what the heck!!

[RandyWatson]

I have a 175 g tank with a large number of snails, crabs and several star fish. I came home from work today to find a large number of them dead. How could this of happened?
I also have many fish in the tank and they are fine.

 

[Letmegrow]

Post all of your water parameters for a start.

 

[RandyWatson]

I just tested the water a week ago, and everything was good. sooooo.......?

 

[RandyWatson]

its a fairly new tank and i just put a protien skimmer on it about 3 weeks ago. any ideas

 

[Letmegrow]

You will not get anymore hits on this if you do not post your parameters.

The fact that you said its a new tank can mean things aren't perfect.

There is no predator that will one day randomly kill your snails, stars, and hermits in a mass murder and leave the remains.

No one can give you a ancient magical secret answer to your question, it most logically is a water parameter issue.

 

[The steven liu]

If it's a sudden death I wonder if there was any significant changes while you were out i.e. power outage for hours, kids dropping stuff into the tank. If you have a tank that has massive inverts dying while fishes remain unharmed it seems like a heavy metal problem, but yeah, post your parameters.

 

[piranhaking]

i would almost guarentee a metal problem if the fish are all fine

 

[Letmegrow]

A salinity reading of 1.023 or lower can do it, temps lower than 79 for a prolonged period of time can do it. High Nitrates/Nitrites can do it. Low oxygen. High Ammonia.

Adding water from a store that has copper in their system can do it, but that would have to be so high that your fish that you bought will be ill affected too, copper is "okay" but in high doses it is a poison just like anything else.

 

[Letmegrow]

1. Rule.
There are no gaurentees in saltwater .

 

[RandyWatson]

you know what.. i recently did a water change, and found big cooper colored flakes at the bottom of the bucket... i didn't really think any thing about it at the time. could that maybe it. It also could have something to do with a power outage, because that would not be the first time. Also two of my power heads had stopped working that day. thanks for the info The Steven and Piranking