All my fish have died!

[emilyruthwinsor]

So this morning I woke up to all of my fish laying on the substrate unalived.

I have recently been having a nitrate and phosphate spike and have been dosing accordingly to get these numbers down, which have been coming down slowly. Obviously, this means that algae in my tank is RIFE and so to fix this quickly I got a sea urchin from my LFS who has really been working wonders! I have also been cleaning the tank daily to try and help matters further. Two nights ago when cleaning, my Valentini Puffer jumped from the tank and puffed up as I managed to get her back in. All of my rock work fell apart as I did this and I could not get it back together so yesterday I took the rocks out, super glued and puttied them, waited for both to dry and popped them back in. My tank is over a year old and so I didn’t think the loss of this bacteria would be bad due to having around 2 inches of substrate and my filter sponges still in there. My corals, urchin and saffron goby are the only survivors (currently being housed and looked after my by LFS) but my clowns, shrimp, conch snail, orange spotted goby, puffer and blue star all passed. Any idea what got them? They were all swimming and happy before I went to bed.

I now need to start again I presume with my LFS telling me it would be best to get the substrate out too. What is the best way to do this? Shall I leave my sponges and rocks in saltwater and completely dump everything else out the tank and start the 4 week beginning cycle again? Any advice would really help!!

Thanks!

 

[Stealthreefer]

I would use good activated carbon to pull the puffer poison out(that's what I suspect is the cause).
Assuming the super glue you used is safe. If a puffer puffs up that's a big deal and they usually die.

There are compellation videos on social media of puffed up puffers and no one seems to care its basically animal abuse.

 

[emilyruthwinsor]

I would use good activated carbon to pull the puffer poison out(that's what I suspect is the cause).
Assuming the super glue you used is safe. If a puffer puffs up that's a big deal and they usually die.

I thought that would be the case! They seemed fine yesterday and the day before, just this morning everything went down hill! I have activated carbon in there so will let that settle everything, thanks!

 

[Dburr1014]

So this morning I woke up to all of my fish laying on the substrate unalived.

I have recently been having a nitrate and phosphate spike and have been dosing accordingly to get these numbers down, which have been coming down slowly. Obviously, this means that algae in my tank is RIFE and so to fix this quickly I got a sea urchin from my LFS who has really been working wonders! I have also been cleaning the tank daily to try and help matters further. Two nights ago when cleaning, my Valentini Puffer jumped from the tank and puffed up as I managed to get her back in. All of my rock work fell apart as I did this and I could not get it back together so yesterday I took the rocks out, super glued and puttied them, waited for both to dry and popped them back in. My tank is over a year old and so I didn’t think the loss of this bacteria would be bad due to having around 2 inches of substrate and my filter sponges still in there. My corals, urchin and saffron goby are the only survivors (currently being housed and looked after my by LFS) but my clowns, shrimp, conch snail, orange spotted goby, puffer and blue star all passed. Any idea what got them? They were all swimming and happy before I went to bed.

I now need to start again I presume with my LFS telling me it would be best to get the substrate out too. What is the best way to do this? Shall I leave my sponges and rocks in saltwater and completely dump everything else out the tank and start the 4 week beginning cycle again? Any advice would really help!!

Thanks!

Super glue is safe but what "putty" did you use?? Did the rock completly dry out? You may have lost your bacteria that keep the fish alive. (Ammonia reducing bac.)

Water thin super glue and aragonite sand will glue any rock together wet or dry. Then it can go back in still wet.

Definatly use GAC and wet skim.

 

[emilyruthwinsor]

Super glue is safe but what "putty" did you use?? Did the rock completly dry out? You may have lost your bacteria that keep the fish alive. (Ammonia reducing bac.)

Water thin super glue and aragonite sand will glue any rock together wet or dry. Then it can go back in still wet.

Definatly use GAC and wet skim.

This is what my LFS said about bacteria, there were a few dry spots but not a crazy amount and with the substrate and sponges I thought I would be okay! Kept a high flow of water overnight too to make sure the tank stayed oxygenated.

The putty was just the D&D Aquascape Construction Epoxy.

If the bacteria is gone and substrate may harbour anything bad that’s gotten in, do you think I should start again with new substrate and water and just keep the sponges?

 

[Dburr1014]

This is what my LFS said about bacteria, there were a few dry spots but not a crazy amount and with the substrate and sponges I thought I would be okay! Kept a high flow of water overnight too to make sure the tank stayed oxygenated.

The putty was just the D&D Aquascape Construction Epoxy.

