I just lost $5,000 in aquatic life because I did something stupid

[Lady of Babylon]

Sorry to hear about the tank. I hate to say this, but that is a lot of live stock for that size of a tank... I don’t want to be the bad guy here, but I had to look at your pictures and your livestock list like 4 times to ensure I was reading it correctly. Not a lot of room for error there. Keep your head up. This hobby is challenging.

You are not a bad guy for saying what you know. And yes, there was not enough room for errors that round. Yeah, I keep heavily stocked tanks, and I have had a lot of success with them because I build up the micro life which helps it stay healthy. Lots of phytoplankton + other small critters. In my personal experience: the size of the tank doesn’t matter if all the fish can claim their own territory and there is plenty of natural food resources. It also helps eliminate the chance of over feeding with store bought foods... which really can make a mess of a tank.

the key to a successful heavy stocked tank is knowing what eats what and how much. Then having that as a living food source existing in the tanks ecosystem. This also increases chances for fish to feel confident enough to breed.

 

[Lady of Babylon]

I didn't say it was inconceivable, I just saw some inconsistencies and wanted to ask more questions. Most sea cucumbers get a bad rap when most of them do not poison tanks. So I asked what kind it was.

Another possibility that's isn't inconceivable is that a ton of fish were added at once and the water chemistry tanked.

I don't know, just wanted to get to the bottom of it so the op doesn't go ordering a bunch more fish all at once, minus one cucumber, and having this happen again

I will be letting my tank heal until June. I will only be adding micro organisms and macro algae until then. In June I will start adding larger inverts to rebuild the clean up crew before any actual fish are added.

when it comes to the tank chemistry. I do 5 gallon water changes every few hours. The water was clear and the fish were not exhibiting any signs of stress. (Other than the male potter turning into the tank Chihuahua nipping and chasing the other fish, especially the fishers Angel. Fishers and potters have been known to hybridize in the wild.) I heavily monitor my tank for the first week that I put anything new in it. I watch for signs of stress, appearance of parasites, bacteria infections etc. I’ll watch until I see them cement their own routine.

when it comes to cucumbers. Yes, I agree that many of them get a bad rep... however just because they are less likely to nuke a tank doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t do it all together. The cucumber was a Holothuria sp.

Saying that a cucumber won’t nuke a tank is kinda like saying that cheetahs won’t hunt humans if given the chance. It’s unlikely, however it still is what it still is, and it will do what ever it needs to do to survive.

 

[king aiptasia]

I didn't say it was inconceivable, I just saw some inconsistencies and wanted to ask more questions. Most sea cucumbers get a bad rap when most of them do not poison tanks. So I asked what kind it was.

Another possibility that's isn't inconceivable is that a ton of fish were added at once and the water chemistry tanked.

I don't know, just wanted to get to the bottom of it so the op doesn't go ordering a bunch more fish all at once, minus one cucumber, and having this happen again

In the future of the hobby depending how it may expand you may eventually see some starfish poisoning tanks. Some species can produce enough saponins to suffocate fish if in close confinement, I've not heard of it in home aquariums yet, but I've seen it in other storage vessels.

op seems to be taking a good plan of action letting everything settle for a bit

 

[Subsea]

You are not a bad guy for saying what you know. And yes, there was not enough room for errors that round. Yeah, I keep heavily stocked tanks, and I have had a lot of success with them because I build up the micro life which helps it stay healthy. Lots of phytoplankton + other small critters. In my personal experience: the size of the tank doesn’t matter if all the fish can claim their own territory and there is plenty of natural food resources. It also helps eliminate the chance of over feeding with store bought foods... which really can make a mess of a tank.

the key to a successful heavy stocked tank is knowing what eats what and how much. Then having that as a living food source existing in the tanks ecosystem. This also increases chances for fish to feel confident enough to breed.

