worst day ever. Entire system crash

[Aquarius Lady]

Woke up this morning, and my ENTIRE system is crashed.
Everything is dieing. From the pod's to the feather duster, corals, fish. ALL of it. Deing.
As we speak I am pulling dead bodies out and trying to do water changes now, will write in more detail later.......

[Aquarius Lady]

Ok, I have some time here as I am waiting for my salt water to "sit" before pouring it in the tank (I had to mix more).

Yesterday, everything was relatively fine. As many know, I had a bad ICH break out, and the fish never really 'got over it', however the corals and inverts were fine and thriving!
This morning I switch on the actinics, but being in a hurry and having to run somewhere didn't get to "look" at the tank. (Probably wouldn't have noticed it under the actinics anyway.)
At 11:30 I got to switch on the regular 50/50 lights and what do I see? A WAR ZONE.
There is "slime" everywhere, but especially coming from the large feather duster and many mushrooms. I see one cleaner shrimp near death, and I see the mandarin dead. Just this awful "SLIME" throught the whole tank. The corals look AWFUL, some are melting, most are drooping or else balled up secreting massive amounts of slime.
I went to fish out the R. Gramma who was all slimy and dieing and he quickly swam off and disappeared deep within teh rock work. I do the only thing I "THINK" might be logical in an attempt to help the fish/corals/inverts out, and that is
1) Do a 1/3 water change (take out the water)
2)Add a new filter cartridge to the HOB filter.
3) Put in the recommended dose of AMQUEL in the hopes that it might 'neutralize' any toxic chemicals and pheromones in the tank.

I am not even going to bother doing a chemical test at this point, because OBVIOUSLY it is going to show everything horrible off (Because of all the deaths, and sliming, etc) so of course it is going to show off the scale No2 and everything else.

I cannot even BEGIN to imagine what could have caused such a MASSIVE die off/system crash in JUST 24 hours. Mike was JUST at my house yesterday and he SAW my tank! It was looking good except for the fish that had the ich. The corals, inverts, were fine, looking good.
I had NOT added anything in the tank for the last 24 hours EXCEPT the normal food (of Cyclops-eez, brine shrimp and garlic extract). No chemicals, no additives. There was NO spraying for bugs in the room (the tank is in my bedroom). I was in there all night too, and notced nothing. (Even checked the fish at 12:30 last night with the flashlight and everything was FINE!)
Nothing (that I can tell) is faulty with the electical equipment. I had my hands in teh tank (silly me, I know, but I panicked!) to move rocks and grab dead fish, and I felt no current or anything. Tempreture is stable, power head is fine, and the HOB was fine.
So I don't know. I may never know. I hate these system crashes.
The ONLY think I DID do was give Mike two turbo snails, that is it.
(and my Xenia which was not doing so 'hot'). So I don't know, I am at a loss. If I was put on the spot and HAD to guess the only thing I could THINK of was that the ich caused some kind of massive bacterial infection??? But why would that cause the CORALS to die? (and the shrimp)?? I have no idea. All I can do is water changes, and (I also have in the filter now, some stuff to neutralize ammonia and nitrates). and carbon. And pull out the dead fish/critters as fast as I can. I have real "lacy- hole filled" Live Rock, so many thing could have swum deep into teh rock to die. (or maybe there were things living in there that died and begun the destructive cycle)...
For now it remains a mystery, and a hobbyists worst nightmare

[Aquarius Lady]

It's been about an hour and a half? two hours.
I am slowly replacing the 1/3 water I took out with freshly mixed water. (I had no choice, had nothing 'ready' to put in. Usually I do,but you know what they say about 'emergencies')
Anyway, nothing has changed for good or bad. Still that awful slime everywhere (no matter HOW hard I try and get rid of it, probably the corals are producing it as they are stressed and or dieing.)
Two very important questions I would like to ask...
1) Do you think I should keep the lights ON or OFF as I am doing water changes and trying to stabilize stuff?
2) The SPS frag that I got from the last meeting(overNIGHT, literally) developed a white band around the entire circumference of it's base... I take it, that means it's a goner??
3) is there ANYTHING else I should be doing?? More water changes? (I'm afraid to do TOO much at once and shock the inhabitants even more) All the mushrooms are "balled up" now, some hermits are fine, one cleaner shrimp appears fine, some zoos appear fine, the clown fish is 'droopy' but other than that seems to be hanging in there. What am I missing?? What else should I be doing??....................ACK!

