Tank looks good in the morning, when I come back from work everything is dying

[Mr3plus1]

This morning my tank was looking pretty normal, the way its been for months. Soft corals fully extended. Fish swimming around. I havent added anything to my tank in months either (no fish, no rocks, no corals, nothing). I keep the same feeding and light schedule. I have a wet/dry, a refugium, and a skimmer. I had some algea in the refugium dying off (not a lot though) and some cheato moving in to take over.

Today I come home from work and all the soft corals are dark purples and wilted. My fish are either hidden or dragging around in the sand. My snails wont move. My skimmer is going crazy making nothing but bubbles. Just bubbles. No matter how I adjusted it, thats all it would make. And crazy amounts (it'd overflow out of the breather valve on the cup and then make a bubble mountain). All the bubbles look like soap bubbles too, with that oily tint to them. PH is around 8.5 (a little high, but no big deal). Ammonia is off the chart (the highest my chart goes is 8.0 and it was darker than that. Multiple tests yeild the same result).

The last test I did was about a week ago and there was nothing out of the ordinary at all. What happened!?

If my weird anti-social roomate was ever out of his room Id be able to ask him if he noticed anything, but I dont he would even be paying attention.

[Mr3plus1]

Oh ya- biolode

2 clowns (well, now 1)
1 mandarin
1 coral beauty
2 turbo snails
about 12 nassarius snails
probably 30 crabs
1 black brittle starfish
1 peppermint shrimp

[MinnFish]

How much LR? How old is the tank? How did you add the livestock? All livestock accounted for? What are the parameters?

[Mr3plus1]

about 60lbs of liverock. Tank is almost 1 year. The last fish was added about 8 months ago. Other than the starfish and the recently dead clownfish all other livestock still alive. I rarely ever see the starfish, so I never know if its alive or not. Everything else (nitrite, nitrate, calcium, phosphate where they should be). The only thing outside its boundries is pH (its been worse before) and ammonia.

If something like my starfish died, or a nassarius snail died, would it cause such a crazy spike? I thought ammonia spikes would be around .5ppm. not 8.0ppm.

[italia]

hmmmmm. I'm curious if there is any other type of contamination..... any chances that someone could've accidently put some sort of chemical airborne that got into the tank. like possibly some sort of sprayable air freshener or a cleaner of some sort? you did say that the skiimer collection has an oily look to it correct??? just a thought.

[MinnFish]

Oh boy, something has died in the tank (starfish maybe?). You must be showing some type of nitrite reading by now. When was the last time you took the readings? You need to do an water change asap? If, possible remove livestock to QT. Nothing will live in those conditions.

[ahullsb]

How extreme was your ph? It's tough to tell, but it sounds like either something died in the tank or some parameter went way out of wack. What was the water temp? Are you sure the temp didn't spike while you were away? To answer your question, a dead snail would not cause this. I would check for the brittle star. Although I doubt it would cause the tank crash it would be helpful to know how big it was, and how long it has been since you've seen it.

Oh and I just read back through your post. How high was the ammonia reading? That could easily account for the rest of the problems with your corals!

[Xavier613]

He said the ammonia was over 8 and the PH was 8.5 i believe

[Mr3plus1]

nitrite and nitrate were both close to 0ppm when i took the readings. whatever caused it was an insane ammonia spike and it was so sudden it hasnt had a chance to break down.

As strange as it may sound, I know for a fact my roomate has a big jug of store purchased ammonia that he used to take the tint off his car. Why he would add it to my tank I have no idea, but I wouldnt put it past him. Im not gonna go accusing him of it at this point.

[snorvich]

I hate to sound negative, but that large an ammonia spike is almost certainly from a external source.

[otrlynn]

While you're figuring out the cause of the ammonia spike, it sounds like you should be setting up a QT. If you don't have a spare tank, do you have a rubbermaid tub you could use? Don't worry about seeding/cycling the QT. If you do water changes on it you won't be having anything like the ammonia levels you have now. If you don't have a suitable container you'd better be doing a LARGE water change on the display. If you don't have much saltwater made up, here is what I'd do. Say you only have 20 gallons of saltwater made up. That will be less than a 50% water change. Take the water in the tank down to about 10 gallons or so, then add the 20 gallons you have made up. You've just changed a much larger percentage of the water. Put the remaining corals below the water level, pulll the powerheads down so that they are in the water, and get back to making more saltwater so that you can continue to the water to the tank. Ammonia is a killer and it seems to me like the most important thing of this moment is to get the ammonia levels down ASAP. Keep making up water, because you'll be doing a lot of water changes. I went through a similar situation with a QT, and it took a lot of water changes to get the ammonia down to an acceptable level (<.25). Good luck and keep us posted.

