Help..Everything is dead!

[sammyinafrica]

Hello all....

As the title says...I am loosing my tank. first all my beautful corals have died...All of them. Now my fish are dying.... Here is the situation...

1. We have done water changes very often all with no help.
2. Our water quality is.. Ph 8.2, Nitrate is 0, Ammonia is between 0 and .25 (everthing is dying remember, Nitrite 0.
3. We have TONS and I mean TONS of aiptasia...Atleast a few hundred I am guessing. (I think this is the main culpret) - we found one of our fish in its tenecles.
4. We have 10,000 K power compacts but have not changed the lights in about a year. Should we change them?

I should say this...Our tank was once lovely, colorful and peaceful. we have tried to up keep the maintence and have been able to grow and maintain many varities fo coral...Now it is like a arren waiste land...

I guess I have two primary questions...

1. how to get rid of aiptasia (is this the main reason for our tank death)
2. Should I replace the compact lights even if they are still working?

Thanks for all your help!

[BSJF]

I have an emergency sponge filter you could use if it is a cycling tank causing your problem. I'm not too far from you (Thousand Oaks/Preston Hollow - 210-475-3934 Lorraine).

If the tank is stable, I would recommend a combination of something like Joe's Juice and peppermint shrimp. Get the big ones that you can with the Joe's Juice and let the peppermint shirmp handle the rest and keep it is check. You will need several shrimp.

You will need to replace your lighting, but since you said all the coral is lost, it is not an immediate issue. That isn't causing the problem with your fish.

[sammyinafrica]

I have tired the peppermint shrimp, but they have been eaten they were all small.. :) I will need to get some joes juice... My tank is 3 years old and was fantastic...at one point so it is not a cycling issue. I thought the aptaisia were cute and a nice addition to my tank. you know giving it some life. I had no idea they were so deadly. Since they are on every piece of rock I own, i assume they are teh reason for the death of my coral.

Any other thoughts?

[kkiel02]

If your fish are dying there is something else going on I believe. Aipastia wont kill a fish. I would keep doing water changes. Get some poly filter and put that in there to take care of the possibility of some chemical that may be in there. Also drop in some carbon just to be safe. The ammonia needs to be zero so water changes ought to help bring that down.

Have you made any changes lately?
What kind of sandbed do you have? depth?

[sammyinafrica]

Aptasia will absolutely kill fish...I have seen them sting and grab one of my gobies as well a another fish...Remember my tank is infesteted wiht then and they are rather large. Some are over 2 inches long. I had no idea they were so bad....Also, i have been told that they can release some type of toxin???

we have completed a waterchange last week. I have a nice sump and protien skimmer along with a 405 fluval running Chem-pure and a few other filters...I will add the carbon soon.

Sand bed is over an inch deep on average. Before the death of the majority of the coral the Ammonia was 0...

[FireWater]

The coral could have died from a lack of usable light due to time on the power compacts. Not sure though.
What all is left in your tank now? Is it possible to set up a quarantine tank or have someone hold the remaining fish for you?
Have you double checked your parameters or readings with another test kit?

The die off of coral could have caused a chain reaction that killed off the other coral - depends on what type of coral you were keeping. Aptasia may not be the single problem.

[Kristy]

Can you give us an approximate timeline for your losses? How slow was the transition from happy to all dead? And is there anything still alive in there? That makes a big difference in your options right now.

[bullstedman]

Boil water in microwake and use a syringe and squirt them with solid stream of boiling water they dissapier with out sluffing off babies it works and is free and lots of fun because of instant results.

[sammyinafrica]

It was about a 3 week period...then the last week, most of the coral died at one time.. NO corals are left...only a clown fish, blenny, spotted manderin, Blue tang, yellow tang, two pj cardinals.

Basical started slowly....and started with evergreen star polyps dying.then mushrooms..then the last week, BOOM...with in a 6 days...

I will check my result with another kit...

[Kristy]

Thinking that the dying corals may have released toxins into the tank so +1 on the advice above to run carbon and polyfilter to help in case.

How many fish have you lost and how long ago? Do the remaining fish show signs of distress?

[stoneroller]

What kind of maintenance do you perform on your fluval? Schedule?

[kkiel02]

Aptasia will absolutely kill fish...I have seen them sting and grab one of my gobies as well a another fish...Remember my tank is infesteted wiht then and they are rather large. Some are over 2 inches long. I had no idea they were so bad....Also, i have been told that they can release some type of toxin???

we have completed a waterchange last week. I have a nice sump and protien skimmer along with a 405 fluval running Chem-pure and a few other filters...I will add the carbon soon.

Sand bed is over an inch deep on average. Before the death of the majority of the coral the Ammonia was 0...

I should have said they shouldnt kill a healthy fish. But with ammonia in your tank that probably weakened the fish. Remember ammonia and nitrite are poisonous to fish and inverts.

Your sandbed is good. I was just asking about that in case you had a problem with anaerobic and aerobic bacteria.

This is just going off what you said but I bet like John mentioned the coral died off from lighting, this raised the ammonia in the tank which is now effecting the fish?

With that old of a tank I would think the ammonia should drop fairly soon though. As your testing start looking for nitrite to spike some.

[FireWater]

For now I would absolutely run carbon and continue with water changes.