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Tank Melt - Down Restart Opinions


Guff

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So some of you may have seen that my tank crash and burned this weekend, and I have lost almost everything at this point. Not exactly sure what happened but after adding a new batch of 7 tangs after two weeks I had what I thought was an ich outbreak, however that has resulted in the loss 8 of my 10 tangs, 7 anthias, and 2 black ice clowns. My levels were always in check based on tests over the weekend, I did get a nutrient bump with algae and cyano outbreak around the middle of the week likely from the loss of all the fish which has killed 75% of my coral at this point.

 

My question is what should I do to restart? I plan on pulling the fish and treating for ich with tank transfer method and then placing in QT. For my big 300g display (~400g total volume) should I just empty it clean and then refill and truly start from scratch? (Leaning this way b/c looks like I may have recently gotten some aipstasia hitch hikers) If I do this what will I need to do with the rock just let it dry out for a few days and then replace it in the tank again, will that be enough to kill any ich or other parasites that killed all my livestock. Any other ideas or opinions?

 

I just don't have a feel for what I should do now that all of this has happened and I don't want to half @$$ anything now and have to come back in a few months if there is any chance of that happening. Help me get straight before I try to sell everything.

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Just noticed these white spots on my return pipe and the back wall of the tank. Not sure if it means anything or if its a byproduct of elevated nutrient levels and popping up now. Figured I would throw it out there and get some opinions.

 

20130801_173431.jpg

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When I lost mine I went with a total scrub of the tank and dumped the rock as well. Didn't have that much so it wasn't a total loss. I also tossed the sand and scrubbed everything else down with vinegar.

 

I added new rock and live sand and started over..

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Could I safely reuse some of the rock? I do have about 150# of rock that has been drying on the back patio all summer when I setup the 300g that I could use partially. I'm already bare bottom so the tear down and clean up should go quickly...relatively speaking a suppose.

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I agree with dustin... just qt the fish and leave the tank empty for 6 weeks or so and that will rid tank of all ich. Also allow you time to get the tank back in order and nutrients back under control.

 

As far as a few aptasia, get a majano wand or some nudibrachs a lot easier than breaking the tank down and almost as effective.

 

In your shoes I believe this would be my course of action.

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Yeah, if it weren't for seeing the darn aipstasia I would likely leave it running, but after that took out my 120g and what happened to these fish it's just got me freaked out that if I leave anything in there it will come back to bite me. I just wish I could confirm ich is the culprit, based on what i've read I wasn't expecting ich to take out 20 fish in under a week.

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I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. I know first hand how disheartening that can be. If you are really going for a true restart then, I'd probably follow the rock curing procedure. I would scrub the tank down with distilled white vinegar. I would also think about giving all the plumbing (including pumps) a good vinegar soak and clean as well.

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This is where it caused me to doubt it:

 

Velvet disease, also called gold dust disease is a fish disease caused by dinoflagellate parasites of the genus Piscinoodinium, which gives the fish a dusty, slimy look.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_(fish_disease)

 

As we all know the internet is not always right....

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Yeah, I've not personally seen either so I'm going off the fact that everything died so quickly that it may be velvet. Had another response saying since it was a much finer dusting showing on the body they would think velvet too as ich would have been larger more random spots.

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Based on what they are saying on RC 6 weeks works for velvet too, now I just need to decide what to do with the tank whether I take down and scrub or just leave it up search like hell for aipstasia and exterminate. That and I believe with velvet I will have to treat with copper for anything surviving, which right now is down to my sailfin tang, solaris wrass, long nose hawkfish, and the pajama/threadfin cardinals.

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If you are leaving your tank fallow, you could run hyposalinity bring it down to 1.010 or so. Bringing down the salinity would pretty much kill anything in the tank.

 

You could also do what I have done in the past, is get some JBWeld or Aquastick and plug the holes where the aptasia is at. You could also make a syringe full of concentrated Kalkwasser or lemon juice and inject them directly.

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If you brought it down to hypo you'll likely kill off a bunch of good bacteria and living life in your rocks will which likely cause Nitrates and Phosphates go up a lot which would require more water changes. IMO, you're better off just going fallow (Maybe extend to be safe like Jacob said) and let the coral stay happy without having to move them out and back in.

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