Everything's dead.

[fishpuncher]

Hey everyone, newbie here. Ok, so the CT, Maritime Aquarium where my buddy works was getting rid of a tank filled with leather coral attached to some nice fiji live rock. I filled two 30 gallon garbage cans with the water from the tank and all the rock which also had anemones, bristle worms, snails etc. I had in my tank only the substrate and the salt water that had been in there running for about 2 weeks. I came home with the goods, drained most of the tank water, filled the tank with the live rock and added the water from the garbage cans from the other tank. The tank did fine till I added 5 fish 2 days later. About 30 hours passed and everything is completely dead. My question is what happened and where do I go from here. I'm guessing I remove all the dead coral, fish anemones etc and let the tank cycle and check all my chemical levels for zero then proceed? Any help would be great.

 

[Odanhammer]

Most likely what happened was there was a cycle during the large change of rock/sand/water to the tank you had. A shame it happened , however to continue moving on from where your at.

1)get rid of anything dead in the tank
2)give all the rock a good blasting with a powerhead , i'd also give the tank a good scrub
3)set everything back up as you'd like it to look and let the tank cycle for the next few weeks while you check to see the levels
4)only start adding things slowly , such as adding a few corals at a time , and 1 fish a month , I'd first start by adding clean up crew , then corals /fish.

 

[beeguiles]

+1 you never want to add too much bioload to the tank at once. Just add one fish at a time so the beneficial bacteria can catch up to the extra waste being produced.

 

[little_fish]

What probably happened is that you added the 5 fish which started the cycle, the toxic levels kill the nem which then killed everything. They release toxins when they die that can nuke a tank, like you have seen.

I would remove all the dead stuff like suggest and then let the ammonia, nitrite come to zero. Then you can add in your first fish. Go slow and add one fish every 3 weeks to let the bacteria catch up to the new waste level before adding more.

I would suggest checking out the articles section, lots of great info there that will get you going on the right track!

 

[fishpuncher]

Hey guys thanks for the replies, if you know bristle worms, they like to burrow into cracks holes etc...well I have a lot of bristle worms that have died do to my first "experiment" which are stuck in the rock. Any suggestions on how to remove or should I just leave em till I add a cleanup crew?
Any specific species like dead bristle soup?

 

[RockStacker]

For the dead bristleworms you can try pulling them out gently with tweezers.
Or use a large syringe (no needle) to suck out the dead bodies while the rock is under water.
And oh, wear gloves.

 

[Bifferwine]

The issue is you added 5 fish at once to what would be considered a newly set up tank. You should wait several weeks before adding any fish, and once you add your first fish, take 2 to 3 weeks in between any new fish additions in the future. Too many fish = too much waste produced = tank crash.

 

[sen5241b]

Very sorry this happened to you but no need for something like this to happen again because you are going to read this article: https://www.livingreefs.com/marine-aquarium-disasters-and-prevent-them-t20514.html

 

[Kelz88]

+1mil sen :)

 

[wontonflip]

+1 everyone....take things slow. Do you have a test kit to test ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? Also what was your salinity? I hope you've been topping off w/ fresh rodi/distilled water.

Patience is the key :) I usually wait a good 3-4 months at LEAST in between fish...and I would only add 1-2 (maybe 3 -- but I have a 125g, and I was pushing it) at a time.

 

[Smitty]

Welcome to the site...everyone has you covered.