I need some insight...

[One Fishy Story]

I need some insight-my 10 month old 55 G just crashed, I lost everything. Any thoughts as to why. It contained live rock and sand, a flasher wrasse, fire gobie, urchin, emerald crab, foxface, cleaner shrimp, clown, small leather coal and . There are lots of fire worms that have risen to the top of the rock as well. The tiny bristtle stars have risen and died. I have about 10 plus hairy worm like creatures, they are about 1 1/2 inches long. Emerld still alive -help him.
What may have killed all?
What so I do now to clean everything up to make it liveable again?

 

[One Fishy Story]

New Topic-Crashed Tank

OMG-10 months into a new 55 Gal aquarium and I've had a complete wipeout. Very Sad. What may be the reasons. I noticed lots of fireworms, some 1 to 2 inch long hairy worm like creatures hanging on the glass, lots of brittle stars rising to the surface. UGH.
What do I do now to clean it up and make it livable again. I have live rock & live sand.

 

[Fluff]

It's hard to say what caused the crash. Have you checked all your equipment? I doubt doing water testing will really matter now since I'm sure the ammonia is high. I would suggest testing all equipment. As for the tank itself, the best thing for it now is damage control. Remove all deceased and do a large water change. It will take some work to get it stable again, but can be done.

 

[Fluff]

Oh, also... I moved your posts to thier own thread. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Agree with Fluff... at this point it'd be near impossible to tell what happened for sure. I guess I'll rattle off a few questions to maybe narrow down the possiblities...

1. What order did things die off? Did they go over the course of a couple weeks, or are we talking instant death over one night?
2. What are your tank specs - how much live rock, how deep of sand, what type of equipment do you have running (filters, skimmer, heaters, lighting, etc)
3. Do you test your water weekly or often? What were the "normal" water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, salinity, temp, alkalinity) before the crash?
4. What type of water do you use to make up your saltwater? (tap, ro, ro/di, store bought, etc)

I really don't think the bristle worms are/were your problem. They can't really cause a tank to crash.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Kurt. I doubt the worms had anything to do with it. I have tons of them in my system and consider them part of my clean up crew.

I see you had a leather coral in your tank. What kind of leather is it and what did it look like before the crash?

Did you change anything in your maintenance routine? Did you have a recent power outage? Did you have a recent temp spike/drop?

On a 10month old tank I'm thinking something suddenly changed. Maybe a fish died and you didn't notice it and you had a jump in ammonia that cause another fish to die and then suddenly you had a lot of ammonia which wiped out the tank.

As Fluff said right now damage control is the key. Get the dead out and do a large PWC and test the water. Check all your equipment and see if something failed.

 

[melosu58]

I agree with Cindy that it can be viable tank again. Just be patient and it will come out OK.