Starting over... =(

[jp30338]

Mantis;685548 wrote: So I have a 75 gallon tank that I had stocked with quite a few very nice specimens...lionfish, eel, puffers, tangs, grouper...it was a great group that all got along very well. I had it up and running for almost 2 years without any issues...did a 25% WC every 2 weeks...constantly checked levels...

I went on vacation for 3 days in May...my dad was taking care of everything at my house and feeding everything as he had many times before...the day I was coming home he calls me and says all my fish are dead and floating at the bottom of the tank...I thought he must have been mistaken, but sure enough I got home and all but my grouper and my wolf eel were dead (and those 2 were on the brink of dead, breathing very quickly, lying on their sides)...I acted as fast as I could and set up a mock quarantine situation just to get them out of that water...thankfully I saved them and migrated them to another tank...they are still alive and well today...

I then turned back to the 75 gallon completely perplexed...I checked every level of contaminant, nitrates, nitrites, phosphates I could think of...everything was normal...no spiking of anything...I took the water to my LFS and they checked it...nothing wrong...they had no idea why all my fish that had been alive and well the night before were all dead (and looked to have been dead for quite awhile by the ooze/goo on them) seemingly out of nowhere...

So first, has anyone experienced something so random? Any idea what it might be? I'd love to learn from this, b/c it makes me very hesitant to restart my tank and invest so much into the fish again (I lost around $800 worth) when I have no idea what I did wrong...

Secondly...when I do restart...what is the best way to go about it? I have around 80lb of live rock in the tank...it is around 1/3 full of water now as I've pretty much just let it sit since May...I'm still debating on what to do b/c if there IS some strange toxin in the water I don't want to chance restarting it if it's all over the live rock/substrate...should I 'cleanse' the rock somehow? Trash the substrate and start over?

Any advice is greatly appreciated...I'm so tentative to restart that whole process again when it was all taken away from me so violently and suddenly...

David

I am 100% certian it was because you had fish that get VERY large and put out such a huge bio-loads is the only reason your tank FINALLY crashed.

When you do start over, please do us all a favor and do some actual reading, and research your livestock choices before putting those choices in a tiny 75g tank.

How would you like to live inside your closet?

 

[KrisDeitz]

jp30338;685724 wrote: I am 100% certian it was because you had fish that get VERY large and put out such a huge bio-loads is the only reason your tank FINALLY crashed.

When you do start over, please do us all a favor and do some actual reading, and research your livestock choices before putting those choices in a tiny 75g tank.

How would you like to live inside your closet?

Could you be more of a tool?

give the guy a break

 

[mantis]

jp30338;685724 wrote: I am 100% certian it was because you had fish that get VERY large and put out such a huge bio-loads is the only reason your tank FINALLY crashed.

When you do start over, please do us all a favor and do some actual reading, and research your livestock choices before putting those choices in a tiny 75g tank.

How would you like to live inside your closet?

You don't think it was what someone else said? Maybe the puffer died or was stung accidently by the lionfish and then secreted a poison upon his death that killed everything else?

 

[smallblock]

Mantis;685895 wrote: You don't think it was what someone else said? Maybe the puffer died or was stung accidently by the lionfish and then secreted a poison upon his death that killed everything else?

Don't even worry about that guy man, he does not represent the attitude of the rest of this club, don't let him run you off. You did have the tank overstocked with the wrong types of fish. Please accept this and move on. If you want to keep the same things you had you need a much larger tank. If you would like to start up a reef tank of a fish only you will be fine with your current setup. Just get some smaller fish that imo are way cooler than what you had anyway and make this go round way better than the last. :up:

 

[mantis]

Smallblock;685897 wrote: Don't even worry about that guy man, he does not represent the attitude of the rest of this club, don't let him run you off. You did have the tank overstocked with the wrong types of fish. Please accept this and move on. If you want to keep the same things you had you need a much larger tank. If you would like to start up a reef tank of a fish only you will be fine with your current setup. Just get some smaller fish that imo are way cooler than what you had anyway and make this go round way better than the last. :up:

Accepted...moving on.

I'll have a bigger tank one day, but for now I think I might try a reef setup...I never could get the smaller fish that I liked b/c the lion and others would use them as an expensive meal

 

[smallblock]

good deal man. I think you will enjoy a reef tank a lil more than your previous tank. Yes they would be a very expensive meal lol. I wish you good luck with it and please dont let that guy run you off man. There is always a sour apple on the tree.

 

[oil_fan]

Good luck on getting your tank back up and running. I'm sure you'll do just fine with it.

 

[mantis]

Smallblock;685583 wrote: If you really want to start over, take all the live rock out of the tank. Soak it in diluted bleach for a day or 2. Rinse the rock with fresh water. Then set the rock outside for a couple of weeks. It should turn mostly white. Drain the tank and scoop out all the sand. You can either bleach the sand too, rinse and let it dry for a couple of weeks or buy new sand. Clean the tank really good with bleach, rinse it really well and let it dry for a few days. After the rock has been in the sun for a couple of weeks set everything back up and cycle the tank. After the cycle is complete around a month at least. Add something cheap like some hermit crabs and snails. Monitor them for a couple of weeks and if they make it your should be good. Also get some quality test kits so you can monitor your own water. Do not rely on your LFS to monitor your water. LFS should be used as a second opinion to your own results. Also invest in an RODI unit for the cleanest water possible.

