All livestock died almost instantly... Any ideas?

dagrinch65 · Mar 19, 2011

Hi everyone,

As the subject states almost all my coral and fish died yesterday within a few hours and I have a theory as to why and wanted some expert advice. This is a little background... I have a 30 tank with a lot of nice corals and a few fish. I just got a 120g that I've been waiting for it to cycle so I could move eveything out of the small tank to my big guy. Sadly, I came home last night to find everything in my little tank dead. I starting thinking about possible causes and all I can think of is that our cleaning lady made a huge mistake. I'm thinking she used a cleaning agent in my room and on the outside of the tank which found it's way into the water. Does this sound like a decent theory to you expects on R2R? I'm not a total beginner and monitor my tank pretty well and it's the only cause I can think of. Have any of you had a similar problem? I might have salvaged a few items but putting in my 120g but still need to see what's going to pull thru. Any ideas and advise is appreciated.

Thanks

jski711 · Mar 19, 2011

Definitely a possibility. That or a major heater malfunction is the only thing I can thong of that would kill everything that quickly. Sorry for your losses!

sf_ramsden · Mar 19, 2011

I am not an expert by any means, but I would say your guess could be correct. This could definitely happen if there was in fact a cleaning agent used near the fish tank.

dagrinch65 · Mar 19, 2011

Heater and all other equipment is still working properly.

Troylee · Mar 19, 2011

Sounds very logical or maybe even a pesticide was sprayed near it???

dagrinch65 · Mar 19, 2011

Would moving the livestock to my 120g possibly infect what I have on that tank? Rather then trying to salvage anything should I just start over?

_Alex_ · Mar 19, 2011

ssounds very possible to me. if you have any stock in the 120 and your worried about it comign over with them i would recommend runnign carbon and maybe doing some water changes over the next few days.

sorry for the loss though that sucks.

JOSE CASAS · Mar 19, 2011

Very possible and have heard other similar case thats sounds just like yours.

CJO · Mar 19, 2011

Windex has ammonia in it. If she tried to clean the glass on your tank, it is a definite possibility. That's why I've directed my cleaning lady not to use Windex in the room where my fishtank is.

CJ

returnofsid · Mar 19, 2011

Other possibilities could be a sudden drop in pH, which could have several causes, one being a malfunctioning CalRx.

Dave3112 · Mar 19, 2011

CJO said:
Windex has ammonia in it. If she tried to clean the glass on your tank, it is a definite possibility. That's why I've directed my cleaning lady not to use Windex in the room where my fishtank is.

CJ

I have ALWAYS used windex on my tank glass and I have NEVER had a problem in my tanks in over 15 years. Could have been another solution but I'm not sold on windex doing anything like this. Could be type of air freshener or something...

CJO · Mar 20, 2011

Dave3112 said:
I have ALWAYS used windex on my tank glass and I have NEVER had a problem in my tanks in over 15 years. Could have been another solution but I'm not sold on windex doing anything like this. Could be type of air freshener or something...

Thanks, that's good to know.

CJ

caudill187 · Mar 20, 2011

Are you sure there wasn't a temp spike?

turbo21 · Mar 27, 2011

I also use windex on my my tanks, and have for the last 10 years. It had to be something really strong to kill everything. Is the tank still running? if so use a polyfilter to help determine what it was

bob

JackoChang · Mar 27, 2011

Blame the cleaning lady. Although she might have had the best intentions, she prob sprayed the glass and overspray got in the tank. Not sure what she used, but a possibility. Best of luck to you.

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patent · Mar 28, 2011

dagrinch65 said:
Would moving the livestock to my 120g possibly infect what I have on that tank? Rather then trying to salvage anything should I just start over?

What would you be moving? I'd definitely want to get any water from that tank off it, and do a dip first to get rid of any pest, but this definitely sounds like a chemical or equipment failure so if you take some small precautions moving this might help. Stressed animals and corals though already, so you might not have much luck anyway but seems worth a shot.

Chompers · Apr 2, 2011

Blaming the cleaning lady is taking the easy way out. If you want to get to the root of the problem, read some of the "major failure" threads. Things go badly very fast in this hobby. It doesn't take much to start a runaway chain reaction in a reef tank.

I'd say that the most likely scenario is that a fish hit its expiration date and hid in the rocks for protection while in its weakened state. Then as nature took its course, the organics that were released exceeded the tolerance of the corals. (The water volume of the tank vs. small amounts of pollution in comparison to the large volume of the ocean vs. small amounts of pollution, is the key to your dilemma.)