Help - Complete wipeout

[tgosling]

My tank (55g) was well established with fish only (two tangs, maroon clown, small puffer, cleaner wrasse) and good readings (Ammonia & Nitrite zero, Nitrate<10ppm). This last weekend I decided to add an anemone for my maroon clown fish. Previous attempt at getting it to bond with a bubble coral had failed.

Having read up extensively I realise that compatability could be difficult so I bought both a bubble tip and a Malu anemone, placing them at seperate ends of the tank. Also bought a Clarkii clownfish.

Sunday night all seemed to be going well. Both Anemones well attached. One clownfish in each, well bonded, although the maroon clown fish was occassionally going over to the Clarkii and being aggressive.

Monday night everything is dead. Bubble tip shrunken up. All fish dead. Malu leaking green gunge. Devastating.

What caused it? I can only assume either a dying anemone or some kind of chemical warfare between the anemones and or bubble coral. Any suggestions please.

What do I do know? How do I clean up? What is it safe to restock?

All I can think of is a large water change, replacement of all the carbon filters and then wait for a few weeks before trying a single hardy fish.

[Tidepool]

Not to offend, but your 55 was seriously overstocked. One tang in a 55 is too much, let alone two. 4 of the 6 fish that you listed in your tank would be frowned upon by most members here at RC due to either an inadequate size of setup, or poor survivability record, or incompatibility. Most likely scenario is that maroon clown caused so much havoc at having a new neighbor that it stressed out all the other fish. I am not sure why the anemones died but I haven't seen your tank parameters yet.
Starting over is not fun, but go grab a few books and read up hear on RC or the other BBs but please read somewhere.
To fix the problem I would begin with some large (greater than 20%) water changes every other day for a week.

Some more helpful information to figure out what happened would include:
What type of lighting are you using?
What type of current is being used?
Did an anemone get sucked in a powerhead?
Did your heater stick in the "on" position?
Are you using Live Rock/Live Sand? How much?
Protein Skimmer?
How long has the tank been up?

Your best suggestion is the last line of your post where you advise yourself about waiting a few weeks. Slow down and think out what you want in your tank and then devise a plan to get it there. If you are unsure if different things will get along, just ask - there are lots of members with much more experience than I have that are very helpful here.

[tgosling]

Not so overstocked, sorry my conversion to American gallons was flawed, it should have said 75 gallons.

Fish stress is not the answer. The fish have been together for a while (except the clowns), no signs of stress, perfect water conditions etc. Anyway since when do all fish get simultaneously stressed and die within 24hours?

Anemone was not sucked into filter, but stayed where it was. All powerheads well guarded

What type of lighting are you using? Actinitic & marine white four foot bulbs
What type of current is being used? Return from cannister filter (Fluval 404) as well as internal powerhead

Temperature remained at 79F

Have 20 pounds of mature live rock and 40 pounds of live sand.

Protein Skimmer? Yes, venturi type

How long has the tank been up? Tank has been set up for four months, been fully cycled and stable for two


My main concern is to understand what killed all the fish. Has it damaged the biological filter. Clean everything up, and then gradually reintroduce life.

[Tidepool]

I have never heard of chemical warfare in anemones or rapid disintegration of anemones, but then again I am frequently surprised at some of the things that I find out the hard way.
For all your fish to die so suddenly I would have to consider some drastic turn of events in your tank.
Do you have a significant other who is jealous for attention and nuked your tank?
Could the heater be the culprit?
To start over I would take the tank through the same steps as when cycling it for the first time.
Did anything survive? Are there bugs, worms, corals, algae, anything remaining?
An anemone dying in your tank could cause a massive ammonia spike, but it doesn't sound like they were all disintegrated or chopped up.

Sorry but that is all I can think of.

[marieK]

Sorry about your loss. I'm not sure where I heard this, but I have heard that puffers will quickly crash a tank if they die. One of the reasons I have never got one, or a box fish. Anenomes may also, but you did not have enough time for it to seriously kill the tank (less than 24 hr).

I assume you have ruled out any external factors- poisoning from paint, chemicals, etc.

Regardless of what killed them, you will basically need to recycle because from your description probably all of you bristle worms, etc are dead also. As you said, do the water change, run a skimmer, run carbon, consider polyfilters. Its a good time to add to your sand bed if you are due for that. This happened to me once, I attributed it to a dead urchin and fish that spiked ammonia levels in the tank. I ended up completely draining tank(smell was really bad) and I redid the sand bed changing it from crushed coral to oolitic. It was a long ,sad day.

Oh, one more thing, not related to why your tank crashed but just a future note. You may not want to mix species of clowns especially of too bossy types. The maroons are the bossiests and clarkii are close seconds. If you really want 2 species, which I don't suggest, only other kind I would suggest would be perculas with some other clown.

[Rin]

The only thing that I can think of...(that hasn't already been mentioned)...is electrocution.

Do you have a grounding probe? Are one of your powerheads or pumps leaking electricity into the water? Connecting a voltmeter between the water and a ground source on an outlet can easily test this.