Tank crash, please help :(

[Marlowe]

Let me preface this by saying I am very new to the hobby and very much overwhelmed at the moment. I don't know how much info is required to offer some advice so forgive me if this is lengthy.

I have a 40 gallon tank, it's been cycled for a few months (static 0ppm ammonia, nitrate, nitrite for months) after curing about 40 lbs of live sand and 50 lbs live rock. My CUC consists of two emerald crabs, four blue legged hermits, two red legged hermits, two unknown hermits, five turbo snails and one sand sifting sea star on recommendation of my lfs which I now realize was not an appropriate addition to my tank on account of numerous sources predicting it's impending doom via starvation.

My tank inhabitants were a mandarin goby (I've got a huge copepod pop), combtooth blenny, watchman goby, small powder blue (intended for a currently non cycled 200 gal when the time came) and a clown hosting two condy anemones.

I do 5-10% water changes each week, and this weekend managed to get my husbands help with he job. I use RO water and periodically fill multiple five gallon buckets in my garage just in case I need to do an emergency water change. Some Of these buckets were already premixed with salt from the week before with power heads in them to keep the water moving and I just hadn't checked the salt level or dumped them out yet. My husband has mixed salt before and knows the correct amount, so when I asked him to bring me some prepped water I thought he was making up a new batch and not using the week old mix. We did the water change using that older salt water, unwittingly, and while I checked my ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels an hour later like I always do,
I did not check the salinity with my refractometer.

It's completely my fault and such a massive human error on my part. A few hours go by and everyone seems fine but the star fish started to stand up tall on his legs like a little table, a quick google search led me to believe the poor thing was starving so I dismissed it till the morning as nothing I could do at that point. I fed the fish some pellets and got ready for bed. I went back ten minutes later to collect any uneaten food and all of it was floating at the top when it typically sinks and I just didn't put it together.

I woke up this morning to all of my fish dead except a very poorly watchman goby. I checked my parameters again and my ammonia was 0.25 but salt was 0.031 when it always sits at 25 I'm really devastated,
I feel terrible, I loved all of my fish so much and I'm kicking myself for causing this to happen. I guess the prepped waters salt level wasn't mixed correctly or the week old bucket had enough evaporation to significantly increase the salinity.

I have corrected the salt issue and all parameters are fine. My husband surprised me with a big maroon clown, so feeling as though my water was okay now that the salt issue was resolved and the CUC were acting normal I acclimated her and put her in. An hour later, I noticed she was in distress and her entire body looked kind of burnt, color faded off on her stripes, just all around deathly, I quickly removed her and placed her in a qt tank and she's now recovering and color looks normal and while all my CUC looked fine all day, they are now acting kind of comatose hours after I've removed the clown (and the goby). No one is moving, I found my emeralds on their backs but they move ever so slightly once I righted them. The hermits are all completely motionless unless physically touched, and even my Copepods all over my glass are barely moving, thousands are just completely still. The anemones are still responsive, mouths slightly gaped on one. I guess my question is, what should I do about the CUC, would it be best to get them all out to a quarantine tank? What could have caused the burns on my clown and what kind of tests can assure me my water is perfect aside from typical ammonia/nitrite/nitrate? What would cause my crabs/pods/starfish to go completely catatonic?

[billdogg]

Ammonia is extremely toxic - it sounds like that was the culprit. If you can, remove any remaining livestock to another tank. Use new water mixed to 1.024 - 1.026. The new tank, obviously, won't be cycled, so be prepared to do frequent water changes. Prime will help to keep things stable for you.

Once the livestock is safely removed, lower the salinity in the DT to where it belongs, and allow nature to run it's course. The denitrifying bacteria will , for the most part, be ok, so your parameters should return to normal fairly quickly, and then SLOWLY start again.

FWIW - the powder blue was a time bomb in a tank that size, as were the SS Star and the mandarin and the maroon clown.

