Well it finally happened - full tank wipeout

[mike17kb]

Steve, please let me know if you need a holding tank for any of the fish during massive water changes. I live a block from FS&M so I am not to far from your office.

 

[flipturn88]

Oh no, Steve, that's horrible news! I'm so sorry. Please let me know if there is anything </em>I can do to help!

 

[george]

Shellfish is the worst, however. Clams of any type will go rank so fast that the cleanup crew can't get it done.

There's a reason why buying clams/mussels for eating at the market requires them to be alive before you cook them.

Steve, sorry to hear about your loss. I had a semi-major snowstorm in my tank this week-end as well. I finally fixed my MRC Nilsen reactor, but forgot to plug in the timer that cuts it off 6 hours before dosing, so my dosing was basically a white paste instead of saturated water. Did a 30% water change this morning and will do another tomorrow evening. No deaths yet, but some partial tissue losses on one acro.

 

[washowi]

Wow I am stunned....whatever I can do I will....

How about a bottle of Jack?

 

[sshindell]

300 gallons of water change later (Thanks Tim) and it is still cloudy. All the large colonies of SPS are gone. Fish are holding their own so far without any losses, hopefully the ammonia won't spike. It will be harder getting them out, so I am hoping to just water change them through this, but who knows how much has died in the rocks. All snails, starfish, etc. appear dead.

Thanks for everyone's offers to help.

 

[justonemoretank]

Uggh! This is terrible news and seems to be getting worse? :sad:
Hopefully the fish at least will make it.

 

[gwen_o_lyn]

Very tragic Steve- sorry to hear!

 

[ms_ k]

Steve, I'm so sorry to hear about your tank. I've only seen it once, but it was gorgeous!!!! I'll join in on the offers. I don't have much, but you can have whatever I can give.

 

[sshindell]

Well, 450 gallons of water change later, the fish all survived, and the ammonia is going down...hopefully the Nitrite spike will not be severe.

I lost all clams and corals...

Time to rebuild in a few weeks. Topoff is now on a timer to prevent future messes, and the building maintance will now call me if they notice anything odd over the weekends...

Any CORAL or ANEMONE suggestions for the rebuild (not fish suggestions)?

 

[mojo]

One suggestion- a nice BTA introduced first. People love anenome's, and it's really difficult to add them down the road (as they'll move around and sting until they get seated).

Otherwise - it's the normal drill - only stock it with the really nice stuff....

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Steve, I will donate one of my new green BTA babies to ya if you want.

I agree with Chris though, introduce the BTA first and let him find his spot.

 

[sshindell]

Thanks! I may take you up on that offer when the tank finishes its mini-cycle.

I thought of the BTA idea - and this would be the best time to do that...IF they stay put.

 

[matttvi]

Steve,

I'm sorry this happened. Glad to see you aren't letting this get to you and giving up! A BTA would be great. If your tank is large enough, creating a solitary "island" of rock w/ a large number of cracks and crevices for the BTA can be fairly effective in keeping the anemone from moving (bta's don't like sand from what I've read so they will stick to the island unless they are really unhappy and start floating around).

hth,

Matt

 

[sshindell]

Now I am getting curious about an anemone tank.........


As far as large enough...I think I have that covered. It is 400 gallons.

 

[sshindell]

Anybody ever had any tank deaths from anemone spawning events?

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I have rarely heard of anemone "spawns". Most captive reproduction I have heard of is cloning and manual fragmentation. I dont think its a worry.

 

[simon_kruger]

Hi Steve,

Sorry to hear about your tank. I'm here to help if needed.

I had my BTA spawn in my tank about a year ago. I fortunately noticed it and watched it for about 10~15 minutes. Really interesting to see the smoke signals. It has never done it again that I know of.

To answer your question I had no side effects in my system from the Anenome spawning. Well none that I noticed.

 

[glxtrix]

I have an anemone tank, granted nowhere the size of your tank steve, but I love it! I'll sit for hours in front of the tank just watching the clown fish play in the anemones Sooooooo relaxing!

 

[kappaknight]

George wrote: Shellfish is the worst, however. Clams of any type will go rank so fast that the cleanup crew can't get it done.

There's a reason why buying clams/mussels for eating at the market requires them to be alive before you cook them.

Interesting... I had a couple of clam deaths a looooong time ago and at the time, I had some bumblebee snails. (Maybe like 6). The clam was about 4-5 inches and as it was dying, I noticed all the bumblebee snails gathered on what's left of the mantle and finished it within a couple of days. (At first I thought they were killed by the snails... but I don't think they did.)

 

[glxtrix]

nah snails wont kill clams, but they will eat it up once they get the distress sent from them.