As I read your logic & reasoning for operating a heavily stocked “fish” tank I have some comments. To what advantage is a maxed out fish population and second I disagree with

[It also helps eliminate the chance of over feeding with store bought foods... which really can make a mess of a tank.]

Your CUC does that.

I also question the wisdom of so much rock because it interferes with in tank circulation, which is critical for long term health in a reef tank. I understand your reason is to diffuse aggression because of so many fish in your system. Now you have two problems built in.

I have kept Sea Apples for many years. During a period of neglect on my part, a large Apple died in a 55G tank while I was away for a week. Aside from a stinking blob of jelly, tank suffered no damage. Heavy coral and invertebrate stocked tank are their own filter, not so with fish.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Yes, you are correct. I have had quite a few Valentini puffers in previous tanks. I have seen what puffer toxins do to a tank. And what the behavior of the fish that happens to get a blast of it. So I do know that that is what happened.

Like I said before, Valentini puffers (and other puffers) are not capable of blasting fish with toxins. The toxins can only be released if the puffer is chewed up or heavily decayed.

 

[king aiptasia]

Like I said before, Valentini puffers (and other puffers) are not capable of blasting fish with toxins. The toxins can only be released if the puffer is chewed up or heavily decayed.

puffers hold the tetrodotoxin in their organs, I forget which ones (gall bladder and liver if i remember correct) and they get it from host bacteria in their guts. The only way i know of the living animal could poison a tank would be by regurgitating a significant amount of partially digested tetrodotoxin rich foodstuff, i cant say the likelihood of that because i have no data or numbers nor have i personally read of such case reports so far.

as for the likely culprit, from the data provided, an overcrowded tank finally reached its climax with a now dead sea cucumber. When a tank (or even a city) is crowded its playing russian roulette with a crash. eventually with enough additions theres bound to be some degree of a crash. A lot of hobbyists have overcrowded tanks in my opinion (but I'm a little bit of an extremist in my view of stocking limits) Sea cucumbers have a wonderful brew of horrid defensive chemicals that have and do crash many a crowded tank, and in my eyes the sea cucumber alone was enough to trigger the whole series of events, nothing else needed. op had a tragic loss from it, but the biggest crash I ever seen was a copper piece falling into a sump and corroding, that screwed that system up beyond belief. (I do not have a case report written up of that, this was before I wrote in stuff)

 

[xxkenny90xx]

puffers hold the tetrodotoxin in their organs, I forget which ones (gall bladder and liver if i remember correct) and they get it from host bacteria in their guts. The only way i know of the living animal could poison a tank would be by regurgitating a significant amount of partially digested tetrodotoxin rich foodstuff, i cant say the likelihood of that because i have no data or numbers nor have i personally read of such case reports so far.

as for the likely culprit, from the data provided, an overcrowded tank finally reached its climax with a now dead sea cucumber. When a tank (or even a city) is crowded its playing russian roulette with a crash. eventually with enough additions theres bound to be some degree of a crash. A lot of hobbyists have overcrowded tanks in my opinion (but I'm a little bit of an extremist in my view of stocking limits) Sea cucumbers have a wonderful brew of horrid defensive chemicals that have and do crash many a crowded tank, and in my eyes the sea cucumber alone was enough to trigger the whole series of events, nothing else needed. op had a tragic loss from it, but the biggest crash I ever seen was a copper piece falling into a sump and corroding, that screwed that system up beyond belief. (I do not have a case report written up of that, this was before I wrote in stuff)

I'm really trying hard to bite my tongue and not be so negative in this thread as I know the op is dealing with a lot right now. But he/she has confidently put forth quite a bit of questionable information and I just don't want newer hobbiest taking some of it the bank....