::::::sigh:::::::

[Simbo18]

I don't really know what to say, in the 4 years I've been in the hobby this has never happened to me. Hopefully someone will chime in but until then, slowly add new HEATED water. If the water is not heated it will only put more stress on them. Is there anyone around you who has a QT tank and can take in the live ones??!!!???!

Luke

[minfinger]

God that's horrible, and that was a great looking tank too!!

I feel for you...Let me know if you need anything.

[Aquarius Lady]

Ok, if you are still following this novel... Figured I would update some more.
Believe it or not, there is still life in the tank. I have seen some pods still moving around unstressed in teh 'Fuge. There are alot of Zoos' that appear fine. (I had the lights off for awhile and turned them back on) The feather duster (who had been crawling OUT of his tube and hanging limply, actually went back INTO his tube and opened up semi-normally (still looks like he's stressed).
My hammer reopenedd normally once the lights came on, several of teh 'Shrooms seemed to 'stop melting' and regroup and actually opened up normally. The Clown fish is still hanging in there, I see around 6 hermits alive and unstressed (I didn't loose any snails that I can tell) I lost maybe 3 hermits that I pulled out, the mandarin, the R. Gramma (who is still deep in a hole in the rock work) one of the cleaner shrimps, and I am fairly sure the SPS frag is a goner.
My husband and I came up with a "theory" (I had heard and I don't KNOW if this is true) that Mandarins are similar to Boxfish/Cowfish/certain nudibranchs in that when they die, they release alot of potent toxins in the water).
We figured the Mandarin must have died late in the morning (between 2am and 8am). He released toxins/poisons, which bbegan to irritate the Zoos and palyothas (which are also highly toxic when stressed/dieing as are several leather/softies)
The corals began releasing toxins and slimes, and it just cascaded from there. That is the only thing I can possibly think of.
The amquel and water change and removing the dead specimines SEEMS to have 'stabilized' things for the moment (are not getting worse) and some things seem to be getting better or recovering, and some things seem unaffected.
For now I will keep up the water changes until I have done 1/2 over a period of 48 hours. I will continue dosing with AMQUEL as well, (smaller amounts) to continue to neutralize any free roaming toxins/slimes of irritated or dead specimines. and I will slowly begin to sift through certain pieces of rock to look for the dead R. Gramma. (Thankfully I don't think they release toxins like the dragonnettes.
What was that old 'joke'.
"I hate this hobby, I hate this hobby, I hate this hobby...I LOVE this hobby".
For a 16 gallon Nano
New tank, LR, Sand, etc- 150$
Upgraded PC's and revamped filters and extra filters- $200
Live corals and fish over a 3 months period- don't ask!
Chemicals, foods, suppliments, calciums- $150
System crash- $600
The beauty of when it DOES come together? - priceless

[Aquarius Lady]

Thanks for the tip Luke, you are absolutely right! I need to make sure that the changed water is brought up to the same 79 degress as the tank water! See what happens when you panic!
As for someone rescueing the live Clown and such, unfortunatly the only one close is Alan, (Oceanarus)and I think, he has all his tanks filled up at the moment (I had written him earlier in the week) Time will tell!

[Simbo18]

I hope everything is turning around to stay that way, I can't even begin to think how I might feel if somthing were to go wrong with one of my tanks.
I don't see a mandrian being toxic because about 2 years back I had one but died because my horrible sea bae clown bit one of his eyes out and from then on the mandrian just didn't come out. I never pulled him out after he was dead and eveything was fine. So there must be some other source of problems. Corallimorpharians can contain toxins along with soft corals (alleopathy is what it is called when they expell chemicals for biological warfare). So they might be help in the crash, and all that macro you have is another thing to think about.

Luke

[Simbo18]

So how is everything?? Still hanging on?

