# s**t s**t s**t



## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

awful news today.

Been on cricket tour this weekend blah blah.

Came home today and my reef tank has gone to hell. I'm not 100% on what has happened. Everything was working, the water conditions were bang on. Weren't fed before I went and auto fed while I was away. Basically I have no idea what has happened, but *EVERYTHING IS DEAD*. I mean everything, fish, corals, shrimp, starfish, EVERYTHING. Tank is murky, it sticks and I'm P***ed of something rotten.

Not asking for advice. 1. I don't want it, 2. I don't need it 3. I already know what I need to do now. Sorry if i sound arrogant but I know what I'm doing and it's too late for advice anyway even if I didn't know as the tank is beyond any chance of recovery. Gonna have to strip it down and restart it. So basically 3k down the drain and gonna have to re-setup and re-stock.

Just thought I'd vent some anger


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## garysumpter (Apr 18, 2005)

Sorry to hear that.

Basically the reason I wont start a reef tank. Will wait till I am about 40 and dont want to do any travelling or anything.

Big commitment!


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## Marinam2 (Sep 4, 2007)

Could it have been a faulty heater or too much food???

Marina


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

That is s**t!!!!!! Oml 

Tell us when you find out what happened


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## Vase (Jul 14, 2007)

Man that sucks. You any ideas what caused it?


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## vetdebbie (Jan 4, 2008)

Oh my god! That sucks royally.

My husband has gone to India for 2 weeks and left me with his reef tank. I had to water change it yesterday - nearly died of the stress (he neglected to mention a couple of key pieces of info). I actually rang my mother and booked a bed in case I messed it up! I can only imagine his reaction if his beloved tank died, so you must be so gutted.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Marinam2 said:


> Could it have been a faulty heater or too much food???
> 
> Marina


nope, the heater has an integral thermostat and there's a seperate thermostat as well (similar to the habistat ones) so even if the integral failed, the external would cut the power if the heat rose.

definately not over feeding. They are on a very, very strict diet. So they weren't over fed.


garysumpter. There's no reason why you can't go away and have a reef tank. If they are maintained correctly then there's no reason why they can't be left alone for a week or 2 (with feeding obviously).

I think there was a certain amount of cleaning in the house while I was away (live with the parents so they were in while i was away). So i think that maybe some form of contamination happened. It's not likely as my mum knows not to spray stuff all over the place in that room.

I currently think that maybe some of the sand was harvesting anerobic bacteria and that it was uncovered. Therefor killing the livestock which then began decomposing, hence the murky water and smell. This is probably it. I do have a sand sifting star fish, nitrous snails, pistol shrimp and a watchman goby which should have kept the sand turned over, but maybe they missed a bit.

It's gonna be something unlucky and out of my control. As I work in an aquatic store. I personally specialise in marines (and freshwater odballs and cichlids) and I consider myself pretty knowledgeable. Plus when I set it up I kept in close contact with a rep from Seachem (a decent aquatic supplier) who knows shed loads about reefs as a bio-system etc. So he knows his stuff and guided me in my setup.

Basically I just think that something very unlikely happened and there was nothing realistic I hadn't done to prevent it. Just an unlucky accident I suppose.

I'm not so upset about the money (although that stings a lot). It's more the fact that I've killed these animals. I know a lot of people aren't too bothered when their fish die but these relied on me 100% and however indirectly it was I killed them and that bothers me


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## Dungbug (Oct 16, 2007)

Sorry to hear fella, I've never kept marine fish only tropical. It must be sole destroying considering the effort needed in setting everything up, I can understand why you feel that you let the tank & it's inhabitants down but like you say it was probably something that was out of your control. I'd find it diificult to rebuild, hope you get the tank re-established soon.

Which aquatic store do you work in? I see you're in MK the same as me.


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## treeboa (May 4, 2005)

jesus mate what a thing to come home too, only problem with leaving others to keep an eye on the place, especially if they dont know the do`s and dont`s

hopefully you can salvage some of your liverock if its not taken too much of a hammering

sorry to hear it mate


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## sparkle (Mar 21, 2007)

OH man thats awful i can only imagine how heartbreaking that was to see 

Ihad a freshwater tank and i added this weird little fish in i was told was fine by the shop

next day the fish has gone.. ( stil cant work out if they ate it)

and all my fish died one by one.. guess whatever it was poisoned them.,, i felt awful and although everyone kept saying it was only freshwater.. i was in bits.. it was a big tank.. good water quality and then WHAM..

ive tried for years to identify what the heck this little fish was but i cant seem to ever see it in shops..

I hope u manage to get back on your feet your set up sounded amazing..


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Cheers guys.

Got straight back on the horse though. Stripped down the tank yesterday, cleaned everything completely. Built it back up and putting water in tonight.