 

[Reefvision]

I will be letting my tank heal until June. I will only be adding micro organisms and macro algae until then. In June I will start adding larger inverts to rebuild the clean up crew before any actual fish are added.

when it comes to the tank chemistry. I do 5 gallon water changes every few hours. The water was clear and the fish were not exhibiting any signs of stress. (Other than the male potter turning into the tank Chihuahua nipping and chasing the other fish, especially the fishers Angel. Fishers and potters have been known to hybridize in the wild.) I heavily monitor my tank for the first week that I put anything new in it. I watch for signs of stress, appearance of parasites, bacteria infections etc. I’ll watch until I see them cement their own routine.

when it comes to cucumbers. Yes, I agree that many of them get a bad rep... however just because they are less likely to nuke a tank doesn’t necessarily mean that it can’t do it all together. The cucumber was a Holothuria sp.

Saying that a cucumber won’t nuke a tank is kinda like saying that cheetahs won’t hunt humans if given the chance. It’s unlikely, however it still is what it still is, and it will do what ever it needs to do to survive.

My flame angel is a terror with even larger fish . Been tough to introduce much of anything else to my reef but so beautiful and had it few years now - I even saved it after it jumped out once behind tank onto floor!

 

[DxMarinefish]

I am so sorry to hear about your tragic loss. While there is always something new to learn every day in this Salty-box lifestyle, we must also be aware that our systems are just a poor reflection of the biodiversity the coral reefs have, and the fact that thousands of gallons will be needed each day to really flush out our "small" "eco" systems.

I have a Tiger tail cucumber (Holothuria thomasi) in my tank and I have always had one. Last one lived from 2007 when i got it to 2012 when it died. It did not crash the tank. But then I had very mature LR, below average fish stock and mostly softies back then.
Your Holothuria can come from Tropical or Temperate regions. Do you know the specific species and where it came from?

I hope you recover well from this.

From your stockist you had a few potential tank "nukers". If it were me, I would not have so many of them in a tank this small.

We all need to learn and move on.

Best wishes.

 

[Ennvi]

ouch. I had asimilar die off a few months ago, there was a wildfire in my area and my best guess is that ash managed to get in and poison my tank, lost a good 90% of the tank over a week or so ( horrible things happen, you can recover from it!

 

[king aiptasia]

ouch. I had asimilar die off a few months ago, there was a wildfire in my area and my best guess is that ash managed to get in and poison my tank, lost a good 90% of the tank over a week or so ( horrible things happen, you can recover from it!

may have been the organics that were in the air, organic air pollution poisons natural bodies of water during fires. the white ash its self is mostly inorganics that granted may raise the ph, but would not be normally the main cause of a crash, vs the many carcinogenic and poisonous substances natural smoke contains

 

[Subsea]

@Lady of Babylon
Usually, when someone makes their first post, I welcome them to the website. Welcome to the reefer addiction.

I googled Dublin, East Bay and see you are near estuaries for San Francisco Bay. Do you collect from tide pools on coast (amazingly colorful anemones)? I would love to operate a cold water tank as a lagoon mixed garden, heavy on inverts.

 

[Rose's_Reef]

I am really devastated.



I have been working on creating a sustainable ecosystem (indo/central pacific and heavily Hawaiian islands) with my saltwater tank. I want to breed a variety of specific hard to get species so that the aquarium trade doesn’t continue to have such devastating effects on the oceanic ecosystems. I also want to share and teach my appreciation of the ocean and it’s ecosystems with others. It’s one of my longest and biggest dreams.



It brings me back to my childhood when my dad lived on his sail boat in Oceanside, Southern California. He taught me a lot about the ocean and it’s life. I have always had a love and respect for the ocean and it’s ecosystem.



Hawaii and the indo-pacific have shut down all operations for a minimum of 3 years... great for the wild life! however that makes my dream of having my ecosystem and breeding sustainably REALLY a challenge. So I did what any panicked dreamer does with a credit card and the REALLY RARE opportunity to purchase all of the fish I had planned... ALL AT ONCE!



My tank could handle the bioload.

And it was.