If the bacteria is gone and substrate may harbour anything bad that’s gotten in, do you think I should start again with new substrate and water and just keep the sponges?

High flow and water won't keep ammonia down. Sand will to some extent. I guess it depends on size of tank and fish or bioload.

 

[Dburr1014]

I would not discard the sand or sponges.

 

[Stealthreefer]

I wouldn't get rid of anything. Just run carbon, replace it every 5 to 7 days and I would do that for a month.
The puffer poison is supposed to not last a really long time. I remember having one take out an entire retail tank stack(400 gallons I think) and then a week later we could put fish back in the system with no sign anything happened.
Just in case it wasn't the puffer the carbon should pull whatever else.

 

[Pvtgloss]

Sorry to hear about this.

 

[Spare time]

Super glue is safe but what "putty" did you use?? Did the rock completly dry out? You may have lost your bacteria that keep the fish alive. (Ammonia reducing bac.)

Water thin super glue and aragonite sand will glue any rock together wet or dry. Then it can go back in still wet.

Definatly use GAC and wet skim.

The sand should have plenty of bacteria.

 

[Spare time]

How much did the rock dry out? There could have been a die off of microfauna leading to an ammonia spike, but I would bet on there being a bacterual bloom if this were this case (which could suffocate the fish). The bloom would be obvious as the tank would be hazy or cloudy. Usually if everything dies overnight, I suspect oxygen issues.

 

[emilyruthwinsor]

Hi guys, thanks for all your help! I took my water to my LFS for testing and the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia were through the roof! Definitely killed the bacteria!

Will be dosing and trying to cycle the tank again whilst the LFS look after my survivors for the time being - good news is that my blue starfish and conch snail started moving around after dark last night (luckily kept them in a bucket of saltwater knowing they are nighttime movers) and so now I have a saffron goby, tuxedo urchin, blue star and conch snail waiting for me to rebuild, unfortunate that I had to loose so many other fish but looking on the bright side!

My corals looked a bit starved but again I have dropped these at my LFS and am hoping they pull through!

Time to see how quickly we can get this spike down!

 

[Derrick0580]

How much did you stir up the sand during all of this? I’m betting it was more from releasing nasties from the sand bed than the puffer.

 

[Dburr1014]

The sand should have plenty of bacteria.

Well, maybe not.

 

[Uncle99]

In some cases, Ammonia can be released from the sand bed if significantly disturbed.

 

[Reefer1978]

What were the readings on the tests?

 

[UMALUM]

Hi guys, thanks for all your help! I took my water to my LFS for testing and the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia were through the roof! Definitely killed the bacteria!

Will be dosing and trying to cycle the tank again whilst the LFS look after my survivors for the time being - good news is that my blue starfish and conch snail started moving around after dark last night (luckily kept them in a bucket of saltwater knowing they are nighttime movers) and so now I have a saffron goby, tuxedo urchin, blue star and conch snail waiting for me to rebuild, unfortunate that I had to loose so many other fish but looking on the bright side!

My corals looked a bit starved but again I have dropped these at my LFS and am hoping they pull through!

Time to see how quickly we can get this spike down!

Under the circumstances I would do a 100% water change and get my hands on some amquel. Good chance that whatever died on the rock will continue to deteriorate after the water change. Also if you haven't killed your lights yet now is a good time.

 

[emilyruthwinsor]

Update : I took my water to be tested as a precaution as I know fish shop tests are a lot better than my Salifert one … the alkalinity and nitrites were SKY HIGH. Without waiting for the water to sit for 10 seconds out of the 3 minutes it should take the tests were dark pink!

I went to the LFS yesterday as my levels had all dropped to get my fish and corals back. They’d accidentally sold my tuxedo urchin and my blue starfish was stuck in a rock… yay. So I have my saffron goby and conch snail as well as all my coral frags back. My red plating monti has suffered badly and is starting to bleach, any advice welcome! I’ve been testing and adding some algae management by RedSea as I know that can help with colouration, my light is set to 18k and the coral is placed high in the tank with lots of light and lots of flow, lighting 10 hours a day (upped from 6 as I know lighting can sometimes help)

I also wondered as I am building my tank back up (100l) what fish you would add? I’m planning on getting a pair of clowns but the rest I’m not too sure on yet.

 

[kevgib67]

For that size tank with two clowns and the goby you could add another two smaller fish. Tail spot blenny, Royal gramma, yellow tailed damsel, pink streaked wrasse, any two would work for you.