Tank Meltdown!

[Gauge]

I'm pretty new to this hobby, and in the past I've made some bad and uneducated choices. Lately, however, things have been going much better. I've had fish live for a couple weeks and no trouble (they were dying in a couple days previously). Anyway, I just made a couple changes and suddenly my worst nightmares are being realized.

Tank Inhabitants:

1 Scissortail Goby (Dartfish)
1 Tomato Clown
1 Arrow Crab
1 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Blue Leg Reef Hermit Crabs
1 Emerald Crab
1 Anemone Crab
1 Tiger Tail Sea Cucumber
1 Red Bali Sea Star
2 Sand Sifting Sea Stars (incredibly small - 1/2")
A few assorted corals


Changes made yesterday:

Added a 75 gallon sump with a Cap 1800 return pump.
Moved the Arrow Crab to main tank from 10 gallon QT tank.
Moved 3 gallons of water to main tank from QT tank (this was 4-day old water that had only housed the arrow crab. The QT tank had been thoroughly cleaned before this water was introduced.
Took a rock covered in hair algae out of the tank for a moment and pulled the algae off so it was short enough to be eaten easily by the algae eaters.


Results of changes:

Dead Goby (no signs of disease)
Dying Clownfish (no signs of disease)
Dead Red Bali Sea Star (melted, more accurately. The red coloring seems to have melted off of him and onto the sand around his corpse)
Dead Sand Sifter Stars
Cucumber acting very sluggish. It's got its anterior end open with the tentacles exposed, but they don't seem to be looking for food. It's also not hanging out on the sand, it's staying up on a rock.
All corals and fan worms closed as tightly as possible
Cleaner Shrimp not moving around, but not really looking like it's at death's door, exactly.
Most of the crabs seem to be doing okay.


Test results:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - < 10
pH - 8.1
Copper - 0
DkH - 10


Now, I'm no expert, but this screams foreign contaminant to me. There are only three possible sources of this, though... 1) my hands, 2) the QT tank water, 3) the brand new sump. I washed my hands, but not with soap, before I did all this. The QT tank had been scrubbed very throughly, bleached, dechlorinated, left to dry in the sun for two days, and was dry for about a week before we put this water in the tank. None of the water in the tank was from the LFS, and the arrow crab seemed to suvive in it quite well for 4 days. The sump is name brand and came wrapped in plastic. I doubt they'd be in business if they shipped their sumps with a fresh load of poison in them.

That, in my mind, eliminates most of the likely sources of foreign contaminants. My new theory is a cuke nuke. However, that theory also has a big hole in it - why? Why would it nuke in arguably perfect water conditions without anything that (to my knowledge) would mess with it? The only new addition to the tank that day was an arrow crab and I have housed an arrow crab with a cuke for months in the past. Also, the arrow crab is a very small juvenile. I don't think he would mess with the cuke, but I could definitely be wrong on that one. Is there any way to tell if the cuke nuked?

 

[alrmc4]

my guess would be the brand new sump. could be wrong but i always wash with vinegar and rinse well anything new that is involved with the tank...but maybe i am overly cautious.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

my first thought to would be the new sump more over the new bioballs or media. this needs to kind of cycle to create the benificial bacteria t hat you want to nitrify the nitrates. jc

 

[Gauge]

Update

I mixed 10 fresh gallons for the QT tank again and put the clownfish in there. It's not looking much better, but it's not looking worse either. Perhaps it'll make it.

All of my crustaceans are accounted for and still alive. All of my corals are still closed (or dead). My cucumber isn't moving, but I can't tell if he's dead. All of my starfish are dead. The red bali star's remains are nearly unidentifiable. He really did just melt. I'll post a picture after church.

Any recommendations on what I do? Should I use vinegar on the sump now? Is it too late for that? Should I just do like an 80% water change and run carbon? Take the entire tank down and start from scratch?

This is no ordinary pollutant, I would say. The devastation is insane!

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

id recomend carbon as a safty percation, and get that dead star out of the tank before it pollutes the water even more.
jc

 

[fishfreek]

I cant really advise any more than to just suggest a rather sizable water change to hopefully get what ever is in the tank out or to dilute it to a degree that its safe for evertyhing. If you have activated carbon I suggest running your ank with a carbon filter for a few days aswell as this should help soak up remaining contaminants.

 

[Gauge]

JC - I have a cycled filter on the tank still. The sump is new, but it's in addition to the old filter.

Fishfreek - Do you agree that it must be a contaminant? Is there any way to determine whether or not said contaminant will stick to my rock/sand? Do you think I should bother washing out my sump with vinegar at this point, or do you think that since it's been running for two days now, the contaminant is out of the sump and into the water (which I will be changing 75-80% of today).

