Tanks wiped out? Help Please

DetailChick

Reefing newb
I give up need advise bad. My 90gl is driving me crazy. Had 10 snails,1 bi color blenny,1 yellow tang,1 pj cardinal,1 coral beauty,1 chromis,1 dkblue damsel,1 goat fish. I went away for 4 weeks, my friend takes care of my tanks when I am gone been doing it for 5 years. Last trip out she called 1st week gone said my goat fish & my Yellow Tang had died didn't know why. She took a water sample to my LFS they said the water was fine. But had her do a 20 gal water change. Over the next 3 weeks no trouble. I get home and notice my fish are not acting normal, my Live Rock is covered with hair algea. I test my water and my nitrate is at 20(using API Saltwater Master test kit) I do a 25 gal water change. Take a water sample to LFS test fine, they sell me a sea hare to eat up the hair alage, a marron clown and a bubble anomina. The next morning the clown is dead,the sea hare is not doing anything. Over the next 2 days I lose the sea hare and the bubble. Take a sample to the LFS and they say the Nirates are very high everything else is fine, they have me do 45GAL water change. Shortly after my Bicolor Blenny dies. Call them up and they have me move all my fish to my 39 and do another 40 gal water change. Heavy vaccum with all water changes)Test Test and More test. Finally get the nitrates down to 10, added a refugium to the sump, wait 3 days test everything is good. Take water to LFS water is great move all the fish to the 90gal since it test perfect, Next moring everyone is dying, Saved only two of my fish the PJ cardinal and the damsel moved them back to the 39gl. Test water now test at nitrate 10,amm .025,nitrite 0. The hair algea is disappearing coralline is increasing, but snails fish ect die when put in the tank except for two small snails that were born in the tank about 3 months ago they are doing fine.:frustrat: Anyone got any ideas???
 
Ok your situation definitely requires a response from one of the more experiences people on this site, but, i will put in my 2cents...

Firstly, i think maybe its best to buy your own test kit. Obviously something is not right with all that testing that's going on. Go to a different LFS and get a second opinion.

Also, i can understand leaving your tank in someone else's care for a week or so, but a month seems to be alot for someone who is not fully involved in all aspects of your tank. Only you can take care of it the way it should be because you were the one who set it up and you know what's what and what needs to be done.

My personal suggestion is to restart. Keep some of your water and for the majority of the tank, add new water. Go thru the cycle again and start fresh and next time, make sure you dont leave you tank for a whole month unless they person you put in charge has good experience as well.

Im sure you will get better answers from some of the pros here.

Good luck.
 
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Hate to hear that your having trouble.
I notice you didnt post your reading for salinity.And are you testing that with a hydrometer or refractometer?
What the water temp.?
Im betting that its the temp,salinity,or maybe stry voltage in the tank.
 
Sorry testing salinity with a refratometer new just got it double checking with hydrometer. Test at 1.022 temp at 74, LFS test the salt too said ok, went to all 3 LFS got differant answers at them all, My freind has been helping with my tanks for 5 years she is a vet tech even knows how to use my test kits and spot trouble. I am at such a lose trying to get this fixed.
 
this sounds pretty messed up if everything is turning out find and I would say having her watch it is fine she probably knows a lot more about gathering scientific data and such than you do
 
It'd be a better idea to double check the hydrometer with the refractometer.Hydrometers have a tendency to be inaccurate.

How are you acclimating your fish and inverts to the tank?Most inverts need to acclimated slowly,the drip method is best for them.
Fish need to be dripped untill the salinity in the bag matches your tank.

The only other thing I can think of would be stray voltage.Check all your equipment(power heads,heaters,pumps) to make sure that none are broken.
 
Ok using drip acclaimation method, Heater is new since I broke it building the refugium, Cords all look good on the power heads,skimer pump and return pump. Is there a way to tell if there is voltage in the tank, also I have a couple of small crabs and two snails that were born in the tank(the snails that are not affected?
 