Then Thursday happened. I knew better than to mess with cucumbers. (I got to help my clean up crew, thought it would be ok.) something bothered it. (Thinking it was my potters angel since he was all of a sudden pale and the only one that looked distressed.) it went into self defense mode and spit out its guts and released toxins. I thought I had caught it in time... but it set off a chain reaction. The puffers then puffed and released their toxins in defense on the other side of the tank. In 15 minutes. Even with heavy amounts of activated carbon already in place... I lost several thousands in aquatic life.



survivors :

* 5 green chomis,

* dwarf moray eel,

* yellow tang,

* 2 dragon faced pipefish,

...



Schrodinger’s listed:



* 1 golden eyed kole,

* 1 fire fish,

* cleaner wrasse,

* coco worm,

* Orange starfish,

* 3 saron shrimp,

* 1 fighting conch,

* peppermint shrimp,

* 5 zebra dwarf hermit crabs,

* all mushrooms,

* leather corals, hammer coral, duncans, zoas, +

* campfire and pink feather duster worms,

* humpback cowrie

* arrow crab

* 2 barnacles

* 2 mussels

* bubble snails

* micro jellyfish

* star polyps

* frogspawn coral

* 3 mini maxi anemones,

* copepods, amphipods, dwarf stars, tongan snails, nassarius snails, astraea snails, turbo snails, thin striped hermit crabs, macro algae, etc.

* other micro flora/fauna

...



Known casualties:



* gold neon gobies (mated pair with eggs)

* flame fairy wrasses (mated pair)

* 5 firefish

* 3 pink streaked wrasses

* 1 golden eyed kole

* pyramid butterfly fish

* court jester goby

* 2 long nosed butterfly fish

* pebbled Angel fish

* 2 potters Angel fish (male & female)

* fishers Angel fish

* 2 Hawaiian white spotted puffers

* white spotted dwarf goby

* 1 dragon faced pipefish

* blue striped pipefish

* 5 Vanderbuilt chromis,

* 2 fighting conches,

* 2 limpets

* 2 short spine urchins,

* 2 long spine urchins,

* 3 flame scallops,

* 12 sexy shrimp

* 6 saron shrimp

* 1 cucumber

* chocolate chip starfish,

On Thursday I spent a few hours staring at my fish that I had pulled out of the tank and into clean water with a heater and a bubbler hoping that they would snap out of it, breaking down and trying to give them fish “CPR” hoping that I would revive them... I am still in denial and shock.

Friday and Saturday I watched my vander’s die one by one and all of my mushrooms and coral melt like the wicked witch of the west...


It’s Sunday ... and I can’t catch a break. Even the life forms in the sand are jumping ship. It doesn’t look hopeful that I’ll have any survivors. Every time I do a water change the tank seems to get worse. My live sand is turning black right before my eyes.
And yes. I have been pumping extra oxygen into the tank for a few hours. I also got close to 50 lbs of live rock that I have just added to the tank. Never in all my life of keeping fish have I ever seen or have anything like this happen to such an extreme.



I am at a complete loss as how to move forward.

anyone know how I can salvage my tank?

Wow. I'm sorry as well. I never kept any sea cucumbers because of the horrible stories I heard but when I was new I treated my saltwater tank with copper safe and killed every coral in my tank. I basically started over. I got rid of all the rocks and sand and got a new tank. It was bad, but not as bad as this.
Good luck to you.

 

[Rose's_Reef]

I am really devastated.



I have been working on creating a sustainable ecosystem (indo/central pacific and heavily Hawaiian islands) with my saltwater tank. I want to breed a variety of specific hard to get species so that the aquarium trade doesn’t continue to have such devastating effects on the oceanic ecosystems. I also want to share and teach my appreciation of the ocean and it’s ecosystems with others. It’s one of my longest and biggest dreams.



It brings me back to my childhood when my dad lived on his sail boat in Oceanside, Southern California. He taught me a lot about the ocean and it’s life. I have always had a love and respect for the ocean and it’s ecosystem.