[aagelly]

This is the gf. At this point (as of 8:00) the ammonia levels have gone down to about 5. However the nitrates and nitrites are still where they should be.

I did notice the temperature was a little higher last night when all this started, but only by half of a degree.

Nothing else died over night. Our mandarin is still colored well. Some of our corals have slightly opened, but others are starting to become discolored.

I am going to try to QT some of the livestock and do a massive water change today during lunch and again after work before he gets home.

Any other suggestions as to why this may have happened? Otrlynn - how long did it take to bring your levels down?

[otrlynn]

Originally posted by aagelly
This is the gf. At this point (as of 8:00) the ammonia levels have gone down to about 5. However the nitrates and nitrites are still where they should be.

I did notice the temperature was a little higher last night when all this started, but only by half of a degree.

Nothing else died over night. Our mandarin is still colored well. Some of our corals have slightly opened, but others are starting to become discolored.

I am going to try to QT some of the livestock and do a massive water change today during lunch and again after work before he gets home.

Any other suggestions as to why this may have happened? Otrlynn - how long did it take to bring your levels down?

It's hard to answer the "how long" question, because it depends upon what percentage of water you change out each time you do a water change. Honestly, I think I was changing water every day for about 5 days until I felt that I had the ammonia down to a safe-enough level. In a QT, it is hard to keep it at zero because you don't have the live rock to deal with the bioload. Hopefully you will not be dealing with longterm QT, just a safe place for the fish until you get the ammonia out of the DT. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that ammonia toxicity also goes up as temperature rises. So I think maybe you got hit with a double whammy

[aagelly]

I called our local SW fish store and they recommended Ammo-lock along with all the water changes. Has anyone used this or similar products?

[otrlynn]

Yes, I did use Ammo-Lock in my QT along with water changes. I have seen it recommended on RC also. It converts the ammonia to a non-toxic form, so it is a good emergency measure. It does not remove the ammonia however, so you will still need to do water changes to reduce the ammonia. Don't rely on the Ammo Lock except as an emergency measure. Also, you might want to scout around in the DT, something large must have died in there to give you such a large ammonia spike; as someone said earlier it was more than just a dead snail. Either that or it was building over a period of time, but the BF said that he had tested the water last week. One other thought is that most people do not test ammonia beyond the period of their tank cycling, or if they add new rock to the tank and fear a new cycle. Do you know if he tested for ammonia last week? I guess that question is not really critical, other than figuring out whether you need to get a dead starfish or something out of the tank.

[aagelly]

Ok so the Ammo-lock is a good measure along side water changes. Very good to know! Thank you!

Mike does weekly test on everything. Ammonia included. This is totally unexpected.

[Michael]

seems strange, i wonder if your room mate sprayed hairspray or something in the room, for everything to be normal before work and then in a state of shambles hours later, i think deadly chemicals are the reason

[aagelly]

Well, after speaking with our local fish store and then Mike talking to other aquarium owners at work, we have come to the conclusion that something was added to the water by the roomate while we were both away.

I have dosed the tank with Prime and did a 10 gallon change for lunch and will do another 20 gallons after work. At lunch, nothing else had died off, but the corals still look horrible.

At this point, it is safe to say that we will be looking for another roomate soon!

[Michael]

yep definately sounds like something has happened while you were at work like something being poured in the tank, could have been alchahol or cleaning fluid or something, luckily it sounds like alow dose whatever it was, best of luck by the way, hope it works out

[rustybucket145]

Just a thought (if you're in an apartment), but do you think it's possible that the landlord sprayed for bugs?

[aagelly]

Actually, they were supposed to do it Thursday, but I called and cancelled due to us having the fish tank.

Thanks though.

[rustybucket145]

are you sure it got canceled?

[Bruno3047]

I would check to see if, in fact, the bug-spraying wasn't done.

Some people are screwed up, no doubt. But it would take a real A**h**e to just dump something nasty into your tank for no good reason.

By the same token, you can't just go around indicting and convicting people without some hard evidence.

Having said that, I bet it was the roomate.

GL

[seapug]

Strange roomate with giant jug of Ammonia + Landlord spraying for bugs.

Hmmmm......I'd say you've narrowed it down to two possibilities.

You have to live with your roomate, so I'd start by asking the landlord if he got the message about not spraying your apartment for bugs.

[otrlynn]

How's the tank doing? Any answers on roomate vs. pesticide or other chemical?