First off, do not add any more animals to the tank. I don't know why you added an anemone and more fish when you were having animals dying, but you definitely should wait at least a month before adding anything more. Try to figure out what the problem is first. Is there a chance that a contaminant was introduced into the tank? Some sort of cleaning solution or fluid? Even some sort of aerosol spray that your friend may have been using? It sounds to me that a crash of this size, with no indications in water quality, could be caused by a contaminant.
 
You'd have to know how to use a voltmeter to test for stray voltage.If you know anybody thats an electrician or works with electrical equipment they could test it for you.Either way,get a good grounding probe and install it.

Other than that,I'm at a loss.
Hopefully somebody else will have some more ideas that might help you out.
 
Bifferwine TY, at the time the bubble and clown were bought it was done at the advise of my lfs, they had been involved from the begininng and said everything was good to go. I did remove everyone and put them into my 39gl, went to work on the 90 gal under the advise and overseeinf of two lfs, I would NEVER take chances like that with living creatures of any kind. We worked on this for over a month and was told that evrything was perfect which is why we moved everyone back to te bigger "better tank". I have asked repeatly trying to find out if anything of any kind could have gotten into the tank, my gut is that something did, but it is not certain. If something did is it possible to get rid of it. MYLFS said to change out all the water the replace all the sand that they were getting enough o2 because my substrate was 7 years ols and wore out? Didn't sound right and did not like the idea of theirs to set it up back up and throw in a "cheap damsel" and see if it lives, not my style which is why I am turning here for help. So if something did get in there what would the course of action be. What really keeps throwing me is the two snails born in my tak are not affected?
 
If is some type of comtaminate,then about all you can do is change out 75% or so of the water and run a lot of carbon.But,depending on what it was,even that may not help.
 
Thank you all for trying to help, we have done a 25 45 and a 40 gal water change over a 4 week period ran charcoal for 3 weeks, and with the water test coming up perfect, thought it was fixed and still lose almost everyone. I wish I knew for sure if it was a containment but I don't. The tank looks great, live rock has new spounges, tree coral is living, two smail snails great,but add anything in and they die in 12 hours or less. All the hair algae is gone coraline growing strong I am truely at a lost. Thinking of traeing the whole thing down and starting over, hate to lose all my live rock and copods we see them swiming around from time to time. Thanks for the thoughts and advise maybe something will turn up to fix it.
 
make sure to keep an eye on ph, alkalinity, calcium, and phosphates, keep temperature steady, and salinity. Any big changes can cause problems, stick with normal water changes don't add any fish just cleaning crew like snails and hermit crabs and let tank run its course. I just switched tanks and everything went nuts so i'm starting over also so patience everything will fall into place just make sure to test everything not just nitrates and ammonia and nitrites.
 
Thanks tht is things NOONE has tested for alkalinity, calcium, and phosphates. I will see if I can get a kit for those tomorrow. No worries nothing is going in that tank for awhile, not even new snails can live in it, just the ones that were born there before everything went nuts.
 
It is setup for a little over two 2 years, bought the tank used from my LFS it was one of their rentals, I had a 55 gal set up for 5 years never a problem and a 39 gal. I took my 55 gal used the rock sand water ect into the 90 added more rock sand since it was a larger tank, but that was 2 years ago been running with no problems, have never had much luck with new fish since getting the 90 gal, the more questions I answer the more things come to me, also I added two new pcs of Live Rock a week before heck broke lose, I bought them because they were kind of small with a tree coral on each of them.
 
I am lost. all I could think of is stray voltage. have it checked and post all your water parameters(include Mg, trates, trites, PO4, pH, ammonia, Salinity, Alk and anything elses you're testing).
 
Your system is 2 years old but the substrate is 7 years old?
Whats the depth of the substrate and what kind is it?

I read stories of what people call ''old tank syndrome''.Detritus builds up and the bottom of the substrate becomes so anerobic,once disturbed it releases sulfer oxide(I could be wrong on the name of the chemical) into the aerobic area of the system causing a complete crash.

For me,I would start over.New aragonite sand and saltwater.Thoroughly rinse the live rock in saltwater and begin anew.
 
common freak I am trying to set a record here by being the one that posts last on all the thread on the home page.
:bounce::^::mrgreen::trampolin:beerchug::toothy12::claphands:whoopee!:
 
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