Big problems

[titlowda]

I am having drastic problems with my tank right now and could use some help. There has been some negative change in the past few weeks(tank sitter gone bad)

Equipment
65gl 6 months old
two aqua clear 50 power heads
Aqua clear 70 filter with 4 carbon packs
Magnum 350 canister w/2 bio wheels. (micron cartridge w/sleeve)
2 10k 96w cf lights
2 antic 96w cf lights
No skimmer at the time. Sea Clone died. 125 Coralife is on the way.

Specs
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
PH 7.6 (always stays 7.6 - 7.8 no matter what I do)
Salinity 1.021

3" deep sand bed(may be part of the problem)
90+lbs of live rock

I had to go away for a month and unfortunitly my wife did to. In the time the tank sitter (a experienced tank owner) managed to kill all fish and live stock with the exception of two small clown fish.

When I returned you could not see into the tank at all with all the algae. I cleaned it slowly and did a 16 gallon water change. 1 week ago.

3 new fish additions by the wife. Koran angel, racoon butterfly, 1" lion. The racoon passed due to a hitch hiker crab that had worked it's way to 2 1/2" while I was gone and decided it was a good meal. Along with the new livestock she added 1" of sand. I found out the sand came from a dive spot but I am not happy with it. This morning I looked into the tank a few times and a few hours later all of the fish were rough. All were acting funny and had labored breathing. I noticed the trochus snail was missing so I moved the fish to a quarantine tank. (10gl) The lion died while I was moving the other fish. The three fish are doing well in the qt tank but it is small and they can not stay in there long.

One note is all the inverts are doing fine in the tank and the water is crystal clear.

I only have two conclusions that I can think of:
1) the trochus snail (3") released toxins as it was trapped in the dsb and rocks and died.
2) the sand was contaminated.


As mad as I am with the assistance from others that is not my worry right now. My wife felt bad and tried to help but I need to try to salvage what is left and move on.

I did a 30% water change today but as soon as I moved one of the clown's back in it's breathing went sour immediatly so it never even left the net. Testing paramaters have been close to the above since the first water change. The micron cartridge and 4 carbon packs were changed out immediatly after the water change today.

If anyone has any insight it would help out alot.

I am limited to the test above as I live in Guam and have to wait 6-8 weeks to get shipments in.

Another issue is how to get rid of the suspected toxin/contamination with out cycling the tank.

 

[BadRoma1]

how long did it take the fish to start having trouble breathing after u added new sand? i know that some sand that isn't for aquarium use and haven't been washed well can cause broblems with oxygen. the only thing is, if the sand is toxic like that why inverts are o.k. and the water is clear. but if it's the sand, then u should see the problem with fishes breathing the next day after u put the sand in max, without a doubt. this is just an idea, not the answer. but if it is the sand, my only recomendation is for u to get it out. when u put the fish in QT, do they start breathing normaly?

 

[titlowda]

The fish sarted to have trouble in about 12 hours. In this time period the trochus snail was missing and died. The sand was out of the ocean but I could not write it off because it and the snail were the only changes in the tank. For a few hours after I discovered the fish problems the inverts in the tank were unusually lively. I noticed quite a few hitch hiker crabs and shrimp that I had not seen before. They were out all over the tank. There have been a few baby crab deaths in the past few hours.

As for the fish. All three died earlier. They were doing alot better in the QT tank and then it was over. I did notice what seemed like a strong sulfur smell coming from the QT tank that I never noticed before.

Hopefully someone will chime in here soon with some more ideas.

 

[BadRoma1]

the reason i asked was because if u made new water for your fish and didn't use any sand from your main tank in your QT, then i don't see why the fish didn't recover. unless they were too stressed at that point. also i don't think that dead trochus snail would be noticed like some sort of dead sea cucumer. i also wanted to note that in fresh water u shouldn't put some types of sand on top of the established sand, because u create what they call "capping" that can be dangerous to fish. i don't know what happens, but when u introduce new sand the way u did, u have to introduce new sand only a little at the time. but i don't know if it's the same for salt water. still, i really think that the problem is in your new sand.

 

[BadRoma1]

the reason i strongly believe that the sand caused the problem, because the time between the problems with fishes breathing and putting new sand in, is the time it would take for the whole thing to go down.

 

[BadRoma1]

i thought of another idea, but meybe i'm wrong. maybe u brought so many parasites with the new sand that they immidietly hosted your fishes' gills and killed them. i'm not very good with parasite way of life, so meybe that's a dumb idea.