The PBT was going to develop Ich in that tank - it was just a question of when. That's just what they do, especially in a small (and therefore stressful) tank like that. The SS Star really isn't even well suited to a very large, well established system, but it sounds like you already knew that. The Mandarin will eat something like 5000 pods/day, every day. It just is not possible to (or at least very unlikely) to produce that many in a tank like that unless you have a very large refugium for them to reproduce in. The Maroon Clown - IMHO, if it was to be the ONLY fish in the 40, then maybe, but because they are notorious for their aggression, another poor choice. If you must have one, wait until you have a larger system, and then make it one of the last additions, and expect to have it draw blood every chance it gets (mine did - the first time I nearly jumped outa my shoes)


As for tests - the basic 4 - Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and salinity are all you really need at this point. Ideally, you should remove ALL living creatures from the tank until things return to normal, including the CUC.


I'm sorry if this came across as a bit harsh - it really is not intended that way - You are new to this and are still learning. I've been at it for about 30 years and I'm still learning too.

Don't give up, just don't repeat the mistakes!

hth

PLEASE buy creatures suited to the tank you have, not what you will be getting - life happens and plans get delayed

[Marlowe]

Originally Posted by billdogg

Ammonia is extremely toxic - it sounds like that was the culprit. If you can, remove any remaining livestock to another tank. Use new water mixed to 1.024 - 1.026. The new tank, obviously, won't be cycled, so be prepared to do frequent water changes. Prime will help to keep things stable for you.

*Maybe I wasn't clear, my ammonia has been zero, and is currently zero. The morning I found everything dead, it went to 0.25 ppm or less. The major difference was the huge increase of salinity. I already have another tank set up as a qt that I put the maroon and goby in. *

Once the livestock is safely removed, lower the salinity in the DT to where it belongs, and allow nature to run it's course. The denitrifying bacteria will , for the most part, be ok, so your parameters should return to normal fairly quickly, and then SLOWLY start again.
*Again, I already lowered it, it's back at 0.025, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia are 0*


FWIW - the powder blue was a time bomb in a tank that size, as were the SS Star and the mandarin and the maroon clown.

The PBT was going to develop Ich in that tank - it was just a question of when. That's just what they do, especially in a small (and therefore stressful) tank like that. The SS Star really isn't even well suited to a very large, well established system, but it sounds like you already knew that. The Mandarin will eat something like 5000 pods/day, every day. It just is not possible to (or at least very unlikely) to produce that many in a tank like that unless you have a very large refugium for them to reproduce in. The Maroon Clown - IMHO, if it was to be the ONLY fish in the 40, then maybe, but because they are notorious for their aggression, another poor choice. If you must have one, wait until you have a larger system, and then make it one of the last additions, and expect to have it draw blood every chance it gets (mine did - the first time I nearly jumped outa my shoes)
*Yes, I sadly learnt that the advice of my lfs in regards to the star was erroneous and I do know now that the poor thing was not a good addition. I do have a 20g sump and a Refugium where the pods are. The Mandarin also ate mysis shrimp and pellets. *

As for tests - the basic 4 - Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, and salinity are all you really need at this point. Ideally, you should remove ALL living creatures from the tank until things return to normal, including the CUC.
*This is my concern, how do I know things have returned to normal when all of my parameters are perfect and the only change was the overly high salinity which is now back to normal. *


I'm sorry if this came across as a bit harsh - it really is not intended that way - You are new to this and are still learning. I've been at it for about 30 years and I'm still learning too.
*Didn't come across harsh, I like candor, but I'm still left wondering why my fish looked burnt or blotchy all over their bodies when the ammonia was 0. They are in the qt tank that has some small levels of ammonia and are now fine and back to normal color, so what could have caused the color change when in the DT with no detectable ammonia? And what could cause pods and crustaceans to go catatonic? (They are not active again, pods included)*


Don't give up, just don't repeat the mistakes!

hth

PLEASE buy creatures suited to the tank you have, not what you will be getting - life happens and plans get delayed

*i have a 200gal display tank, I just don't have the light fixtures set up or the tank cycled*