Total Tank Crash

[bens]

Hi all.

I had a very disappointing thing happen to me this week. Tuesday everything in my tank was fine, I had a couple of Yellow Tail Damsels, one yellow tang, a fox face, one chromis, a few peppermint shrimp, and some various crabs and snails.

Well, we woke up weds morning to find all of the fish dead, and most of everything else dead. Needless to say I was very upset.

We immediately bought a Rubbermaid garbage can, and made some new water and took all of the live rock and put it in there to get things out of the tank. To possibly at least save the live rock.

The tank has been running fine for almost a year. All the levels were great 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and about 20 ppm Nitrate. Salinity of about 1.023 and a temp of 79. This is a 55 gallon tank, 50# of live rock, CC substrate, Prizm Pro protein skimmer, Fulval 404 canister filter, UV filter, standard lighting and a couple of power heads.

At this point I may just buy a whole new setup, but if I don't. What do I need to do to the tank to make sure things are OK? I still have no idea why everything died. I worry that something got in there, or something went toxic? I really don't know.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!
-Ben

[zhenya]

Hi Ben,

Sorry to hear of your troubles I'm stumped as to why would a tank crash overnight. Was there any mechanical failures, like the heater or pump?

[Chris Lakies]

Sorry to hear about that Ben. I'm not sure what could have happened. Can you recall anything out of the ordinary happening a few days before the crash? Have you been using anything toxic around the tank, paint or the like?

[Elmo18]

IM sorry this happened Ben. I would venture to either think of a mechanical failure? Did you add anything in the tank before it crashed? hang in there.

- Elmo

[acropora]

IM sorry this happened Ben. I would venture to either think of a mechanical failure? Did you add anything in the tank before it crashed? hang in there.

- Elmo

I am also sorry to hear about the loss.A couple of questions. Was the power on when you first noticed the loss? Check all electrical items through a GFIC outlet to see if any are faulty.Also was the water temperature normal.Possible heater problem?

[RayPollett]

Ben sorry to hear about the loss. It is next to impossible to tell now why.

A guess and only a guess is lack of O2. It can become a fast acting chain reaction in tanks. O2 level drops. a larger fish dies. The decaying body uss O2 better than the rest in the tank lowering it rapidly. the next fish dies and so. It can kill a tank in a matter of hours if the tank circulation does not cause good gas exchange. A prizim in my opinion does not do a great job in this area and if the fuval return is under water and the powerheads do not cause ripples on the water surface; this could be the problem. Remember it is a guess.

Ray