Hawaii and the indo-pacific have shut down all operations for a minimum of 3 years... great for the wild life! however that makes my dream of having my ecosystem and breeding sustainably REALLY a challenge. So I did what any panicked dreamer does with a credit card and the REALLY RARE opportunity to purchase all of the fish I had planned... ALL AT ONCE!



My tank could handle the bioload.

And it was.



Then Thursday happened. I knew better than to mess with cucumbers. (I got to help my clean up crew, thought it would be ok.) something bothered it. (Thinking it was my potters angel since he was all of a sudden pale and the only one that looked distressed.) it went into self defense mode and spit out its guts and released toxins. I thought I had caught it in time... but it set off a chain reaction. The puffers then puffed and released their toxins in defense on the other side of the tank. In 15 minutes. Even with heavy amounts of activated carbon already in place... I lost several thousands in aquatic life.



survivors :

* 5 green chomis,

* dwarf moray eel,

* yellow tang,

* 2 dragon faced pipefish,

...



Schrodinger’s listed:



* 1 golden eyed kole,

* 1 fire fish,

* cleaner wrasse,

* coco worm,

* Orange starfish,

* 3 saron shrimp,

* 1 fighting conch,

* peppermint shrimp,

* 5 zebra dwarf hermit crabs,

* all mushrooms,

* leather corals, hammer coral, duncans, zoas, +

* campfire and pink feather duster worms,

* humpback cowrie

* arrow crab

* 2 barnacles

* 2 mussels

* bubble snails

* micro jellyfish

* star polyps

* frogspawn coral

* 3 mini maxi anemones,

* copepods, amphipods, dwarf stars, tongan snails, nassarius snails, astraea snails, turbo snails, thin striped hermit crabs, macro algae, etc.

* other micro flora/fauna

...



Known casualties:



* gold neon gobies (mated pair with eggs)

* flame fairy wrasses (mated pair)

* 5 firefish

* 3 pink streaked wrasses

* 1 golden eyed kole

* pyramid butterfly fish

* court jester goby

* 2 long nosed butterfly fish

* pebbled Angel fish

* 2 potters Angel fish (male & female)

* fishers Angel fish

* 2 Hawaiian white spotted puffers

* white spotted dwarf goby

* 1 dragon faced pipefish

* blue striped pipefish

* 5 Vanderbuilt chromis,

* 2 fighting conches,

* 2 limpets

* 2 short spine urchins,

* 2 long spine urchins,

* 3 flame scallops,

* 12 sexy shrimp

* 6 saron shrimp

* 1 cucumber

* chocolate chip starfish,

On Thursday I spent a few hours staring at my fish that I had pulled out of the tank and into clean water with a heater and a bubbler hoping that they would snap out of it, breaking down and trying to give them fish “CPR” hoping that I would revive them... I am still in denial and shock.

Friday and Saturday I watched my vander’s die one by one and all of my mushrooms and coral melt like the wicked witch of the west...


It’s Sunday ... and I can’t catch a break. Even the life forms in the sand are jumping ship. It doesn’t look hopeful that I’ll have any survivors. Every time I do a water change the tank seems to get worse. My live sand is turning black right before my eyes.
And yes. I have been pumping extra oxygen into the tank for a few hours. I also got close to 50 lbs of live rock that I have just added to the tank. Never in all my life of keeping fish have I ever seen or have anything like this happen to such an extreme.



I am at a complete loss as how to move forward.

anyone know how I can salvage my tank?

If you happen to have a smaller tank I would set it up and put your survivors in there until the main tank clears. I'm not really sure how long that will take.

 

[Lady of Babylon]

As I read your logic & reasoning for operating a heavily stocked “fish” tank I have some comments. To what advantage is a maxed out fish population and second I disagree with

[It also helps eliminate the chance of over feeding with store bought foods... which really can make a mess of a tank.]

Your CUC does that.

