Well it happened again.....and yet again*updated*

[daniella3d]

It's definitly not the zoanthids that killed all your fishes and CUC. It must have been something else. Probably one fish died and produced ammonia that killed the rest. It happens all the time without zoanthids and if you had fishes in a 10 gallons tank, that was calling for trouble from day one.

Dunno how many fish you had in there. My frag tank is 20 gallons and I had a mandarin in there for 4 months without any problem, then I had a damsel and no problem either. I put all sort of zoa and paly in there and they slime a lot after I frag them but never killed anything and never noticed the slightest thing wrong.

Originally Posted by marcingo

Murry,

About three years ago I came over to your place and got a rock full of those ugly zoos you are talking about(brown and pretty big heads right). I put it in my 10 gallon and they were letting off the slime. Next morning when I woke up same symptoms as you mentioned in your tank. Fish dead, bristle worms all hanging out of rocks and dead, large feather duster worm dead, inverts all dead, hairy hitchiker crab I was trying to catch for a few weeks dead, pretty much everything except for the slimy zoos.

It is definately the zoos that did it. In a larger system I am sure it wouldnt have happened but I didnt think and put 30 or so of those zoos in my 10 gallon.

Maybe they all reacted at once for some reason in your tank and released the slime.

[marcingo]

It was two tiny clowns and they were ok for the entire time 3-4 months. Then the day the zoos go in everything is dead overnight. No symptoms before that so I know for sure it was the zoos.

Originally Posted by daniella3d

It's definitly not the zoanthids that killed all your fishes and CUC. It must have been something else. Probably one fish died and produced ammonia that killed the rest. It happens all the time without zoanthids and if you had fishes in a 10 gallons tank, that was calling for trouble from day one.

Dunno how many fish you had in there. My frag tank is 20 gallons and I had a mandarin in there for 4 months without any problem, then I had a damsel and no problem either. I put all sort of zoa and paly in there and they slime a lot after I frag them but never killed anything and never noticed the slightest thing wrong.

[daniella3d]

Well that's the thing, you don,t know for sure. You may have introduced a bacteria, or a parasite that killed your fish and that polluted the water. There could have been some heavy metal in the water in wich the zoa was in. If it was a zoanthid, and not a palythoas, it is very unlikely it was palytoxine as they were never found to carry it.

Especialy clown fish are very resistant to toxin. One of my friend had one of her anemone stuck in a powerhead and released toxins in the tank. Everything died overnight except her clownfish and invertebrates. The anemone survived.

Originally Posted by marcingo

It was two tiny clowns and they were ok for the entire time 3-4 months. Then the day the zoos go in everything is dead overnight. No symptoms before that so I know for sure it was the zoos.

[marcingo]

Herein lies the problem. We are all calling these zoos. At least the ones I got 3 years ago not sure if they are the same trouble makers were palys from what I know a paly to be. Long stems, bigger heads (maybe just smaller than a dime).

So I would say yes they were probably palys and I incorrectly said zoos.

I dont think they had heavy metals in the system since they came out of an established tank with inverts. I also had the exact same symptoms with all the bristle worms coming out of the rock and dying on the sand bed along with everything else. There was also a bad smell in the water which smelled exactly like the palys before and after I put htem in the tank. I also made sure to put just the rock and corals into my tank and not the water it was transported in.

I guess its truly hard to ever tell what did it but being so close in symptoms its a crazy coincidence that within 7 hrs of the palys being in my tank everything dying.

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Well that's the thing, you don,t know for sure. You may have introduced a bacteria, or a parasite that killed your fish and that polluted the water. There could have been some heavy metal in the water in wich the zoa was in. If it was a zoanthid, and not a palythoas, it is very unlikely it was palytoxine as they were never found to carry it.

Especialy clown fish are very resistant to toxin. One of my friend had one of her anemone stuck in a powerhead and released toxins in the tank. Everything died overnight except her clownfish and invertebrates. The anemone survived.

[daniella3d]

It's hard to tell, it could be the palythoas, but this could also be caused by bad bacterias in the water. Anything in the vibrios family. they are very dangerous and cause all sort of disease in coral and humans. Brown jelly is caused by this bacteria and protozoa taking over.

If it was smelling bad, I would say a bacteria because palythoas are gewy and slimy but they don't smell much, but bacterias are extremely smelly.
Just take a breath at the skimmate and you will see

There are definitly a lot more dangerous stuff in the aquarium than just palythoas slime.

It's just hard to visualize everything dying in a tank only due to some palythoas. I have so many in my tank and I frag them and they slime like crazy and never caused any harm to anything. I have a few different types of wild button polyp palythoas that fit the description of the dangerous specie, yet nothing has hapened. I have one that is starting to become quite pretty with a peach center and becoming really huge. It was just brown at the beginning.

Originally Posted by marcingo

Herein lies the problem. We are all calling these zoos. At least the ones I got 3 years ago not sure if they are the same trouble makers were palys from what I know a paly to be. Long stems, bigger heads (maybe just smaller than a dime).

So I would say yes they were probably palys and I incorrectly said zoos.

I dont think they had heavy metals in the system since they came out of an established tank with inverts. I also had the exact same symptoms with all the bristle worms coming out of the rock and dying on the sand bed along with everything else. There was also a bad smell in the water which smelled exactly like the palys before and after I put htem in the tank. I also made sure to put just the rock and corals into my tank and not the water it was transported in.

I guess its truly hard to ever tell what did it but being so close in symptoms its a crazy coincidence that within 7 hrs of the palys being in my tank everything dying.

[Murminator]

Last night the sump got a little low and gurgled a bit topped it up after that throat felt a little scratchy dog started pacing opened all the windows to air out the place.....wicked stuff and I have to say we don't live in a tiny apartment we have a 2100 sqft house and the tank is in the basement.

Had enough took the day off today and ripped everything down found the dead fish 1st I thought it was a sponge on the bottom of a rock. I had around 100# of LR and about a 4" sand bed. The sand.... was..... nasty it reeked of H2S and was jet black about an inch down. Blocked off the basement had high powered fans in the basement windows and wore a full face mask. Went outside once to cool down after I removed the sand and walking around the back yard all you could smell was rotten eggs. House smells nice a clean now and the wife is happen once again.

Sand is on the way to the landfill rock is outside in tubs getting a fresh water bath. Tank was hauled outside washed, vinegared scraped down with a razor blade back painted black. Stand cleaned up and tank back in the house on the stand rest of the equip soaking in vinegar in the garage. Canopy sitting on sawhorses waiting a rebuild Might be a good time to redo the sump and order a new pump.

[daniella3d]

This sound more like old tank syndrom hydrogen sulfide rather than palytoxine. Hydrogen sulfide does have a rotten egg smell. This gas was probably what was making you sick.

Originally Posted by Murminator

The sand.... was..... nasty it reeked of H2S and was jet black about an inch down. Blocked off the basement had high powered fans in the basement windows and wore a full face mask. Went outside once to cool down after I removed the sand and walking around the back yard all you could smell was rotten eggs.