VTGrant
New Member
I am seeking some advice! I have been in the hobby for over 10 years now and have always heard of sea cucumbers crashing tanks when they die, but never experienced it before. That was until today, or at least I think so.
I have a 29 gal Biocube, mainly softy/LPS, tank that has been going for over 2 years now. I have a small protein skimmer, AI Prime LED light, 450gph return pump, a small circulating pump behind the rock scape, and a wave maker. I run GFO and carbon on the tank, too. Before leaving for my day, I checked the temp and inhabitants who all looked fine and normal. Almost, 7 hours later I come home to all of my corals retracted and all of the fish hyperventilating. I quickly sprung into action and tested my water parameters, which checked out as normal (temp. 75F, pH 8.4, phos. 0.02, 0ppm for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, sal. 1.026, and alk. 11). I noticed my protein skimmer was going crazy and overflowing onto a decorative piece of wood I have on top of the tank. I thought that maybe there was some chemical leeching from this wood and nuking the tank. I removed the wood and did a 50% water change, started running all the carbon I had, and tried finding an air pump as it was obvious there was a lack of oxygen. I had to run my dog to the vet and hoped for the best upon my return, which I knew was unlikely. Fast forward to tonight and all the fish have died (a pair of snowflakes, 1 yellowtail damsel, and one high-fin goby) but some of the corals look much better than they did earlier. My cleaner and pistol shrimp are perfectly fine and all of hermits are too. Some of my snails look groggy. My RBTA is still retracted but not shriveled anymore, and my maxima seems to be ok. As I am looking over all my inhabitants I notice a small piece of pink flesh with suckers and I immediately think of the pink cucumber I had put in the tank almost a year ago. I stopped seeing him after a couple months and assumed he was gone. I pulled the piece of flesh out and it looked exactly like a piece of pink cucumber and had a 'hollow tube inside', suggesting to me it had a fight with a powerhead. I originally thought that there was a chemical leeching from the decorative wood, but now I am leaning towards the sea cucumber being the culprit.
Does anyone have any thoughts to this? Do you think it was the cucumber or decorative wood above the tank? In anyones experiences will my corals pull through? What should I do to give them the best chance? Any advice would be great!
I have attached 2 pictures of what the tank looks like on a normal day, I will try and get a picture up of what it looks like in the morning.
I have a 29 gal Biocube, mainly softy/LPS, tank that has been going for over 2 years now. I have a small protein skimmer, AI Prime LED light, 450gph return pump, a small circulating pump behind the rock scape, and a wave maker. I run GFO and carbon on the tank, too. Before leaving for my day, I checked the temp and inhabitants who all looked fine and normal. Almost, 7 hours later I come home to all of my corals retracted and all of the fish hyperventilating. I quickly sprung into action and tested my water parameters, which checked out as normal (temp. 75F, pH 8.4, phos. 0.02, 0ppm for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, sal. 1.026, and alk. 11). I noticed my protein skimmer was going crazy and overflowing onto a decorative piece of wood I have on top of the tank. I thought that maybe there was some chemical leeching from this wood and nuking the tank. I removed the wood and did a 50% water change, started running all the carbon I had, and tried finding an air pump as it was obvious there was a lack of oxygen. I had to run my dog to the vet and hoped for the best upon my return, which I knew was unlikely. Fast forward to tonight and all the fish have died (a pair of snowflakes, 1 yellowtail damsel, and one high-fin goby) but some of the corals look much better than they did earlier. My cleaner and pistol shrimp are perfectly fine and all of hermits are too. Some of my snails look groggy. My RBTA is still retracted but not shriveled anymore, and my maxima seems to be ok. As I am looking over all my inhabitants I notice a small piece of pink flesh with suckers and I immediately think of the pink cucumber I had put in the tank almost a year ago. I stopped seeing him after a couple months and assumed he was gone. I pulled the piece of flesh out and it looked exactly like a piece of pink cucumber and had a 'hollow tube inside', suggesting to me it had a fight with a powerhead. I originally thought that there was a chemical leeching from the decorative wood, but now I am leaning towards the sea cucumber being the culprit.
Does anyone have any thoughts to this? Do you think it was the cucumber or decorative wood above the tank? In anyones experiences will my corals pull through? What should I do to give them the best chance? Any advice would be great!
I have attached 2 pictures of what the tank looks like on a normal day, I will try and get a picture up of what it looks like in the morning.
