tank meltdown

[slcoppola]

My tank crashed and wiped out all my fish. I am still trying to figure out what happened. The water suddenly turned milky one day when i was at work. I pulled out the dead fish and moved the live rock to rubbermaids. Today i checked on the rocks and the water was milky. The tank and rock were about 4 years old, so i am stumped. any idea what caused this?

 

[mikem]

Do you have macro algae?

 

[Phyl]

I don't understand milky water in with your rocks without anything else but rocks and powerheads. Nothing else is in there, right? That's strange.

 

[Hawkeye]

sorry to hear about the losses...would second the possibility that (if present) caulpera macro algae doing it's thing (think reproduction).

Was thinking a cuke "nuking" may also wipe out the fish - but it wouldnt cloud the water to my knowledge for that long.

By the way - may want to temporarily put in some carbon to get the milky substance out (and of course water change). If you do have caulpera - remove it. Replace it with chaetomorpha macro algae.

Let us know...

 

[slcoppola]

i pulled out the cleanup crew and moved then to my nano. the rocks reeked when i pulled them out. noting exotic in my tank just fish, snails, and crabs. i figured that i would do frequent water changes on the live rock until the milky stuff went away. i figured that maybe i had something hidden somewhere in the rocks that just died.... i am thinking about taking a hammer to some of the larger rock to split them in half to see if there was something hidden in the middle.

 

[concept3]

it could be something in the rocks that died and started a trigger effect with ammonia. if it reeks, does it smell pungent like ammonia or stenchy like sulfur?

 

[DaveK]

I'm going to stick my neck out here. I suspect that there was a daytime power while you were at work, and this caused the filtration to stop, and with no oxygen the fish suffocated. That cause a cascade killing most everything else.

It could be something else, but established system usually don't fail overnight, unless something external happens to them. Of course, this could also be something like someone spraying something like and insecticide or other poisonous chemical around the tank.

 

[slcoppola]

the rocks reeked like sulfur when i pulled them out.

my wife and kids swear that they were not near the tank???

I just checked on the rocks thinking that maybe there was a die off. when i checked on them, the water was clear and no odor??? I scrubbed each rock to get off anything that might be on them.

Has anyone else taken a hammer to large rocks and was it successful, or am I creating a headache?

 

[htkdkid]

you will be creating a really big head ache. if you have any die off. you can do it but be ready to cure some rock.

 

[Phyl]

I don't see why breaking up existing rock would be a big problem. As long as you aren't exposing all of your rock to air for a day or two at a time I don't see where it would be a problem to break it up a bit before returning it to your tank.

 

[Carlo]

You may want to try a couple of water changes on the tub with a powerhead in there. Carbon would also help. Then do a smell test on each rock. My guess is that it's only a rock or two (hoping) that is the problem and not all the rock.

Carlo