Nem Bomb!! What do I do!!

[caboosee]

I recently had a anemone die very randomly woke up one day the nem was deflated and my whole tank was so cloudy you couldnt see inside other than that all my livestock died with it also bec. of the high concentration of ammonia.... the 1st day i did a 20 % wc bec of the awful smell (rotten meat)
2nd day another 20 % smell still present... (also milky water)... yesterday did a 50 % change helped big time with smell and milky water... now today the smell has gotten alot better and the water is somewhat milky... any advise to get my tank back up and running asap will be great

 

[bradleym]

Continue the water changes until the nitrates are below 5. You want to get this tank back down to low levels quickly, because all this junk is soaking into the rocks and will leech back out after you get the levels down. Once the levels are down near zero, treat it like a new tank that is cycling.

 

[caboosee]

Continue the water changes until the nitrates are below 5. You want to get this tank back down to low levels quickly, because all this junk is soaking into the rocks and will leech back out after you get the levels down. Once the levels are down near zero, treat it like a new tank that is cycling.

just tested nitrates they are currently under 2 ppm

 

[bradleym]

Ok then just treat it like a new tank. Watch the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate cycle and then stock it when it balances out again.

 

[reret10]

Man that really sucks though

 

[Anemone]

Are you sure the anemone died? "Deflated" doesn't equal dead; "falling apart" equals dead.

Cloudy water like that might have been a spawning event - might not have even been the anemone, depending upon what else you had in the tank. What else was in the tank? What size is the tank? What's your filtration (especially do you have a skimmer)?

Kevin

 

[kevin32]

Could the anemone have gotten caught in a powerhead and shredded to pieces causing cloudiness in the water?

 

[ChrisBWoodysRee]

when an anemone dies it releases poison and kills everything in your tank....

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[OrionN]

I would have change 90%+ the first time to get everything down as quick as you can. In event like that change 20% is like spit into the wind. If there is any possibility of prevent a tank crash it is early, as early as possible, and as much water change close to 100% as possible.

How big is the tank and how big and what kind of anemone? Maybe the anemone spawned and the bioload crashed the system.

 

[OrionN]

In my 65 g tank (total volume of about 80 g or so, when I keep a large Magnifica in it, a spawn event nearly crash my tank. I also have 4 mature Crocea in it. The anemone spawn and this degrade the water enough that the clams spawn also later. I was able to prevent a crash by suck the eggs and sperm from the clams as they spawn and change the water, 80%+, each time for several days. I have to heat up the water in microwave to keep the temp up reasonably close to the tank water when I change it. I have to use tap water to mix the salt. The tank was stressed a little but no death fish or coral or any of the larger animals that I can account for.
Change water, mix saltwater for next day water change several days is all you need most of the time. I also have ready mix water most of the time, enough to do a large water change most of the time, ready for use. This have prevent my tank from crashing more than once.

 

[Anemone]

when an anemone dies it releases poison and kills everything in your tank....

No, they don't.

An anemone that is shredded can release "unfired" nematocysts that can kill fish. An anemone that simply dies in the tank doesn't "release" anything, other than enough organics to generally pollute the water to the point the ammonia spikes and can affect other critters.

Kevin

 

[ChrisBWoodysRee]

No, they don't.

An anemone that is shredded can release "unfired" nematocysts that can kill fish. An anemone that simply dies in the tank doesn't "release" anything, other than enough organics to generally pollute the water to the point the ammonia spikes and can affect other critters.

Kevin

thats what ive heard....technically an ammonia spike would be like poisoning the tank because it can kill everything correct?