Nightmare- Complete Tank Wipeout :-(

[BecciMac1987]

Ahhhh what a day, woke up this morning to a complete tank wipeout. Did water change and checked levels yesterday, so no idea what went wrong. Any ideas? Lost 2 clowns, fire shrimp, sexy shrimp, dancing shrimp, turbo snails and hermit crabs. Not a happy bunny. In fact, packing it all in cuz Im too gutted to start again But feel better for getting that out of my system. If my husband says once more that they 'are only fish' Im gunna strangle him!

 

[littleme1969]

Gutted for ya! I just lost £300 worth off stock over last few months too so know how it feels

 

[kj23502]

OMG! I'm sooo sorry to hear that

 

[Sea Turtle]

Not really sure what your water quality was like, however, I just wanted to comment on this one because the other day I checked my temp in my tank now that the days and night are hot. It was almost 90 degrees from one day of hot weather. I don't have a chiller and and I had to set the heater a little high to fight the cold days and nights during the winter. Now that it is hot it was very easy for it ot raise the temp way too high. Maybe that was what happend to your tank. I luckely caught it before it was too late. I guess that is why we should use chillers. Anyway, sorry to hear about your tank crisis.

 

[BecciMac1987]

Im a non-wierd way, Im glad its happened to others- I was beginning to feel like a complete fishy failure! Might just stick to my tropical from now on- marine fish are too easy to get emotionally attached to then kill!!

God no, nothing to do with the temperature. Id love to say its hot in the summer, but in UK its still raining and miserable! But saying that, my heater did break so it dropped to 22 celcius, then replaced the heater the night before they died, but tank remained at a steady 26. Could it have heated back up too quickly and killed them?

 

[ox5477]

sorry becci. have you checked your equiptment? heater still working correctly?

Do you have a sump with calcium reactor or other buffering agents that could of bombed the tank?

Do you make your own RO or do you buy from lfs?

If make your own, whens last time you got new filters? Maybe water quality of the outcoming RO had slipped and doing a big wc caused too drastic a change for everything?

Have you noticed any fish/stocking missing over the last day or two? If something of large enough size had died, this may have nuked your tank....

Hope you don't pack it in for good. One day the bug will come iching again, but I guess it's better to let things settle in and investigate as to what may have happened before diving right back in.

 

[BecciMac1987]

I dont have a sump or a filter as its only a 30litre nano tank, so had 5kg live rock as my filteration and it was perfect for the 6 months Ive had it running.
I buy my RO and do a 5 litre change every week. Im even lazy enough to buy it ready salt mixed so the SG stays perect.
I did notice that my dancing shrimp had dissapeared the day before but surely thats not enough to nuke my tank?
Heater had packed up so temp had dropped to 22, but replaced it and the temp quickly rose back 26.

 

[ox5477]

well knowing that the tank is only 30 litre.... this starts coming together a little more. with such a small water volume, it is very easy for any water paramter to go out of control within a few days or even over night.... if your new heater malfunctioned, then it could easily have shot this tank over 30C before morning and this would hurt the fish by making them warm as well as might sufficate them as the oxygen carrying capacity of the water lowers as temp increases...

Also, even if one shrimp dies, after a few days if nothing picks at it and eats it, it could cause a small spike in waste... I dont know if it's enough to nuke the tank, but in such a small water volume, I think you would see it

 

[Lnbates2000]

Gutted for you, I know how I would feel if I lost mine! They're far more than 'just fish'!!

Hope you don't give in, and put all your efforts into your other tank!

 

[BecciMac1987]

Still want to cry and stamp my feet and get my babies back

 

[rednwhite barmy]

please keep the faith becci, the world can be cruel but it needs good people like you who really care, my girlfriend thinks am nuts coz am that into my fish, please give it a few weeks to find the cause and then maybe try again, gutted for you

 

[BecciMac1987]

Yeah, my other half things im crazy too. Well anyway exciting news-my hermit crab seems to have made it! I saw his little pincer twitching so I did the worst thing possible- emptied the tank (my logic was to get rid of disease!) added new marine gravel, chucked in some tap water and salt and hoped for the best! But he has come out of his shell and is now happily wandering around! He obv might not make it yet, but hey, Im happy! Though flushing Nemo was real hard....

 

[garybuk]

At least there is sign of life My other half also thinks im crazy .. tho she does like watching them and buys fish too!! keep up the good work dont let this put you off!

 

[BecciMac1987]

Lol, the only fish Dave wanted to buy was a Volitan Lionfish- it broke his heart when I told him it was ever-so-slightly too big for my tank!

 

[garybuk]

Lol, the only fish Dave wanted to buy was a Volitan Lionfish- it broke his heart when I told him it was ever-so-slightly too big for my tank!

Lol see he is intrested!! he just scared to admint that he likes watching them keep up the good work!!!