Aquamarine 900 Journal - My First Marine Tank

[Xraymark]

Thats very unlucky.

 

[sleeky]

Seems you could be correct here my LFS thinks you are anyways. I've pretty much ripped it off the rock it was on... Seems likely as the right hand side of the tank where my fish swim (apart from my goby who has a cave on the left) is where ur caulepra is based.

Hi hon, hope you're ok coz you've been very quiet.

Caulerpa can be really dangerous stuff and after what's happened to you, I've decided that I'm going to order some cheato instead from my lfs and get the caulerpa out of my sump. Even though I keep a light on over the sump constantly, I'm now freaking out about what happens if there's a power outage!! I'd cry for a month!!

Keep your chin up dude x

 

[BigTuna]

I just got caught up here, Ryan. I feel awful for you. As discouraged as you are, I hope you get back on your feet soon with this. All the best!

 

[Donya]

I'm guessing this caused the shock and quick death of my fish as all of my water parameters are fine. I have tested for every single thing I could of and every level is perfect. Like I said I'm guessing the loud vibrations have killed my fish? Any thoughts?

Sorry to hear about this; mystery nukes are always the worst.

I doubt vibrations would be the culprit, especially not for inverts. Fish it could freak out I guess, but inverts really don't seem to care about those sorts of things. They get bumped around and vibrated an awful lot in shipping and this doesn't happen to them. That the shrimp were affected is significant though; they are canaries for contaminants and sharp param swings. Testable params being fine suggests contaminants.

Did you put a hand in the water with the pump running at any point during/after this? Not that I would recommend it if you haven't already, because if you haven't, then stray voltage is one thing to consider. Electricity in the water is often a slow killer over a few days, but I have read of much faster cases too, and it can happen when pumps malfunction and melt through protective bits. Melting plastics are an issue to themselves though and can be easily caused by heat buildup from the motor being jammed. If the pump smells a bit odd in any way (take it out and get your nose right down to it if you haven't done so already), it could be that something overheated and started to melt. As was already mentioned further up on the page, airborne and hand-introduced contaminants can easily cause this kind of thing too. I've known people who had a cleaning person do some work in a different room to a tank and have the tank get nuked from it anyway. Smelly cleaning products, aerosols, and glues are the main distance culprits if nobody was in the room with the tank between it being fine and being nuked. See if you can get a rundown of anything in that regard that was used during the day in the house. If the tank is near a window or the room is connected by fan/vent to anything outside, then it's worth finding out what went on outside too. Fumes/exhaust from construction work and outside chemical sprays can cause this stuff too.

Didn't see this mentioned already, so here is an obligatory carbon plug: get some fresh activated carbon in there until you figure out what the cause was. It's particularly important if there was a contaminant involved.

I take it your caulerpa didn't go sexual on you while the lights were out because that would release seriously bad toxins into the water column that can wipe out a tank in no time!

Particularly given the small amount of macro in this tank (at least going by the pics), I very much doubt macro had anything to do with this. If it was a gigantic volume of the stuff and it all went at once in a small tank with no carbon around, then it's possible that some species might be toxic enough to affect some animals. Anyway, I've had quite a number of Caulerpa species do various forms of macro bombs in my tanks over the years - going sexual, being nibbled to death, dying suddenly from serious damage, and so on. Having been lucky enough to actually see the death/going sexual process start to finish a few times, it has been clear to me that the majority of complaints about macro nukes stem from the effects it has on gas exchange. As I already mentioned in llj's thread, putting a bit of airline in my tanks makes it so I don't even have to do WCs now when they turn opaque green; params hold steady and life goes on as usual while it clears on its own over a few hours.

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

Thanks to all who have sent me their support I'm still about and still tryin hard to find the cause. I'm unconvinced its caulepra now as there was no "Soup of cloud". This basically happened in a two hour period from 11pm when my lights went off too 1am when my mum found them dead.... I've specifically asked her when she dosed gamma nutra plus did she put her hands in with creams etc on and she has Said quite clearly all week she hasnt put them in.

It could very well be stray voltage/heat, but then the temps were fine as I checked them thinking my heater went nuclear and the powerhead is working fine again now after a good clean it was full of food gunk.

Again I've asked my mum about furniture polish,bacterial wipes and air freshner, with a no being the answer.

On the activated carbon front I've added some and will be running it for at least a week before doing a large water change and adding new carbon. The goby is still alive but still critical seems he just wants to hide at the moment.

After checking the dead fish 1 by 1 in my LFS the only thing we could clearly determine is the gills were OPEN on the fish suggesting it was indeed some sort of poison. Now whilst I'm sure gamma nutra plus is perfect for corals could it be possible that a contaminant maybe got into the syringe?? And then when it got squirted in at 11pm it nuked everything?

And and thank you to Donya for that list which probably took some time to write up

And stick with chaeto sleeky seems a lot less problematic

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

Small update: still no wiser on my nuke, but my goby is out and about today eating which is a strong sign.

Thanks again to everyone for the support

 

[GGtank]

Glad to see the goby is pulling through!

Mystery nukes suck! If you had an anemone or something, I would have guessed it got pulled into the powerhead and nuked the tank.. but alas u don't. And there was nothing inside the powerhead right? My second guess would be rogue electricity, esp with a malfunctioning powerhead. The only other thing I can think of, is if your heater cut off and then restarted (but again that is so unlikely unless it was accidentally taken off instead of a powerhead during feeding time??)

At any rate, it's good to see your tank pulling through. It sucks to loose fish but on the bright side the goby is flexing his survival instincts

And who knows, maybe you will now decided to have a semi-aggressive tank or get other fish you wanted from before! It's not all bad

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

Plans fish wise are the same... I thought my setup through thoroughly before and picked my fav fish

Could be anything tbh I've exhausted all viable options and there no 1 definite answer it seems just speculation.

You'll see me around soon

 

[Donya]

I've specifically asked her when she dosed gamma nutra plus did she put her hands in with creams etc on and she has Said quite clearly all week she hasnt put them in.

Could she have cleaned the tube with something? The timing does seem rather suspect if it went in a mere 2 hours before mass death.

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

Nope as I loaded the nutra plus in and left the syringe in the fridge as I normally do.

 

[simonas]

oh no, thought id check on your journal as havent been on in a while and was loving it tiill this bit, so sorry to hear it. every reefers nightmare

worst thinkg about it is not knowing what and the price of marine fish but Im sure you'll regroup soon and restock and this will all be a bad distant memory

 

[FishAreFriendsNotFood10]

lets hope so !

think im moving out soon so i won't be stocking until the tanks in the new house and rebuilt. More challenges ahead it seems.

Gobies fine now and seems he's made a full recovery