No I actually had fake rock in my tank before. (That wasn’t what killed my fish) I over fed them and they died overnight from ammonia and nitrate spike.
I overfed my fish wayyy too much food and the ammonia and nitrate spike killed them
Just have to say- embarrassing though it might be, put the cause in the first post. Every failure is a chance for someone else to learn from your mistakes. Don’t leave us hanging
That is a little harsh quite frankly. Who in this hobby hasn’t killed something because of a lack of knowledge (cycling, not testing or doing enough water changes, not recognizing disease early enough to intervene, buying something you shouldn’t have etc.)? The whole hobby is learning as you go, connecting with more experienced people online or in person and gaining from the experience or others. He didn’t even say what was in the tank or what he means by starting over. Maybe he just had one clown and snails, and by starting over means cycling for a while.
So the fake rock I had was actual fake plastic rock intended for freshwater. The color stayed and everything, fish loved it. I know it’s not supposed to be in there but it worked and lasted. Over time I didn’t end up loving it so taking it out for the 2.0 tank.Just have to say- embarrassing though it might be, put the cause in the first post. Every failure is a chance for someone else to learn from your mistakes. Don’t leave us hanging
When you say fake rock, what do you mean? Like artificial reef rock, mined dry rock, something else etc.? Just want to get the facts here before all the chime in’s. If you have good quality porous rocks then I would contend your rocks should be in a better state after a die off than before (unless you let them dry out). In other words, more ammonia and more nitrite should induce nitrifying bacteria to reproduce and scale up to deal with it, improving your bio filter overall.
Also just curious for some more details. How old was the tank? Sand? Clean up crew? Assuming you tested, what numbers did you get for ammonia and nitrates?
Just asking because with a well established tank with a good bio filter it’s slightly unusual to hear about a huge tank destroying ammonia spike, and fish can tolerate pretty high nitrates without suddenly killing over. Did you like accidentally drop a whole bottle of flakes in a nano tank, or is this maybe a young tank?
What size tank? 10 fish is a lot for saltwater; I don’t even have 10 fish in my 40 gallon.
Yeah I am starting a team completely over the way that it really should be. I am getting live sand, I am getting live rock. I’m gonna let cycle for a while before I had anything in there. I really appreciate your insight and support. I’ll be sure to show a photo of it once it’s all set up and ready
I started with live sand and live rock and added a bottle of Bio-Spira for good measure. There’s some potential there to increase diversity in bacteria strains, or species. I also believe that adding bacteria in such a way is a faster way to populate all the other surfaces, and filter media, than starting with live rock and waiting for those bacteria to multiply. The bacteria are going to grow, even if you start with dry rock, and no sand. The important part is having enough surface area to support a large enough population of nitrifying bacteria for a given bio load, and monitoring the nitrogen cycle to confirm that the bacteria are established well enough to convert the ammonia and nitrites into nitrates. I hope you have better luck next time!