Live rock is buggered now though, so getting a few bits of already cured rock to re-establish the old stuff.

Decided that no corals anymore. Can't be bothered with them anymore. Going fish only, which means I can get the stuff I've wanted.

Gonna get the tank going properly then, hopefully have a small volitans lion fish, a moray of some kind then other things like that.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

HAVE SOME FAKE, RUBBER CORALS. THEY LOOK EXCELLENT. :mf_dribble::mf_dribble:

:devil:


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## AshMashMash (Oct 28, 2007)

mike515 said:


> hopefully have a small volitans lion fish, a moray of some kind then other things like that.


I was _just_ about to post that you should get a lion fish... they are such gorgeous fish, always wanted to keep them.


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Esfa said:


> HAVE SOME FAKE, RUBBER CORALS. THEY LOOK EXCELLENT. :mf_dribble::mf_dribble:
> 
> :devil:


 
i will shout at you if i have to lol


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## Ian.g (Nov 23, 2006)

unlucky mate! what a gutter! i have just set up my 5ft fish only marine tank and that isnt even finished yet and has cost me a bomb so far! so i know exactly what you mean about costing fortunes! and also i am with you about the fish! i have a picasso trigger a niger trigger and 3 clowns at the moment and already i am really attatched to them! would be gutted if things go tits up and they died!...good luck with re stocking etc mate : victory:


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

mike515 said:


> i will shout at you if i have to lol


lol, what do you mean? they're so realistic! :whistling2:

Good luck with the tank mate. :2thumb:


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

new plan lol. got the tank setup again. But im not sure what im gonna do with it. So I reckon it's time to upgrade  lol. Im looking at 6x2x2 from wharf aquatics. Only 250 for the tank which is cheap. Got the filters. Will get another protein skimmer but the one I've got will do enough for a while. And since it will be fish only the power heads I have will be fine.

So basically all I would need is some new lighting. Which since no corals, T8's will be ok. 4 of them only work out at about 75 quid.

Oh and some more live rock. Maybe an extra 40-60kg. And I can get that for 200 quid for 22 kilos. So add it gradually after adding the water.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

Mate... you got any spare, old *free* tanks for a good friend?! :flrt:


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## treeboa (May 4, 2005)

get a couple of these


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Esfa said:


> Mate... you got any spare, old *free* tanks for a good friend?! :flrt:


 
fraid not dude. My tanks get used or thrown out because they cant be re-used


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## htf666 (Jun 23, 2007)

treeboa said:


> get a couple of these


Didn't that jump out of John Hurt's chest in Alien????Harry


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## treeboa (May 4, 2005)

nasty lookin bugger aint it lol,tries to grab my fingers if i get too close:lol2:


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## Vase (Jul 14, 2007)

Jesus wept Mike, what the hells that? :eek4:


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## fatratsandcheesekk (May 18, 2008)

thats a b:censor:h are you going to reset it up or has that pastime gone


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

set it back up already mate lol


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## Boothy (Feb 26, 2008)

great :2thumb: must have been awful to find out everything had died, it's bad enough when that happens to a tropical set-up, but 3k of marine stock :devil:


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## exoticsandtropics (Mar 11, 2007)

sorry to hear about the problems there. mind you serves you right for going on a CRICKET tour!!! sorry just playing around


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

nothing wrong with cricket


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## Boothy (Feb 26, 2008)

hows things going with the tank now? :2thumb:


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## mike515 (Sep 12, 2006)

Its good. Water is in now everythings running. Got to get a new set if taps for one of the XP2s but got the other running anyway.


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## kirsten (Jan 13, 2008)

*condolences*

I had the exact same thing happen with my tropical freshwater tank and it happened within a few hours, so even if you weren't away for the weekend and had only popped out for the day it may have still happened. basically it is a breakdown in the bacterial collonies in the tank. don't know why it happens, but all of a sudden the bacteria dies and so does the rest of the tank. luckily for me my hubby popped home at lunch time and managed to get a message to me, so i got the afternoon of work, but still only manage to save a quarter of the livestock. it was horrible groping round in the milky water and only coming up with dead fish!!!

I hope you have better luck next time.


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## inkyjoe (Mar 31, 2008)

Happened to me when I started keeping fish. My dad was looking after my 4' cichlid tank while i was in spain for a week.
I came home and the water was BLACK! It stunk like sewage.
I was absolutlely furious(i have enough problems with my temper, thats one of the reasons I got the tank), I ran down stairs, grabbed a hammer and smashed:censorut of the tank!
I was pretty pissed off when I had to clean it all up afterwards-there was still a big plec alive aswell-them things are indestructable! luckily I had another small tank to put it in.
A while later I realised what I had done wrong.... I was paranoid about them dying while i was away, so I scrubbed out the filter-UNDER THE TAP!


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