Kevin please read! HELP!! yellow murk killing tank

[Dreamreefer]

On Sunday we bought some chato algae, a banded shrimp, and a very large watchman goby from Kevin's store. He tested our water and said it was very clean but a bit too salty (.026) We went home and added 2 quarts of fresh water and the fish.
Later in the evening, we noticed that the tank was getting murky, and attributed it to the goby beginning to dig around. Monday morning, the tank was VERY cloudy. We didn't know how to get ahold of Kevin, so we just thought it was still sediment, and waited. There was a salty/dead smell to the tank, and the corals were all very mad, clamped down and white. Clam looked dead. Fish were hiding. Late last night I thought of adding carbon, but even petco was closed. I got some early this morning.
Rich at Petco said maybe the goby stirred up some phosphoric acid? By 3pm today our favorite fish, 6 inch hippo tang was dead, along with clam and shrimp. Hermits still alive, as is starry blenny. No sign of goby.
I became hysterical and Brent came home early from work. We did massive water change, 35 gallons out of a 75 gallon tank with 20 gallong refugium. Should we do another tomorrow? Tank still murky but no longer yellow and stinky.
What caused this die-off? We have had burrowing shrimp and a goby before and never had this.... We had a bunch of flat worms and wondered if they all died off , but what would have caused that? Pretty sure most hard corals are dead. This is just devastating.
Please post or call, we stay up late!
(509) 991-1514
(509) 496-6641
Brent and Tawni Pargman
Would love to hear from Kevin.
Thank you so much!!
We need some help

 

[lvsuckerfish]

many things could of happened goby could of possibly stirred up the sand causeing a cycle but if you had one in the tank already I am not sure one was still in the tank at the time you added a new one. what container did you use to add the water was any chemicals or anything in the container. and it could of been the the flat worms dieing off as that suely wouldn't help the situation if that was the case as when they die they will release toxins and can kill off the tank.


check the container to see if it was used for cleaning and was used to add water by mistake .... people have done this before not saying this is the case but a good possiblity. and is water and the fish the only things added to the tank recently. what does ammonia read now?

 

[lvsuckerfish]

and 1.026 isn't bad if you have a ATO on the system. thats where I amd probly most keep the SG at.

reason I say with a ATO as the fresh water will keep it stable.at 1.026 or 1.025

 

[thatguy559]

sounds like a tank crash did you test the water at all.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Keep doing water changes until it stays clear. Carbon needs to be kept fresh. The discoloration and smell is from a die off. Do NOT add any fish or corals for a couple months.

 

[Scooterman]

Keep doing water changes until it stays clear. Carbon needs to be kept fresh. The discoloration and smell is from a die off. Do NOT add any fish or corals for a couple months.

Agreed, even do another large wc! I don't see an issue with the salinity posted are you sure that is correct?

Which Kevin are you referring to? Our sponsor? If so I'll have this thread moved to the proper forum.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Scott, they are from Spokane so there's a 99% chance they are talking about Kevin of Spokane's Aquatic Dreams, our sponsor.

 

[Scooterman]

Moved thread to kevin's forum.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello Tawni,
I hope our chat today gave you some things to try. It is possible that the goby dug into a pocket of hydrogen sulfide. Typically a strong odor of rotten eggs is present if that occurs. A protein skimmer would be helpful also but water changes are the best tool at the moment along with carbon.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Dreamreefer]

An update, and thanks to all who've replied!

Hello everyone! Well, you saw Kevin's reply, and yes we did another water change today- 30 gallons. Our starry blenny is alive and eating! Hermits still alive. Corals look mostly dead, but we'll wait and see.
We know we need to get a better protein skimmer. We have a Red Sea Prizm Pro, but it is temperamental. I told Kevin P (of Aquatic Dreams) that it hadn't been working well for a month or so. He's like, "Uh, that's bad." Yeah, I know, what a dope I am! But our water kept testing zero nitrates, so I thought we were fine. We got the Prizm going tonight, but it may not be enough.
Last night I was reading other posts, and saw that most people do not recommend sand in the sumps. Well, we have about 3-4 inches in ours, in the middle section. Tonight during the water change I took it ALL out, and wow, what a rotten egg smell!! Maybe our hydrogen sulfide came from there? So now it's all filled up with a clean center section and lots of pretty green chato algae.
Brent and I talked and we decided that if we are going to continue this hobby after this disaster, we have to have some better equipment (skimmer).
Another question- if we add a pistol shrimp and a goby say in about a month or 2, will they get into a pocket of Hydrogen sulfide again? Now I'm afraid to add any digging animals, even though I know they are necessary for sand health.
Would appreciate thoughts.
Thanks so much everyone!!
Tawni and Brent Pargman

 

[lvsuckerfish]

if you have one in the system already then I would first check to see if they will live well togeher if not I wouldn't try your luck unless you took all live stock out and placed in the system or took all live stock out and stirred the sand first as they may cause the same issue depending on how old the sand bed is. I would talk to kevin to get some ANassurius snails they are good sand cleaners also and will help with the adding of another sand shifter. down the road

 

[Ichthys]

interesting

Don't want to hijack this thread, but if one of you knowledgeable reefer dudes could explain this it would be cool. What the heck is a pocket of Hydrogen Sulfide, how does it get in the substrate and how common is this. I have never heard of this before, would like to avert a problem before there is one.

 

[Scooterman]

Don't want to hijack this thread, but if one of you knowledgeable reefer dudes could explain this it would be cool. What the heck is a pocket of Hydrogen Sulfide, how does it get in the substrate and how common is this. I have never heard of this before, would like to avert a problem before there is one.

Read this and search DSB for more threads alike.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=519&highlight=deep+sand+beds

 

[Herefishyfishy]

There are multiple issues here and would be good if no urban legend got accidentally created. Deep sand beds create different chemistry and biology than standard sand beds. They can be read up on in many threads. Even shallow sand beds have pockets of pollution waiting to be released. Nothing unusual nor worrisome, just be aware that as it gets stirred up, the material held there gets released into the water column. A good skimmer and a well matured tank will take care of this on a day by day basis.

Any tank running sand should be allowed to do it's thing without too much handling. If cleaning is desired, do it in small increments over days/weeks. An old and deep sand bed should be left alone. CHANGES in ANY sand bed needs to be done GRADUALLY OVER TIME. Stability is your friend in any reef tank. Changes are the cause of most problems.

Now in this case, a less than stable tank with a standard sand bed apparently got stirred up and released enough pollution to start the tank cycling again which created a die off and this is the yellow you saw. The DSB in the sump was not the cause of the HS unless you stirred it up yourself.

Hydrogen Sulfide in solution or gas is colorless. It can get created from biological decomposition under anaerobic conditions such as down in very deep sand that has no circulation of water and air from the tank. In this tank, some might have built up and been released or not, but the point being that it is not something to go rooting around for or worry about. An immature tank is to be concerned about. Each time a cycle starts, consider the tank near brand new again for maintenance purposes.

Back to this situation. You need to keep changing water and running fresh carbon until everything stabilizes then do nothing new. No new fish, no new corals. Let it settle in and the bacteria beds reestablish themselves and the entire ecology to get in balance and build up some buffers.

Before you know it, the tank will be growing all kinds of critters on it's own, and be ready for a new inhabitant into the neighborhood.

 

[flatteringchild]

I was sorry to hear about your tank. That is very traumatic and I know you feel helpless to stop it or fix it immediately. Hope you start again and just take it slow. Good luck!