I also question the wisdom of so much rock because it interferes with in tank circulation, which is critical for long term health in a reef tank. I understand your reason is to diffuse aggression because of so many fish in your system. Now you have two problems built in.

I have kept Sea Apples for many years. During a period of neglect on my part, a large Apple died in a 55G tank while I was away for a week. Aside from a stinking blob of jelly, tank suffered no damage. Heavy coral and invertebrate stocked tank are their own filter, not so with fish.

I completely understand. I did start this post off with acknowledging that I had this loss because I did something stupid.



The tank was intentionally set up as a low flow tank, like a tide pool with a wave maker to mock a high tide pouring over the rocks. (Some of these fish have been seen in larger tide pools like this.) That’s how I also know where the chain reaction started. First distressed fish was my male potter, he went very pale and was laying on rock near the top of the system. First actual casualty was a hermit crab that fell off the rock In front of the cucumber which is how I spotted the cucumber and fish that swam next to it briefly acted poisoned. I did forget that near the cucumber I had 4 leather corals. When it comes to the puffers on the other side of the tank: one was purchased a little on the beaten up side. And the other was trying to establish territory rights. I know that puffers don’t release toxins unless they are under extreme stress. The beat up puffers belly was bloated when I found it and then shriveled after I removed it with a cup.



The tank was originally supposed to be a pyramid with micro life forms & macro algae being the base/first tier.

Second tier is the inverts (which was not enough for the new bio-load)

Third tier was larger schools of smaller fish (under 1 1/2 inch) since they have a much smaller bio-load impact, give the look of a lively and active reef, and if they breed (like my gold neons were) it contributes to the natural food web. (Can be hunted by the larger fish)

Forth was herbivores and pest control species

final tier was the fish in the heavier carnivore bio-load.

because of all of the water changes washing out all of my micro life, the tank is experiencing a massive die off and is cycling again. The survivors are doing fine in a separate holding tank and will not be placed in the tank until the tank is safe for them again. It’s going to be closer to a year before I add any actual fish again. And I will not be adding all of what was lost. (No pyramid, long nose, and a few others that I need to argue with myself to give up on.)

 

[Lady of Babylon]

If you happen to have a smaller tank I would set it up and put your survivors in there until the main tank clears. I'm not really sure how long that will take.

Thank you, that is exactly what I have done. The survivors are doing great. However I am contemplating my life choices as the tank is next to the bed and is experiencing a massive die-off and is cycling again.

 

[Lady of Babylon]

@Lady of Babylon
Usually, when someone makes their first post, I welcome them to the website. Welcome to the reefer addiction.

I googled Dublin, East Bay and see you are near estuaries for San Francisco Bay. Do you collect from tide pools on coast (amazingly colorful anemones)? I would love to operate a cold water tank as a lagoon mixed garden, heavy on inverts.

I am closer to estuaries yes. But I have not collected anything from the wild personally. There are not a lot of heavily un-trafficked locations for the lagoons to have wildlife hanging out in them. As a kid I remember the tide pools in Southern California being very lively. I used to feed the anemones with my dad every weekend. I have never seen anemones up here in the Northern California shallows though.

 

[mysaltwatertank]

I am really devastated.



I have been working on creating a sustainable ecosystem (indo/central pacific and heavily Hawaiian islands) with my saltwater tank. I want to breed a variety of specific hard to get species so that the aquarium trade doesn’t continue to have such devastating effects on the oceanic ecosystems. I also want to share and teach my appreciation of the ocean and it’s ecosystems with others. It’s one of my longest and biggest dreams.



It brings me back to my childhood when my dad lived on his sail boat in Oceanside, Southern California. He taught me a lot about the ocean and it’s life. I have always had a love and respect for the ocean and it’s ecosystem.



Hawaii and the indo-pacific have shut down all operations for a minimum of 3 years... great for the wild life! however that makes my dream of having my ecosystem and breeding sustainably REALLY a challenge. So I did what any panicked dreamer does with a credit card and the REALLY RARE opportunity to purchase all of the fish I had planned... ALL AT ONCE!



