total die off

[RedDragon]

MAN ALL MY FISH DIED!!!!!! well I took off monday to a friends and came home that night later that night and everything was dead! I checked the levels all good I dont know why, man :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Jimnorris]

Red Dragon,
Sorry to hear this. What all die??? When you stay you checked your levels can you give more details. Like what was temp, ph, alk, SG, did you just put something new into the tank (like fish, corals or additives)? Where were the fish located in the tank?
Jim

[MikeP]

I am not going to sugarcoat this. You need to stop throwing stuff in your tank and do some more reading, studying and thinking about keeping saltwater fish. Let the tank be as is, pull anything dead out and let it sit for at least 3 weeks before you put anything else in. Don't worry about cycling - it will cycle again if there is a load to get rid of the bacteria will compensate soon enough. 2 disasters with your tank within a week should be a clue you need to SLOW DOWN. Nothing good happens fast especially not with keeping saltwater fish, even more so with reef tanks.

I also suggest running some carbon and a polyfilter to get out whatever may be in the water killing your fish (I am assuming you have checked ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels - you should not really have any of the first two in a established tank).

I noticed you wanted to buy some live rock. Well buy it, stick it in your tank and do nothing else for at least 2 weeks. Check your ammonia and nitrite levels every other day or so and when they are both undetectable then you can restock SLOWLY. Corals you can sometimes get awaywith throwing a few in the tank at once. Fish make lots of waste and the levels of beneficial bacteria that help process this and other wastes are most effective when they can ramp up to meet the amount of waste in the tank.

Asking questions is good but please , if you want to take good care of your fish slow down.

[z28pwr]

RedDragon, like everyone else here has asked.

What are your readings for:

Ammonia
Nitrate
Nitrite
PH
Salinity
Temp

And do slow down, nothing happens fast except disasters in salt water. But don't feel bad I think almost everybody has done it.

[RedDragon]

well guys the
PH.....8.
nitrate...o
nitrite...real low like .1 or .2
temp....80

the rest I did not check but the ammonia was low too dont remember what that tho, the snails are this ok and the two corals that are in there are ok, the other corals I lucky put in the 10g before this happened and don't worry Jim the the anemone was in the 10g, man I dont know what happened I did not put anything new in it, it was all out of the blue I think I wont get nothing till the 120g is up and running, oh I saw one fish made it a 4 strip damisal, :cry:

[RedDragon]

oh ya list of death

2 Percula clowns
1 yellow tail damisal
1 yellow yellow damisal

i did add iodine but that was the amount I put all the time,
man I hate having any thing die on me now my tank looks empty, :cry:

[Ed]

Jaime,

Sorry about your fish.

Not to beat a dead horse, but like everyone else has said, "Please Slow Down!" The lives of your livestock depend upon that.

We all have lost fish. Many times from doing things too quickly. Learn from our mistakes as well as your own.

IMO the hardest thing about this hobby is the waiting.

Josh and Mike are absolutely correct. Give your tank time to recover (weeks not days) and then add one fish at a time over a period of weeks/months. Let it run successfully and w/o incident for 4 to 6 months before you add anything difficult to keep (anemones, hard corals, delicate fish, etc.).

Be patient, and read, read, read.

[Carol]

Did you clean the face of the tank with anything and if so, what? Also, it takes a good while for the bacteria to grow enough to be able to process the bioload/waste products. The hardest part IS waiting, but it does give you time to research fish etc. Did your fish have any signs of illness prior to their demise? Rapid fin movement but not going anywhere, swimming awkwardly, ich, fungus, etc?

[RedDragon]

no nothing there were good one day dead the next, and no did not clean glass with anything I have that magnet thing for that, I was not buying alo of thing the bio load not too much I cant guess what happened, I dont know but the 4 stipe damisal acts and swimms like nothing happened :cry:

[Sherri]

I have to agree fellas....slow down. I am now building up my fish quantity by adding 1-2 fish every 3 weeks at least. I make sure everything is in order before adding anything new. It gives me time to research and study what fish/corals are compatable with each other and it gives me a chance to LEARN a lot in the process. I know everything now about my new additions. I've had no problems except for the ich that my blue tang got. I immediately came here and got awesome feedbacks. Now I don't panick when I see it on him.

If your gonna have an anemone with your clowns, for example, make sure they are compatable. In taking your time, you learn. That is the most important thing. If you're gonna invest what we invest in this wonderful hobby of ours....patience is important also. It is worth it in the long run. I actually waited 5 months :-o before I put any livestock in. My tank was practially a refugium itself. I probably have TOO MUCH patience!!! :-D

I see a lot of posts of you trying to order A LOT of things. I was actually getting a bit worried. Do 1-2 at a time and get to "know them."

Just my two cents worth...it's made a difference for me. Hope it does for you.