Luke

[Aquarius Lady]

Well, first ALL the fish died (the last two survivors). BUT no more "inverts" died (Shrimp, snails, crabs) etc. At least from what I could see... (I haven't seen my two Emerald Crabs yet, so I am not certain if they are alive or dead.).
Actually most of the corals seem to be recovering (or at least stable). I lost the SPS frag, and I lost some of the P. Clavularia (sp). The corals that DID survive look "rough" you can tell they underwent a stress so are a bit ragged looking but seem to be getting better. Even the BIG feather duster still is alive and in his tube and didn't shed his crown (Radiole) and I seem to remember hearing that feather dusters are like really, really sensitive to chemistry changes in the water. He too looks a big haggard and ragged, but is still hanging in there.
There was a small bloom of Cyano, which I will be scrubbing off today (it's only on two coral specimines and they can be easily removed and cleaned).
I still have no more 'clues' as to what caused this whole thing than I had yesterday. Still have no idea as to why one shrimp and some crabs died and others seemed 'untouched'.
Very weird indeed...
For now my plan is to have the tank go fallow (put NO fish in for 40-60 days) rebuild up my refugium, and continue to sparkle and polish the water with good filtration, etc.
If anyone has any kind of ideas or suggestions as to something that might be a good suppliment or addition to help the corals and inverts recover faster, please do tell!!!!
In a way, the fish dyeing was sad, but in many respects they are 'cheaper' to replace than those beautiful coral specimines. (I had very inexpensive fish in there) but the corals are the real 'showcase'. ) I may even do Mike suggestion and keep it strictly reef only w/ NO fish. We'll see.

[djangoboots]

Jackie,
Not sure if i missed it, but have you put any carbon in since this has happened? (besides changing the cartridge?) May want to put a bag of Kent reef carbon in. I actually took ichtheology and I don't recall seeing anything about dragonettes having toxins, but I will check for you.

[Ed Hahn]

My two cents...if you have something that releases toxins when stressed make sure you have a decent protein skimmer to remove it. Such somethings as porcupine puffers can do amazing things to other fish in same tank....I did this once, I think I learned the hard way. A large Grey Angel, extra large niger trigger may they rest in peace.

[Aquarius Lady]

Thanks Ed and Jessie-
It still is just a mystery of why the system went kaput, so fast.
If there was a power outage, or a new occupent that had been introduced, or a new ANYTHING introduced, I could have looked more closely at that.
Maybe, they fish having the ich got subsequent bacterial infections, and this caused the corals and such to "slime" and then poison the tank or???
Man, that is the frustrating part of the whole equation...Which came first, the corals sliming and releasing 'something???' or the fish die off and releasing something.
Right now I am running a bag of Carbon AND a bag of nitrate/nitrite remover. So we will see!
As I mentioned before, I am letting the system go 'fallow' so that any FISH parasites, (infections) will die off. (Since the fish are all dead now anyway). I will concentrate on the recovery of the corals.
There was NO SLIME in the tank today! (Thank goodness for ONE small favor!) so maybe it was a fish thing???

[1SQ]

Jackie
I'm sorry for your lost and the stress that you are going through
(We all had that feeling when our tank crashed)

[djangoboots]

Jackie,
I did a bit of research and I am positive that dragonets do not have any sort of toxin in them. They really are not that simialr to boxfishes or cowfishes. Puffers, boxfishes, filefishes and cowfishes belong to the Order Tetraodontiformes (these are all the fishes that have the "tetraodon- type" toxin). While dragonets belong to the Order Periformes. Fishes that come from different Orders are pretty far removed from each other. Remember Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

[Ed Hahn]

Jackie,
The last problem I had was due to temperature. Do you have a temperature sending unit with alarms? I am reaching here?

[Ed Hahn]

for example- my temperature would go down at night. I went on like this for the longest time until I bought a digital temperature sending unit. I later purchased another heater and placed another fan on my Canopy to control temperature. Its a Neat little tool from Rainbow that may give you peace of mind. Radio shack has similar versions. I hope this helps...I feel for you too. I wish you luck...Ed

[dvmsn]

Did you recently use any aerosols or cleaners in the area of the tank? If you have powerheads or any other internal pumps, check to make sure they haven't ruptured