My tank could handle the bioload.

And it was.



Then Thursday happened. I knew better than to mess with cucumbers. (I got to help my clean up crew, thought it would be ok.) something bothered it. (Thinking it was my potters angel since he was all of a sudden pale and the only one that looked distressed.) it went into self defense mode and spit out its guts and released toxins. I thought I had caught it in time... but it set off a chain reaction. The puffers then puffed and released their toxins in defense on the other side of the tank. In 15 minutes. Even with heavy amounts of activated carbon already in place... I lost several thousands in aquatic life.



survivors :

* 5 green chomis,

* dwarf moray eel,

* yellow tang,

* 2 dragon faced pipefish,

...



Schrodinger’s listed:



* 1 golden eyed kole,

* 1 fire fish,

* cleaner wrasse,

* coco worm,

* Orange starfish,

* 3 saron shrimp,

* 1 fighting conch,

* peppermint shrimp,

* 5 zebra dwarf hermit crabs,

* all mushrooms,

* leather corals, hammer coral, duncans, zoas, +

* campfire and pink feather duster worms,

* humpback cowrie

* arrow crab

* 2 barnacles

* 2 mussels

* bubble snails

* micro jellyfish

* star polyps

* frogspawn coral

* 3 mini maxi anemones,

* copepods, amphipods, dwarf stars, tongan snails, nassarius snails, astraea snails, turbo snails, thin striped hermit crabs, macro algae, etc.

* other micro flora/fauna

...



Known casualties:



* gold neon gobies (mated pair with eggs)

* flame fairy wrasses (mated pair)

* 5 firefish

* 3 pink streaked wrasses

* 1 golden eyed kole

* pyramid butterfly fish

* court jester goby

* 2 long nosed butterfly fish

* pebbled Angel fish

* 2 potters Angel fish (male & female)

* fishers Angel fish

* 2 Hawaiian white spotted puffers

* white spotted dwarf goby

* 1 dragon faced pipefish

* blue striped pipefish

* 5 Vanderbuilt chromis,

* 2 fighting conches,

* 2 limpets

* 2 short spine urchins,

* 2 long spine urchins,

* 3 flame scallops,

* 12 sexy shrimp

* 6 saron shrimp

* 1 cucumber

* chocolate chip starfish,

On Thursday I spent a few hours staring at my fish that I had pulled out of the tank and into clean water with a heater and a bubbler hoping that they would snap out of it, breaking down and trying to give them fish “CPR” hoping that I would revive them... I am still in denial and shock.

Friday and Saturday I watched my vander’s die one by one and all of my mushrooms and coral melt like the wicked witch of the west...


It’s Sunday ... and I can’t catch a break. Even the life forms in the sand are jumping ship. It doesn’t look hopeful that I’ll have any survivors. Every time I do a water change the tank seems to get worse. My live sand is turning black right before my eyes.
And yes. I have been pumping extra oxygen into the tank for a few hours. I also got close to 50 lbs of live rock that I have just added to the tank. Never in all my life of keeping fish have I ever seen or have anything like this happen to such an extreme.



I am at a complete loss as how to move forward.

anyone know how I can salvage my tank?

Very sorry for your loss. I appreciate the time you took to post and share an experience that I am sure would be easier to just not talk about and move past. I had no idea this could happen- will avoid those at all costs going forward. I am sure this will save quite a few tanks in the future from your post

 

[fade2black]

OMG, that is terrible. Sorry this happened.

 

[Subsea]

@Lady of Babylon

When I moved into my dream house, I had been operating a marine aquarium for ten years, but always a 55G tank. I upgraded to a 150G tank which included oak cabinet stand but no sump. As the reefer addiction grew, I wound up with a 1500G remote refugium/growout system in my garage. Find a place to put a 150G Rubbermade tub. For your goals in this hobby, it will serve you well.