So my tank right now sits with 1/3 of the water that killed everything in it...if im going to just bleach all the rocks, sand and tank anyway, can I just pour an amount of bleach directly into the tank and use it as the means for bleaching everything? Or should I remove all the rocks and put them into separate containers and bleach separately?

Just trying to save time...but I want to do this the right way...

 

[acroholic]

Mantis;686512 wrote: So my tank right now sits with 1/3 of the water that killed everything in it...if im going to just bleach all the rocks, sand and tank anyway, can I just pour an amount of bleach directly into the tank and use it as the means for bleaching everything? Or should I remove all the rocks and put them into separate containers and bleach separately?

Just trying to save time...but I want to do this the right way...

You could do it that way. Personally, I would separate the rocks and substrate from each other first and put them in separate tubs for bleaching. That way, you can bleach and clean the tank while the rocks and substrate soak. The tank will clean and rinse faster than the rocks and substrate anyways.

You'll end up separating them all at some point, your choice to do it now or later.

Also, there is no official amount of bleach to use, but I have always found that a 5% bleach : water solution works well for general disinfecting.

 

[cquade7]

Yup everyone was a noob once learn from you mistakes and move on, I like smaller reef fish just because it makes the tank flow together much better than some big aggressive fish. Good luck man and don't let people get ya down everyone has done something wrong some just wont admit it.

 

[mantis]

Acroholic;686513 wrote: You could do it that way. Personally, I would separate the rocks and substrate from each other first and put them in separate tubs for bleaching. That way, you can bleach and clean the tank while the rocks and substrate soak. The tank will clean and rinse faster than the rocks and substrate anyways.

You'll end up separating them all at some point, your choice to do it now or later.

Also, there is no official amount of bleach to use, but I have always found that a 5% bleach : water solution works well for general disinfecting.

So after further inspecting the current condition of the tank...there's all sorts of stuff growing out of the sand and on the rock that's still below the waterline...would it be advisable to just get new sand or is there a good way to both bleach and 'sift' through it to get all the other stuff out of there?

 

[dakota9]

Mantis;686538 wrote: So after further inspecting the current condition of the tank...there's all sorts of stuff growing out of the sand and on the rock that's still below the waterline...would it be advisable to just get new sand or is there a good way to both bleach and 'sift' through it to get all the other stuff out of there?

Cleaning sand is tedious, but here's the best way I've found;

fill a 5gal (or larger pail) 1/3 of the way with sand, then fill 2/3 full with water. Mix the sand vigorously with your hand, and you'll see the water turn black and murky, wait like 3 seconds for the sand particles to settle to the bottom, then pour off the water and repeat.

I use regular tap water for dead sand, water from a water change for live sand.

I use this process every time I've set up a tank to keep the new tank from being cloudy. It really helps with your long term water clarity.

It takes a while, but the sand comes out nice and clean. No debris or white cloudiness in the water column.

 

[acroholic]

Dakota9;686546 wrote: Cleaning sand is tedious, but here's the best way I've found;

fill a 5gal (or larger pail) 1/3 of the way with sand, then fill 2/3 full with water. Mix the sand vigorously with your hand, and you'll see the water turn black and murky, wait like 3 seconds for the sand particles to settle to the bottom, then pour off the water and repeat.

I use regular tap water for dead sand, water from a water change for live sand.

I use this process every time I've set up a tank to keep the new tank from being cloudy. It really helps with your long term water clarity.

It takes a while, but the sand comes out nice and clean. No debris or white cloudiness in the water column.

+1. You probably don't need to bleach the sand, just rinse like Dak said. I would bleach the rock, however.

 

[mantis]

Acroholic;686547 wrote: +1. You probably don't need to bleach the sand, just rinse like Dak said. I would bleach the rock, however.

It's probably already past the point of salvage...but by bleaching everything I'm essentially killing any of its 'live rock/sand' aspects...correct? There's no way to use any of it to help re-cycle the tank once I get things back up and running is there?

 

[acroholic]

Mantis;686580 wrote: It's probably already past the point of salvage...but by bleaching everything I'm essentially killing any of its 'live rock/sand' aspects...correct? There's no way to use any of it to help re-cycle the tank once I get things back up and running is there?

Not after you bleach it. It can be reused after proper rinsing and drying, but would have to cycle again, I believe.

 

[mantis]

Acroholic;686615 wrote: Not after you bleach it. It can be reused after proper rinsing and drying, but would have to cycle again, I believe.

I've been doing some research on how beneficial LR is to help the cycle process and reestablishment of bacteria, etc...does it make sense to keep a few of these rocks that are still fully submerged to preserve the organisms?

Keep in mind the tank has been stagnant for about 3 months...and who knows if whatever it was that killed the other fish is still in that water...

 

[gnashty]

I would yank out the rock and get it in a bleach bath like suggested above. Scrap the sand - unless you can justify spending several hours of your time rinsing, beaching, drying vs. buying a $30 bag.

 

[acroholic]

gnashty;686656 wrote: Scrap the sand - unless you can justify spending several hours of your time rinsing, beaching, drying vs. buying a $30 bag.

That would def. be the easist way to deal with the sand!

 

[mantis]

Alright...the rocks are bathin' in their bleach bath...stuff smells crazy strong...my cat hates me right now.

I'm going to just scrap the sand and buy new...any particular type I should look at? I've heard that I should wait until I put the rock back in for a few days to introduce new sand...and would getting live sand help during the recycling process?