Nearly Everything Died Over Night

[juliear74]

Hi All,
This is my first post but I hope that someone out there who is way more experienced can help me. This AM I awoke to find that nearly everything our 28-gallon nano cube had passed away sometime during the night. The aquarium held several hermit crabs, a brittle sea star, a few snails, 3 emerald crabs, 2 damsels and 2 little ricordea that inhabited about 15 lbs of live rock. Yesterday we did a water change as the amonia level was elevated to the .25 ppm (2nd level on the testing tube, just higher than the 0 ppm), but all other levels were fine. We also used the amlock for this purpose. My question to all of you is what could have possibly caused nearly all of the animals to die - particularly after the water change? It seems as though something may have died that released a toxin of sorts? I salvaged what little life was left in the aquarium and transferred to hospital tank this morning. I have not yet had the opportunity to re-test the water again today but am so confused as to why everything would die. Any suggestions and thoughts will be greatly appreciated, and if we should do anything specific to the tank itself please let me know. Thanks!

[Europhyllia]

that's terrible! I'm so sorry.
How long has the tank been up and running?

[juliear74]

Hi Europhyllia,
Thank you - the tank is relatively new and has been running for about 3 weeks.

[Mr Cob]

^that is probably your problem.

Sorry to hear of your loss. This was also my problem when I first started. I didn;t let everything cycle and I did not monitor the cycle to know when it had finished. I added an anemone, clownfish and some other stuff and it all died. Took a break, spent several months reading and then started over but more prepared.

Good luck and welcome to MAAST.

[Europhyllia]

Julie,
I think there might be a good chance that it was not done cycling yet. Often cycling a new reef tank can take as much as 6-8 weeks because of the die off from the livestock and need to repopulate the good bacteria. Even after the cycle is complete it's usually a good idea to add just a few critters at a time and then wait a little so that the bacteria population can grow and adjust to the higher bioload.
I think you are on the right track with something likely perishing and declining water quality further after that.
Did you use live rock? Or cleaned dry rock? If you used live rock was it from an established tank and fully cycled?

[juliear74]

Thank you Mr Cob - perhaps it was not done cycling then. We have one other tank and did not have any trouble with this but what you state makes sense as it is pretty new; I was hoping that the inverts and the damsels could help the cycle along but maybe it was too soon for them. Thanks for the welcome - there is so much information here it is wonderful.

[Kristy]

Agree with Europhyllia and Mr Cob about the new tank still cycling.

Ammonia = death to fishies

Sorry to hear about your loss. Glad you have found MAAST and now can learn on the fast track how to slow down and keep your tank happy and healthy.

[juliear74]

Hi Europhyllia,
Thanks for your input on this. Your response is aligned with another I have received here and so I am thinking that the cycle was not completed as you stated. Yes we have about 15 lbs of live rock in the aquarium and were told that it was already cured when purchased and so we did not cure it ourselves. Gosh I hope that the live rock wasn't the problem but it would make sense too.

[Pennies2Cents]

Julier:

I am sorry to hear of your losses. I also agree with the above posts. Your tank was still cycling. :( Its a real tough time for all inverts & fish during the first few weeks/months of a new tank. This has happened to all of us at one point during our time in this hobby. Be patient with your tanks and they will reward you in the future with lots of colorful coral and abundant life.

:) Welcome to MAAST.. I please feel free to ask as many questions as you would like. We are all here to help.

Eve

[Kristy]

Even "cured" live rock will have a cycle. Sometimes the fish store employees don't provide the most accurate (or overly simplified) information and lead you to believe otherwise. (Nothin' but love for you LFS guys... you know what I'm referring to!)

[juliear74]

Thank you all so much for your help and suggestions. I really appreciate your feedback and will follow your suggestions.

[justahobby]

I agree w/ eveyrone else, but curious what water source are you using? There's been pipe repairs locally since the last flood. I came home a few days ago to find I had to flush my faucets. Just a thought.

[juliear74]

Hi Justahobby - gosh I didn't think about the water issues. We have purification system in the house and use that for our aquariums - but the main is from saws.

[ErikH]

Smell your live rock. If it stinks, it's not cured!

The PH of your water, temp, salinity, and oxygen levels in your water change water may not have matched, and a sudden swing could have also caused the losses. Sorry for your losses!

[ramsey]

Hi Justahobby - gosh I didn't think about the water issues. We have purification system in the house and use that for our aquariums - but the main is from saws.

You may want to make sure it's not hooked up to any copper lines (outgoing from the RO unit). Copper's toxic. Also, you may want to buy a cheap TDS meter and check your TDS though this is not likely why things died. If I had to guess, I'd say the tank's not cycled. Let your live rock cure for about a month or two then add a cleanup crew (make sure ammonia, nitrites are 0 and nitrates are low <5ppm, 0 is better). Don't worry about brown stuff on the sand or algae, it will go away and it's actually a good sign. After having your cleanup crew for a few weeks, as long as everything is doing good, add a coral or two. Then a few weeks later, a fish. See what I'm getting at? The slower you go with this hobby, the better. If you don't believe me, look at Justin's signature. :)

Sorry for your loss though and look at it as a learning experience.

[Bill S]

I agree with all of the above. As ramsey said, you should re-think your water souce at some point in time, but that's not your problem. You should NEVER have detectable amounts of ammonia in your tank. If you do, there are other problems. And throwing a product at it is just a bandaid.

Like others have said, almost all of us have been through the same thing before - there is something about this hobby and people wanting to rush things.

Since everything has died, I'd just let the tank sit for a while. Check out your water supply, and unless you are using an RO/DI system, you might want to think about changing your water source.