whole tank dead overnight

[lbaier]

we left for our honeymoon, and the rents were in charge of the tank, they saw the fish looked sick and brought the water to get tested at the lfs they told them it was perfect, the temp was also okay. they turned the lights on less to help with the hotter weather. the next day everything was dead


we got home today and there is white chalky stuff all over everything, including hte heater. the water is also all sandy and stirred up.

earlier a week before we left we had a fish get a weird crator looking hole coming out of his skin (it was new) so we were able to get a refund and they told us at the lfs it wasn't contagous it was more like a cut.

any ideas, i don't want to put all the $ back into it if it was my fault

any help is greatly appreciated, it's pretty tragic.

thanks in advance

 

[steve-s]

Was it the corals, fish or both?

Two possible causes, precipitation or a bacterial bloom. The precip would not have killed anything but depending on the severity of a bacterial bloom, it could have used up the available O2 in the system and suffocated the fish/inverts.

Have you tested the water parameters and chem to see if anything has changed?

Cheers
Steve

 

[lbaier]

it was the fish the liverock everything, and the fish store tested everything and said it was all good. they're response was temperature, but the fish we got from them is what i think brought something into the tank... is that posible to not catch it with the water tests?

 

[melosu58]

Im wondering if a power head or heater went bad.

 

[steve-s]

Im wondering if a power head or heater went bad.

More than a possibility.

it was the fish the liverock everything, and the fish store tested everything and said it was all good. they're response was temperature,

Curious, do you use a grounding probe? My thought being if so, the dead LR (I'm assuming white?) would be either an indication of heat or an electrical charge. Tanks using grounding probes complete a circuit allowing everything in the tank to get a "charge". Without such grounding items (or proper use of a GFCI), a faulty piece of wiring would not really be the issue.

but the fish we got from them is what i think brought something into the tank... is that posible to not catch it with the water tests?

Always a possibility but I would not think so in this case. No parasite/bacterial/viral transmission via fish would have caused problems with corals or inverts unless you possibley allowed chemically treated (copper?) LFS water into the tank. Also something I highly doubt.

Bacisally I think your possible causes are heat, electrical and/or bacterial bloom.

Cheers
Steve

 

[lbaier]

sorry everyone, we tested the waters calcium and we just noticed that our entire gal jugs of calcium and alkalinity are empty. my husbands parents must have thought it was water . so that's what killed everything i guess, and the fish store must not have tested any of that.

theres the mystery thanks for the help.

 

[melosu58]

Sorry about the loss

 

[Civicman86]

That sucks, sorry to hear about all the loss

 

[virus]

Wow, are you going to put the $back into it?

 

[lbaier]

naw, we're going to wait till we get our new house, in about a year or two, and then get a bigger tank and make this one the sump.

we're saving on electricity till then.

i bought finding nemo cereal and i cried while i ate the little fishies. thanks for all the advice i'll always use this site, and help who i can

 

[StripesTheEel]

good luck with the new setup for the future.. hope u dont have the same luck!!

Matt