while you were sleeping

[LFS_worker]

Im not sure what happened things were doing absolutly awesome and growing so fast and well. I woke up yesterday morning and the tank had a bad smell to it (similar to a dead snail). so I changed my filter bag ran about 1/4 pound of carbon emptied the skimmer cup and made the skimmer less selective.

Came home from work last night and a friend was over he said he was here to help.

looked at the tank EVERYTHING was dead looks like the only things to make it is my todds torch the moorish idol, a scribbled rabbit, and a lemarc angel. they are all in the wifes 55.

zoa's, clams , SPS, blastomussa , pieces that have been with me sence 2003.

temp , CA, ALK , Po4, ammon, nitrite, nitrate, ph , temp swings , SG. every thing was as good as I could get it. temp swings were about 1 degree in a 24 hr period.

the 120 is now dry taking a break until we get into a house.

Brian

 

[^CelticReefer^]

THAT SUCKS!
Sorry to hear it. I wonder what caused it- good luck on finding out. I don't know what I would do.

Brian

 

[LFS_worker]

thank im going to take apart all of my pumps and check the mechanics
B

 

[dalbrecht]

I'm sorry to hear that. Are you baking your rock at least or do you plan to start from scratch?

It sounds like a poisoning of some kind. My guess is that whatever died released something nasty or there was something in the home environment that got in. Not a clue what could cause it tho. One of my books indicates that certain contaminants can build up over time but usually carbon can handle it.

 

[dreaminmel]

Oh my god Brian, that really sucks! I'm so sorry to hear about that. FWIW that tank crash I had last fall where I ended up with brown slime everywhere overnight and almost everything dead... I found out it was a chain reaction initially started by a VERY low pH swing and lack of O2. I had noticed a distinct stench coming from my tank before the brown slime crash and like you thought maybe there was just a dead snail or something. Not sure if there's any similarity on the causes or not though.

When you do get set up again let me know and I'll frag a few things out of my tank for ya. You've always been helpful to me and it's the least I can do. Sorry again for your loss Brian.

 

[crp]

Brian, I'm really sorry to hear about your troubles. Hope you get everything figured out.

Carrie

 

[jimmer]

brian -that sucks when you put so much time and effort into something and have that happen.its amazing how fast bad things happen.well when your ready you know your welcome to come over and take what you want.hang in there bud!!

 

[LFS_worker]

thanks to all of you !

Melanie actually I did notice a brownish slime on the walls that I had never seen before! I just upgraded to a ASM g-3 and am dripping the alk component (which has a pretty high PH) all day and all night. sounds like we have to find out what this slime algea is.

I put one rock in my wifes tank that had the todds on it now that tank is starting to crash so Ill try a 30g change, new carbon, and see if that helps but that smell is there now.

getting frustrated
Brian

thanks again to all of you .. your all aces in my book! thanks for the kind words and thoughts.

 

[puter]

Sorry to hear that Brian. There aren't a lot of things that wipe out a tank that fast, particularly things like zoas: heaters that fail on and poisonings come to mind.

Don't let the disappointment sideline you for long...

 

[Arik]

Sorry to hear that Brian....that sucks.

It's odd that some fish lived---it sounds like a rapid swing in parameters (I'd guess O2 saturation or pH) and not poisoning to me otherwise all the livestock should have died. Do you have a sandbed in that tank? And is it possible the alk drip may have dumped too much into the tank?

Hopefully the smell from the 55g is just the die off from the rock and not a continuation. If you need anything, just let me know!

 

[MarksReef]

Sorry to hear that, Brian.

 

[SkiFletch]

Real sorry to hear that Brian, hope everything pulls through in your wife's tank. g/l

 

[ReeferMac]

Sorry to hear the news. Hopefully we can all get you back frags of what you lost.

- Mac

 

[nwrogers]

That really sucks Brian! I hope you can figure out what happened. Did you have a ph monitor on the tank? Did you test the PH before you emptied the tank? I really wonder what could have caused the tank to crash like that. Did you do any new plumbing when you added the new skimmer? That really sucks man! Good luck!

 

[dalbrecht]

Arik,

I'd guess pH not O2 as that would typically kill the organisms with highest metabolism (fish) first. As for the livestock issue some type of heavy metal would selectively kill off inverts first.

That brown slime sounds like a dinoflaggellate bloom. A bloom of dino's would explain everything. They will bloom suddenly, many of them are highly toxic & they break apart easilly and are consumed by filter feeders. A nasty strain of them could easilly explain the die off.

These are the same organisms behind red tides & ciguatera.

In fact, it also describes the survival rate. The organisms that survived (grazing fish & a large LPS) are the least likely organims to be affected. Lab experiments show that they instinctively avoid grazing on toxic dinos.

More information:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2003/feature1.htm
http://www.redtide.whoi.edu/hab/default.html http://www.agr.gc.ca/archives/phycotoxins.html.

 

[mark fanara]

Damn dude, I feel for ya...I'd probably loose my mind if my tank crashed like that. I had some brown slimy goo start attacking my sps once...I quickly removed the healthy branches and threw out the nasty stuff. I probably narrowly escaped a real catastrophe. I must admit though it scared the sh*t out of me.

 

[gary greguire]

Wow Brian that is terrible!!! It really scares me to here these stories, I am very lazy about taking care of my tank, I would be so upset if it ever happened to me. When you are up and running again let me know I will hook you up with a couple of frags...

 

[LFS_worker]

I am using RO/DI TDS reading as of yesterday was about 5 or 6.

Silica tested at 0 as did PO4 (or undetectable) ... I know that this is not an acurate reading if these truely are dinoflag's then they would have consumed most if not all of the silicate. I did not know that they were toxic to the tank Ill deffinately be keeping an eye on these from now on thanks for the info!

the PH when the lights are off is around 8.2 and the ph with the lights on is about 8.3

I dont use a Ph meter but I really dont think that it is the PH .

 

[Capt_Cully]

Major downer Brian. Sorry to hear it. I'm going straight home and smear lambs blood over my doorway.

 

[dreaminmel]

Brian, Just pm'd you w/ link to RDO thread of the experience I had w/ pics in case it might help at all. It was a short thread but had some reasonable theories.