Something went deadly wrong Treating ICH

[Deezill]

Guys I have a question. I have a 125g. I have 5 damsels
one Powder brown tang. I noticed white salt spec on the tang
and found it to be ich. So I started treating the fish for ich by first turning up the heat in the tank up to 85 degrees. The next thing I did was a 60 gallon water change. I was going to use meds but I never got to that point. it came to m surprise that one day after I performed a 60 gallon water change I woke
up Sunday morning and found all my fish dead. I wanted to cry.
I checked Nitrates which was at 5ppm and Nitrites 0. My salinity
was 1.026. I don't understand why my livestock died. The only thing I did different was I used Reef Crystals instead of Instant Ocean Salt because I am prepping the water for coral. I also tried treating my live rock by putting it in 120 degree water for 20 minutes to kill any ich before I stuck it back in the tank during the water change. Everything seemed to be fine that day but the next day death came over my live stock. I am still shaken by this. I want to call it quits but I love the hobby so. it has been my life for the last few month. can anyone provide suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[snorvich]

Do NOT raise temperature when "treating" your fish for anything; they suffocated from reduced dissolved oxygen. Read about tank transfer

 

[fishinthewall]

Did you check ammonia? Wondering if boiling your LR killed bacteria

 

[snorvich]

Did you check ammonia? Wondering if boiling your LR killed bacteria

Also possible.

 

[krullshards]

Did you check ammonia? Wondering if boiling your LR killed bacteria

Yeah, you might have die off from the overheated LR that spiked ammonia. Or other toxins that could have been released by hitchhikers.

Do you use RO/DI water to mix your salt or tap/well water? If the latter, could it not have been conditioned properly?

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Cooking rock is just an expression for a biological reaction.
DO NOT actually cook any live rock, the result could be DEATH!

 

[jbvdhp]

I think you boiling the rock and sticking it back in resulted in the deaths; you probably released enough ammonia from the die off to kill the fish; plus that with the increase in temps made it difficult for the fish.

Marine ich is very different than FW ich, can't*** treat it the same. Sorry to hear

 

[ThRoewer]

As already stated: do not cook live rock (the real stuff from the ocean), or any rock with inverts on it, especially zoas or paleys as those may release deadly toxins, not just to the water but also to the air you breathe.
Live rocks contain most of their life on the inside, so heating them will cause a die off that will likely cause ammonia to be released.

Dead or man-made rock (like Real Reef Rock) without inverts can be sterilized by cooking - I've done that many times without ill effects. I've also done that with coral sand from fish QTs. The key here is that these are decoration items only used for QTs.

 

[Deezill]

So there are to possible reasons for for the deaths.

1.) Raising the temp dissolved the oxygen
2.) Putting live rock in water temp of 120 degrees may have started a bad reaction.

So am I supposed to get rid of all my water in the tank and start all over? will the tank have to cycle again? What should I do now that I am fishless.

 

[krullshards]

So there are to possible reasons for for the deaths.

1.) Raising the temp dissolved the oxygen
2.) Putting live rock in water temp of 120 degrees may have started a bad reaction.

So am I supposed to get rid of all my water in the tank and start all over? will the tank have to cycle again? What should I do now that I am fishless.

I would at least have checked the ammonia readings. Whenever something like that happens, the first thing to check is all your basic water chemistry. If for no other reason than it's good to know what happened so the same mistake doesn't happen again.

It's possible the ammonia spiked and is back to normal again, I don't know, but since you didn't post ammonia numbers I'm assuming you didn't check them?

 

[fishinthewall]

If you have no fish (im assuming no corals) I would do an overhaul. Deep clean, new water, then recycle live rock. Imo

 

[snorvich]

So there are to possible reasons for for the deaths.

1.) Raising the temp dissolved the oxygen
2.) Putting live rock in water temp of 120 degrees may have started a bad reaction.

So am I supposed to get rid of all my water in the tank and start all over? will the tank have to cycle again? What should I do now that I am fishless.

Both are bad and would have no effect on ich.

 

[jbvdhp]

So there are to possible reasons for for the deaths.

1.) Raising the temp dissolved the oxygen
2.) Putting live rock in water temp of 120 degrees may have started a bad reaction.

So am I supposed to get rid of all my water in the tank and start all over? will the tank have to cycle again? What should I do now that I am fishless.

Raising the temp DECREASED the dissolved oxygen = difficult for fish to breathe. Couple that with the probability that there was ammonia in the water (toxic to fish and burns their gills) made it worse.

I'd get new water and then let the tank cycle completely again. like 100% complete. Keep testing your water parameters, and at this point, leave the tank fishless for 72+ days. this will ensure whatever was affecting your fish in the first place will die off as there isn't a fish to host them anymore.

 

[snorvich]

If you have no fish (im assuming no corals) I would do an overhaul. Deep clean, new water, then recycle live rock. Imo

Correct. And slow down.

 

[krullshards]

Raising the temp DECREASED the dissolved oxygen = difficult for fish to breathe. Couple that with the probability that there was ammonia in the water (toxic to fish and burns their gills) made it worse.

I'd get new water and then let the tank cycle completely again. like 100% complete. Keep testing your water parameters, and at this point, leave the tank fishless for 72+ days. this will ensure whatever was affecting your fish in the first place will die off as there isn't a fish to host them anymore.

Well, if at this point he breaks everything down then he doesn't have to wait the 72 days. Just sterilize and start over..

 

[jbvdhp]

Well, if at this point he breaks everything down then he doesn't have to wait the 72 days. Just sterilize and start over..

I guess one could, but you never know; it would suck to think everything was sterile, then cycle, then introduce some fish and it happens again. At this point the whole process would take 5-8 weeks any way: letting the tank cycle and then QT'ing fish, if OP has learned anything from this experience, so there's no point in shortening the time frame

 

[fishinthewall]

Correct. And slow down.

??

 

[snorvich]

??

I was agreeing with you adding the OP should slow down. Since this board does not have karma points, where possible I try to positively reinforce the posts of others.

 

[fishinthewall]

Oh I thought you were telling me to slow down xD, I was like wait....huh?

And ty

 

[Deezill]

Guys thanks much I guess starting over is not a bad idea. it seemed like it took forever to cycle a 125g tank but here we go again. Do I replace my bio balls in my filter as well or do i keep that. Should i replace all media in my Fluval fx6?