fine.

Since this incident, I have purchased a tank to build a sump and will not be putting in new stock until I have that up and running with a decent skimmer, but I'm not convinced that the canister filter could have caused this. Anyone have any ideas what could have went wrong or any tips on how to keep a better eye on this stuff in the future.

 

[bobbravo2]

.5 ammonia is toxic. That lead to a bacterial bloom which consumed the oxygen in the tank, suffocating the life. Sorry for your loss. I'd recommend a skimmer for sure next time.

 

[Fish finder]

I have wondered... is there a way to measure the level of oxygen in the tank?

 

[bobbravo2]

I have wondered... is there a way to measure the level of oxygen in the tank?

Yes. Neptune has a dissolved oxygen probe. Look at the price [emoji857]

 

[JDRaschella]

Yes, will be running a sump and skimmer from here on out. Really seemed like a freak thing, and crazy fast, I've never thought about O2 levels.

Any thoughts on the PH? I just did another test as we speak, orange is 7.4, my test shows pale yellow, I've read that if a test is WAY out of range it's more than likely a test error, but I'm not keen on the idea of never having a good grip of what my PH is, are there better test kits out there that are worth investing in?

 

[bobbravo2]

Much better test kits than API: salifert, Elos, Red Sea, to name a few (of my favorites)

 

[bobbravo2]

Also - controllers like the Apex or Reefkeeper have pH probes for continous monitoring of pH

 

[shua71]

Sounds like your tank may have cycled again. Did something large die and cause a large amount of ammonia? How did you add the fish all at once? Did you clean the filter with tap water? That may have killed off beneficial bacteria

 

[CrayolaViolence]

With your bio load, I doubt not having a skimmer killed your fish. There are tanks out there, heavily stocked with coral and fish both, that do not run a sump, skimmer, or any kind of filter, not even a HOB, but instead rely on water changes and the biofilm on rocks and substrate to do the work.

I'm honestly not sure what happened, and while .5 ammonia might be toxic, there are many fish, and tanks, that have survived worse. I have to wonder if there was not some sort of contaminant in your tank. Especially since it killed the snails so fast. Snails and crabs both are pretty resilient considering they stick to the shallower areas on the coast, where there are tide pools, which often spike ammonia as they bake in the sun.

I think it might be a good idea to trace your steps and examine the possibility of a contaminant and what that contaminant could have been? Some type of cleaner, aerosol spray? Anything left in a container you use to do water changes? Anything that could have gotten into a container? I.e. could someone have used your water bucket as a bleach bucket for mop water or something like that?

 

[schnebbles]

I had something similar happen but with a higher ammonia (I think it was 2ppm) - I lost everything but my inverts and 3 fish. I thought it was my anemone dying but it was small, and it wasn't all the way dead when I removed it. A guy at Petco (I know, Petco...) who has salt and does seem to know his stuff didn't think that would have caused the ammonia to spike that high. He said he had a problem with one in a 14g and it didn't even do that, I have a 40.

I'll never know what happened. It's awful though. I'm slowly adding fish. I may (probably) did have my tank overstocked but I was doing my water changes. I won't be adding as many fish to my tank this time.

 

[JDRaschella]

Regarding the snail death, that first one may have been natural, I only mentioned because I spent an extra 5 minutes looking into the tank before bed watching the others coming over to eat it, and everyone was acting perfectly fine. The only thing that made it through this ordeal is my hermits and Snails.

I think it might be a good idea to trace your steps and examine the possibility of a contaminant and what that contaminant could have been? Some type of cleaner, aerosol spray?

Now that you mention the cleaner, I put new floors in my living room the day prior to this and I rolled down, Zinsser primer in the whole room to seal in any old pet stains and whatever, in the past I've hat to use flea bombs in there and I've covered the whole tank in plastic all the way to the bottom, but it was a pretty nice day so I had all the windows open and fans clearing out fumes. That stuff is still pretty potent, though, I didn't think too much about it since the tank is built into the wall and the open water is in the walk in closet where I did not prime, but of course, it's not an airtight fit. Could Fumes in the air have contaminated the water? that would explain how quickly it happened.


If that's what did it, I really feel awful, but I'd also be relieved to have an answer so I'm not just living in fear.

Regarding another cycle, I did clean my filter with tap water. Its just a thin mesh sponge in the canister, never even thought that it did much, I always assumed the rocks took care of the filtering and the canister/powerhead just kept everything moving. The last time I rinsed the sponge though was about a month prior, and I've done it many times before w/o issue, so I have a hard time blaming it on that.

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[Elricsfate]

Yes, will be running a sump and skimmer from here on out. Really seemed like a freak thing, and crazy fast, I've never thought about O2 levels.

Any thoughts on the PH? I just did another test as we speak, orange is 7.4, my test shows pale yellow, I've read that if a test is WAY out of range it's more than likely a test error, but I'm not keen on the idea of never having a good grip of what my PH is, are there better test kits out there that are worth investing in?

I use a digital ph test probe which I bought from BRS. Just hold it in the water and read the display. I use it to double check the Apex probe's accuracy.

I use digital equipment everywhere I can, to avoid that situation where my wife and I are staring at a vial saying, "It looks kinda like this...but it could be that". With a probe, the number is the number. No guessing.

You do have to calibrate from time to time...