What an AWFUL weekend!

[Tviokh]

Originally Posted by traip93

you mentioned the tangs were eating off a veggie clip...was that just placed in the tank? If so, could there have been something on the clip? Or on your hand when you put the clip in the tank?

how big is your tank? if would have had to be a strong chemical to kill something that fast in medium to large amounts of water. On a similar note, I'd be worried for your own health as well. YOu really need to find out what made it's way into your tank.

Nah, I'm careful about washing my hands well before putting them into the tank, and the clips are rinsed off before each use. :\

We don't clean around the tank without covering it entirely, so I doubt anything got into it and the water readings were all great.
The only thing I can think of is that sponge as I know they can be very toxic when they die.

The other tanks (FW and another SW) have all been just fine, so it was something specific to that tank.

It's been torn down, cleaned, and re-set up now, so it should be all right once cycling finishes.

[Tviokh]

Originally Posted by Greg S

Hey Amanda, sorry to hear about your tank. Let me know if you need an extra tank or two to use until you figure out what happened to yours. Let me know what size and if you need anything else, filters heaters etc. You can use them for as long as you want to. Just call me tomorrow and I will get them ready for you. Also if you eliminate all other sources of possible poisoning and you think it was the live rock I will help you replace all your losses.

Thanks Greg!
The 10 gallon worked out okay as a temporary holding tank, and I have most of the damsels back in the big tank now (sucks for them, but they're my cycling fish) and everything else is doing okay.

The only thing I can think of, as I've gone over any cleaning, lotions, soaps, or anything that could have been near the tank and came up empty, is that that big sponge on the one bit of tonga rock died off and wanted company for the ride. :\

We're set up again and re-cycling, so it all should be okay now.
MOST of the rock got piled into the 10 gallon so it's still 'live', which helps out quite a bit. I've put bits of it back into the big tank, including one of the algae covered little pieces and that one is doing all right so we must have taken care of whatever it was by draining the tank and starting over.

I think next time though, I'll be sure to remove little bits of sponge before putting the rock in.

Tim did find it when we were cleaning off the larger chunks that didn't fit in the 10 gallon, and it's not there anymore. It's a craft sponge now as it was more than large enough to use as one.

[Tviokh]

Originally Posted by Loverotties

Sorry to here that!Did you buy that sponge?Certain sponges can kill your tank.That's why you should always know what your buying and unfortunally LFS don't tell you all the things about them.Like with sponge should never touch air and should be in shaded area,and you see them at the stores out in the open and I even saw a worker pull it out of the tank and put it in a bag!DAH!!

The sponge was on a bit of live rock.
Kicking MYSELF over it, as I KNEW that and for some reason my brain shut off in this case and I didn't scrape it off the rock. :\

It's totally my fault which makes it doubly annoying to me.

[DevilBoy]

hi there,
im glad everything is working out for you. but have you ever thought about the possibility of have electrical current in the tank, and everything was getting shocked?

[Tviokh]

Originally Posted by DevilBoy

hi there,
im glad everything is working out for you. but have you ever thought about the possibility of have electrical current in the tank, and everything was getting shocked?

It's highly unlikely, as the way we have everything set up, if ANYTHING shorts even in the smallest capacity, it trips a breaker and shuts the piece of equipment down.
Plus, stray current strong enough to kill fish would have been something one of us would have felt when we were netting fish and inverts.