Sherri :rotf:

[RedDragon]

thanks all of you for your input, I think it was just me knowing I was getting a 120g and buying things like I had it already I was always saying to myself well I'll put it in the 120, now I have nothing I will now add things slowly and be carefull,but I don't know how the other fish died and the damisal lived :-D

[JimD]

jaime,
Take is easy my friend, as a relative "newcomer" to this adventure, use the resources available to you, like this and other information boards, As Ive told you in the past, if you ever need help or assistance or if youre unsure if your intention is is a good one or not, call me! you have my number, Ill be more than happy to come over or discuss things over the phone >BEFORE< you make a wrong decision,,,....
By the way,,,, did you check for stray electricity in the water? Are you using a grouding probe?
JimD

[RedDragon]

no not useing a ground probe,but thanks Jim I'll call you if I ever need anything since your so close right down the street kinda, thanks

[RedDragon]

well well well I found 5 dead snails behind some liverock and I check the
ammonia and it was way up there I read it wrong the more purple it is the worst it is now the better, that was it the die off from the stupid snails, I took them out and found more total 11 dead snails that you can smell they have been dead for a while, :cry:

[Tim Marvin]

First of all nitrites should tell you something is not right. It goes: Amonnia, nitrite, then nitrate. Nitrate is harmless in low doses, nitrite and amonnia should raise a red flag. Either you are over feeding or something is decaying in the tank. I would not do anything until your amonnia and nitrite levels are zero then do a 50% water change and add a few things. One piece of small livestock every couple weeks should be OK. Don't add more than about one inch of fish for every few gallons of water. Remember fish grow, so if you buy a fish that will be 4 inch long then that is all I would put in a ten gallon tank. you can put in a few hermits, snails, cucumber, small corals, and other things. Fish are very dirty.

[JimD]

My next question would be, why did so many snails die? Theres a problem somewhere., copper? how long have the snails been in the tank?

[captexas]

I wouldn't assume that because the snails are dead they caused your fish to die. Something is really off in your tank to do all of this.

Recently you posted about going out of town for 2 days and coming home to find your tank half empty of water and a mess. Filtration doesn't work very well on a tank only half full. Was your live rock exposed during this time? You could have had some die off and the toxins could have built up really high then and stressed the animals too much.

[RedDragon]

yes some of my live rock was left bare that must have been #1 of my problems, and that just added on, I had 20 snail, and now only I don't know, well thanks guys you've taught me somthing about myself and about the things I need to do, thanks, I now think the live rock died off, than snails, than fish,man I wish I would have caught on and saved my fish, :cry:

[Jimnorris]

Is there anything worst than the smell of a dead (turbo) snail?????
Jim

[Chris]

Is there anything worst than the smell of a dead (turbo) snail?????
Jim

Dead Xenia. ;)

[TexasState]

Live anemone smell pretty bad. Ever try to grab an anemone off of a rock, then smelling that slime?

How did you acclimate your snail? They're very sensitive to salinity change.

[RedDragon]

well I took most little water out put new water in kept doing this while in the water after about 10 min I put snails in snails where alive when I left not doing to good but alive, not till yesterday I found out they were dead behind my LR about 11-12, the last fish a damisal is doing ok not showing any sign of any problems, I will check levels tommorrow to let it filter out after 2 days

[newtosa]

RD -

Dude, you are going to have to start punctuating your posts.

Please do not take this the wrong way; I'm not intending to insult you. I am truly trying to read your posts, and no one minds helping a guy like you as long as they can. We can all tell you have a great interest in this hobby, and it seems like you're willing to work at it just like we all did. That's all good.

But some times I and others are completely unable to decipher your posts. You're missing out on some potentially good advice this way.

Returning to the thread.... I have no new advice here. Nobody really enjoys taking the constructive criticism you've shouldered the last couple days. But it's all spot on.

So - not to take anything away from anyone else's advice - you need to grab Tim Marvin's last post on this thread, print it out, tape it to your sump, and follow it. I'm absolutely not being sarcastic here; don't take it the wrong way. But until you get your NH3 and NO2 down to zero, stop screwing around with your tank. Period. Again, please understand that I'm offering my advice fully aware of how extremely difficult it is to follow. None of us is any different from you in that respect: we are all impatient, and we all tend to intervene when we shouldn't. But really - resist the temptation. Slow down, and build it up slowly. I'm not sure if you were at Troy's house last month, but I can tell you his impressive reef tanks were the result of many months/years of patient effort. You can't skip any of the steps. All of us have learned that lesson the hard way, many times over.

Good luck with this situation. Over the next month or 2, if you follow the 2-3 sentences of advice in Tim's post, I promise you will absolutely get this tank crisis behind you.

Please don't stop asking the questions.

Dean

[Sherri]

Dean..good post. I can honestly say most of you guys - by listening to you all - have guided me thru so many things that I actually have had no emergency situations (so far!). Patience is what I've heard all of you preach. And it seems to be the key to most successes. A lot of you guys have been the "pioneers" of saltwater tanks/reefs, dealing with the do's/don'ts thru the years. That knowledge has helped us "newcomers" have a lot smoother process. And I appreciate it. :-D

RD - There's not one of these guys that wants to see you fail at this. Your heart is in it...listen to them. :D

Sherri