Troy's 270 Gallon plus Fishroom

The new frag tank isn't 100% done yet, but I got close tonight. Just need to finish up the plumbing tomorrow....

Here is a picture of it in place and one of the Aquarium Creations logo on the overflow...

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Well, major setback. Woke up this am to all my fish dead except 2 small Nemo's, a Purple Tang, and a Mel. Wrasse and I doubt they will survive. They are moved to the QT tank but are in really bad shape.

Only thing I can figure... all my corals and clean up crew look fine except my cucumber. I'm guessing he died and polluted the tank but frankly thats a wild guess at this time.

the only clue.. and I missed it... while doing a small water change last night my skimmer went completely crazy with foam for a few minutes and I smelled something slightly odd... but the skimmer calmed down quickly and unfortunately I didn't think anymore about it...

This can be a frustrating hobby...

Any suggestions on how to get the tank back to livable. I'm now worried about how/when to know its safe. I have a QT tank with lots of fish that were about to move in...
 
Water change.

Make up a new batch and do a water change. Diluting what ever is in there will help.

Look around/above the tank. Make sure there is nothing that could have dripped/dropped in.

I know in the past someone had placed a new frag tank and something was dripping in it, by accident.

What type odd smell? Metalic? chemical?
 
well... I know for sure what happened. I had a cucumber living in my sump because i didn't want him in my main tank... and he got into the skimmer pump. I just found his dead body all wound up in the pump after I noticed the skimmer was off. That explains the skimmer going crazy last night. D#@$ can't believe I didn't catch that problem when it happened.

Question... now what? How do I get rid of the toxins other than a massive water change?
 
Large frequent water changes. Just be diligent to make sure the salinity/temp is spot on or it could do more harm than good.
 
Large frequent water changes. Just be diligent to make sure the salinity/temp is spot on or it could do more harm than good.

+1 on that. When I had my massive fish lost due to overdosing LaCl I did 50 gallon WCs every other day for about 2 weeks. It took about a month but I knew I was clear once all the fish stopped dieing. Its only a minor setback. But nice job on the new additions you got from dca.
 
Thanks! Only two fish survived, two clown fish. No corals seem harmed. Did a 60 to 70 gallon water change and put in lots of carbon.
 
Well... its been almost 2 weeks since the mass killing of my fish. Man it still stings. Anyway, the good news is I've been traveling more than being home so its helped keep me from thinking about it.

I have done 3-50 gallon water changes and I have my automatic water change setup pulling out 9-gallons a day... so I've likely changed about 200+ gallons so far. I've been running my normal carbon plus a big-filter bag of carbon since day 1 of the incident.

In the QT I have a copper band who is eating aiptasia pretty good so thats a good sign for my aiptasia problem. I've put lots of the DT rock that had lots of aiptasia on it into the QT tank (don't worry, no medicines are present). I also have a blotched Anthia (cool fish), and long nose Hawkfish, the 2 surviving Clown Fish, and a few Green Chromis. Small start to the recovery of my fish collection.

The question is... how do I tell when its safe other than sticking a cheap chromis in the tank and just hoping the threat is gone? How long is long enough, and how much of a water change is enough? Does the cucumber's chemical release break down over time?
 
Well, the good news.... I put a Green Chromis into the frag tank yesterday am and he's still alive....so thats a good sign that the water is livable again! I've been doing a 9-gallon change a day for a week or so and I think we are close to recovery after close to 3-weeks since the big kill.

But here is the bad news... several frags of SPS just up and died overnight a few days ago. My parameters are all in line and doing great so I'm still at a loss. No sign of bugs or anything else. Frustrating..
 
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