 

[echo7]

if your cucomber dies take it out right away! many species are so poisonouse they are like time bombs. could the hair algae on the rock be a major part of your filtration. is your new sump a wet- dry they are often so efficient at prossessing ammonia and nitrite that nitrate can not be proccessed before it gets out of control. since the water flow through wet dry is very fast oxygen is always there, and the bacteria that process nitrate end up taking in oxygen instead of nitrate when it is present. carbon would also be a good idea and maybe if you think the sump was contaminated you could clean it out with vinegar and re set it up.

 

[Gauge]

I am now making a huge water change. It's going to be a little closer to 90% than 80%. I am going to start running carbon in the filter, as well. I have some in there, but I doubt it's enough to get rid of whatever this junk is.

I don't think I'm going to clean out the wet/dry just yet. That would take such an insane amount of effort. I'm just going to rely on the last two days of water circulating through it to pick up whatever the contaminant is and get it into the water instead of in the sump... then the carbon and the water change should take care of it. If not, then I'll do it all again, I guess. :?

 

[reefrunner69]

When you do these water changes are you adjusting temp, salinity and ph to be the same in the new water and the tank? If so, how are you doing this?

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

that big of a water change may cause your tank to go through a mini cycle process by shocking the rock and causing an ammonia spike. jc

 

[Gauge]

RR69 - I put all the water into a large rubbermaid container and throw a PH and a heater in it. Then I check the salinity and make adjustments as needed. I test the pH, but up to this point it has never been off from my tank's water.

xxmoorishmanxx - This is acceptable to me. There's hardly anything else to kill in the tank.


For those of you who follow the melodrama in my tank, you might not be surprised to find out that I'm frustrated out of my mind. Thus, after this water change, and cleaning of the sump (changed my mind on that), I will be close-pinning a towel around the front of my tank for at least one week, putting my lights on a timer, and refusing to lay eyes on the damn thing until at least one week has passed. By that time, hopefully the water change, sump cleaning, and carbon will have eliminated this fish tank kryptonite that I seem to have aquired.

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

a huge water change may cause a mini cycle processe to occur due to it killing off LR by shock. this will cause a huge ammonia spike. JC

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

oky doky (sorry i double mesaged i didn't think the first one went through) jc

 

[Gauge]

Update

Yesterday I changed 35 gallons in my tank (and sump). This is really about a 100% water change, but since I couldn't drain it down to the sand line all at once, it was more like 90%. I took the sump off the tank, bought a gallon of vinegar, and spent about two hours cleaning the sump. I let the bioballs soak for a while, too.

When I was done cleaning the sump (after the water change), I noticed that two of my corals were beginning to open. So, I hooked the sump back up, and within minutes they were closed again. Now I'm thinking that one possibility is stray voltage. Could anyone educate me on this issue? All of my crustaceans are still doing just fine. Does stray voltage not affect them as much or something? HELP!

 

[alrmc4]

a grounding probe is very inexpensive if i remember correctly it was around the ten dollar amount at www.reefgeek.com and for a new thought is there 2 much current when the sump is running?

 

[Gauge]

I doubt there is too much current. It's a CAP 1800 with about 4.5 feet of head pressure. According to the chart on the side of the box it will operate about 250 gph at that height. I don't know if it does quite that. The hair algae gently blows in the current, but it's certainly not hanging on for dear life... also, would the starfish and cuke die from current?

Still looking for info on stray voltage problems. Anyone? :?

 

[Hara]

stray voltage would affect your inverts as well.

 

[Gauge]

Does anyone have any recommendations for me after the water change and the cleaning of the sump and the addition of a large quantity of carbon to my filter other than just giving it time?

I've always noticed that my corals are a "canary in a coal mine" concerning the general health of my tank, and they definitely don't like what's going on. I just want to know if there's anything else I can do before I take a good, long break from my tank. No fish to worry about. I'm just going to close-pin a towel around it and leave it along for like a couple weeks. I want to make sure that things are ready to level out some during that time, though. Any other recommendations for me?

 

[Gauge]

Update

I went home at lunch, and the corals (star polyps & daisy polyps) were open up just a bit. It was about the same as last night right before I put the sump back on the tank. It looks like maybe everything is coming back.

I made a couple other observations and connections...

1) The day I put the sump on for the first time (when all this mess started) I took a rock out of the tank that was covered in hair algae. I held the rock over the sink (never set it down) and plucked the hair algae off so it would be short enough to be eaten, and so it wouldn't overgrow the polyps on the rock. Now the hair algae on that rock is losing its color. It's turning a much lighter color as time goes on.

2) I have a few pieces of bubble algae in the tank, and two of them are now clear. it's like all the algae was drained out of them. They are 100% bubbles now. They are on different rocks from the one I took out of the tank.


Any useful information here? Like maybe that rock I took out of the tank could be the problem?