Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Ok well I guess now I am thinking to give up. My BTA anemone got into the power head today and I am sure you can guess what I will say next. My fish list went from
2 Blue Regal Tangs (1 6" med 1 10" lrg)
1 Engineer goby (10 inches long)
1 Coral beauty
1 orange damsel
1 six-line wrasse
2 green mandarins (1 sm, 1 med)
1 Kole Yellow Eye Tang
1 Clown tang
1 Emperor Angel
1 clownfish

TO
1 Engineer goby (10 inches long)
2 green mandarins (1 sm, 1 med)
1 clownfish

You can imagine how I feel right now. Immediately when I noticed particles from the anemone coming out of the powerhead I spoke to Beaver and did everything he adviced and basically hoped for the best. I took it out and put it in the quarantine tank, changed as much water as I had "30 gallons", started running charcoal in the magnum, and started wet skimming like crazy and PRAYED, but that wasn't enough. Well I guess we will see where I go from here if I restock or sell.

Man, Im so sorry......I hate to hear about things like this. You'll probably want to do alot more water changes in the next few days . There's nothing worse than having to watch animals suffer. Anything I can do, let me know.

Sue

I guess I am just kinda wanting to get everyones opinion on what I need to do to get ir ready for more fish. How long should I wait? How much water should I change? etc, etc, etc.

How big is the tank?

The tank is 210 with a 50 sump so a total of 260.

what are the water peramiters?
I would suggest a large water change ~100 gallons.
Sorry for your loss though, but don't let this get you out of the hobby.

So would I, and today if it's possible. I would think the stores there sell salt water, it might be the only thing to help your other fish survive. Is there any way to remove the remaining fish? If you could get them out of that water it would help.

But: to answer your question...I would do at least 4 or more large water changes in the next few days. If the water is as toxic as it sounds, you've probably had alot more die-off than just fish. The large water changes will help dilute the water so the carbon (alot) and skimming can remove the rest. Then you'll most likely have some ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes to get thru before you can even think of adding fish. Try to remove anything at all that is dead as soon as possible. Personally, I would wait a few weeks at least before considering fish...but that's me.

Ammonia between 0.3 and 0.6 and the nitrates 40.

If you havnt alrady done it i would put the fish in a quarentin tank until the tamk stablized... also i would run a uv sterilizer on it if you have one... best way to keep those fish right now is in another tank, hate to say that but its probably your best bet... keep running and changing your flitration too...

How much time elapsed between the anemone being shredded and the fish dying? Sometimes, the anemone can be in the process of digesting food, which when released, these stomach contents can be quite deadly. There is already some bacteria present, breaking these items down. A sudden release can result in a bloom, plummeting oxygen levels (to which the fish would be the first to respond).

Well to the best of my knowledge the first fish went within 30 minutes to 1 hour. Every thirty minutes after the first it seems another went. All the corals are still looking fine. The clownfish seems lost without his anemone, the engineer is still digging everywhere, and the mandarin appears fine. I have been able to pull out all dead fish with the exeption of the six line. I have not found it. The coral beauty and orange damsel were pretty much eaten up when i found them so the six line may be devoured.

Yes, that is much too fast for ammonia or nitrite poisoning. It sounds like the toxic gut contents of the anemone and the associated bacteria probably took their toll.