What happened to my tank?

yurple · #1 10/12/2007, 07:07 AM

Hi everyone,
i recently started a saltwater aquarium, i made sure that i read up about as much stuff as possible before i did anything. Anyway, my initial plan was to start with just a fish only tank, i let the whole system cycle through then tested everything before i introduced my first fish. i had a bit of live rock in the tank, i guess not enough. anyway, i introduced a clownfish and a yellow-tailed blue damsel. they lived happily for about a week then the damsel died, i still dont know the reason however i never saw it eat it wouldnt take any food. i left the tank alone for about a week then i couldnt help but buy an anemone for the clown. all was well, so i introduced another clown, a butterfly, a royal dottyback and one mandarin i introduced them all at different times. a few days later i had the worst morning of my life, i was watching my fish when the top of my fluval external canister filter burst open, because it was a gravity powered system the water flow was hard to stop. there was about 15cm of water left. i rushed off to my LFS and bought enough filtered ocean water to fill the tank. this hadn't been cycled but it was my only choice. the fish lived ok four another 4 to 5 weeks before they slowly began to die in succession, i had no idea what to do. the last thing to die was the anemone, i woke up to find the water and the anemone all white. im still not sure what happened so thats why i came here. when i cleaned my filter and everything out i found lots of white stuff in the tubes.

Now my main concern is that i didnt have a skimmer because the LFS told me it wasnt important considering i had only one anemone.
would the problem be that i didnt have a skimmer or has some other disease come about, or..... could it be from when i had to refill the tank?

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated as i wanna get my tank up and running again but i dont want this sort of thing to happen again. i have already experienced enough stress so far.
if you have read all this thank you for your time.

traderdan · #2 10/12/2007, 07:19 AM

You need to test your water again and give us the results so I can try to help.
Btw. A Mandrin shouldn't go in a tank that hasn't been running a least for 6 months with 75 pounds of live rock. You need this so the pods in your aquarium have time to reproduce to the level that would support a mandrins diet.

JetCat USA · #3 10/12/2007, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by yurple
.......i made sure that i read up about as much stuff as possible before i did anything.

Sorry, i don't get that impression in the slightest.

Shooter7 · #4 10/12/2007, 07:22 AM

[welcome]

A lot to cover here. Do you have water test results for things like nitrates, ammonia, pH, alkalinity? How do you test your salinity? What size tank is this? Did you have proper lighting for the anemone? You need to really start over from square one, it sounds like.

mikemartinez · #5 10/12/2007, 08:52 AM

Start all over and get a skimmer regardless of what the LFS tells you...

Also make sure to buy all the test kits you need.. Who knows maybe your water had really high nitrates and without a test kit their is no way to know..

Good luck

Giga · #6 10/12/2007, 09:05 AM

Don't you hate when you shoot your own foot? I would do a little more research and try and provide a little more detail about your tank ,parameters,lighting, because it sounds like you need to do a little more research. Anemone's need a lot of light to live happy. Another word of advice is that this hobby is one of the most costly and requires a massive amount of patience(you can not take short cuts here). I know I sound a little harsh but maybe you should just set your tank up and just let it run for a while and get familiar with the chemistry part of saltwater tanks then start with a couple hermit crabs and snails then move on up once you've mastered that.

fishox · #7 10/12/2007, 10:32 AM

I'll echo Giga and suggest you read more. Your message contained a lot of inaccracies such as the water wasn't cylced. Water doesn't cycle. It is the bacteria that breaks down waste in to nitrate that "cycles". The cycle refers to the types of bacteria that are present in your filtration media. I really suggest that you spend more time here and perhaps read a book or two before you spend more money. You'll be much better off spending money on books than equipment or live stock at this time. Sorry to sound so harsh.

Leafer · #8 10/12/2007, 11:57 AM

I have a hard time believing this is an honest post. This sounds more like a story of what not to do. If it’s true then it makes me a little mad at folks who would be as irresponsible. If one would do any research at all the first thing that is reinforced is to go very slowly and have lots of patients. Adding a butterfly, mandarin and anemone to a young tank in questionable condition…. Wow.

I almost think LFS have an obligation to evaluate the customer before making a sale. I think most probably do this to some extent. I guess you may find some looking to push a sale regardless of the cost.

As a pet owner you have the responsibility to do all you can to keep your pets as happy and healthy as possible. It is really important to learn all you can before taking responsibility for each little life. You will need to allow plenty of time to develop you’re own competencies. Take it slowly and test regularly. One new thing at a time is a good idea also.

If this is a true story, I’m very sorry to hear of your loss. If you start over, good luck and please be very careful. If your goal is FO or FOWLR I suggest sticking to the most hearty, “beginner” fish. I have had only two clowns and a yellow tang and they have been plenty interesting and a joy for almost a year now.

capn_hylinur · #9 10/12/2007, 12:06 PM

I suggest you start over----first of all is there anything "living' that has survived?----
That should be removed to quarantine tank----perhaps you have a friend with one setup.

Having done that---list the following for us:
gal of your tank
amount of live rock in the tank
sand bed and depth.

then measure the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in the tank and post them

judging on the results you will probably need to do a 50-60 percent water change and start cycling again so you might want to start preparing water for that

CarmieJo · #10 10/12/2007, 08:08 PM

Sounds like your LFS was not giving you very good advice. For instance here is an article on mandarins http://www.reefreaders.com/content/view/24/1/ that can help you see where you went wrong. Here is a free podcast that gives you information about starting a tank. You might want to give it a listen to make sure that you haven't received any other mis-information. If you don't have an MP3 player you can download iTunes for free to your computer and listen there. http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/po...isode-1-a.html

cutegecko3 · #11 10/12/2007, 08:37 PM

alot of people claim to have problems with canister filters.but thats a new one.it sounds like you know what your doing if you know how to cycle a tank first and test for everything before adding any fish.maybe if you tell us the test results you got we could help.

capn_hylinur · #12 10/12/2007, 10:37 PM

yurple--alot of good reefers are asking for some more input from you----where are you??

vader88 · #13 10/13/2007, 11:17 AM

he's picking up a nice green goniapora and going reef since this FOWLR stuff is proving hard.