jonybravo_bg Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I 've had a 17 gal. nano for 9 months. Two days ago I decided to add (as prescribed- 5ml) Microb lift-spetial blend, which I bought from LFS. An hour after ,I saw my pulsing xenia to suffer and my eufilia compleatly shrink. Two days after and 12 gal WC almost everything in the tank is dead (1 euphilia, all the xenia, two SPS, a clam, turban snail and zoas). The water is greenish/yellowish and muddy even after WC. Just want to share this whith everybody, be very careful whit this bacteria. I might be out of hobby. Link to comment
CJJon Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Isn't that stuff supposed to be for starting a cycle? Why did you add it to an established tank? Also, it contains hydrogen sulfide as a preservative... MICROBE-LIFT/Special Blend has a hydrogen sulfide odor which will dissipate quickly. https://www.microbelift.com/products/home-aquarium/bacterial-products/special-blend/ I'd stroll into the LFS and ask them about it hard core. Link to comment
metrokat Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I add microbe-lift to my tank quite often as a bacterial supplement. Either you had a tainted bottle or the bacteria found fuel in your tanks chemistry to multiply extremely rapidly causing a severe oxygen deprivation. The colors of the water seem to be indicative of a severe bacterial bloom. Increase oxygen to the tank - via a skimmer - airstone - whatever. Link to comment
Mariaface Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 My immediate thought was Kat's response. Were you able to test the water parameters once the bacteria had begun to work? Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 How old was the special blend? Is it possible it was expired? I am interested in that the water change fixed nothing. The bacteria from microbe lift would have largely been removed by this, as would have any oxygen problems, initially. The water color suggests that something is still in there, but muddy/green/yellow water is usually not bacteria - especially not the kinds introduced via microbe-lift, which are heterotrophs. Typically bacterial blooms in tanks have a kind of whitish coloration to the water column. Green/yellow/brown indicates photosynthetic properties. Possibly dinos released from dying corals or something else. What else was going on when you added it? Can you give any more details? Is it possible something else got into your tank? Link to comment
metrokat Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 The water color suggests that something is still in there, but muddy/green/yellow water is usually not bacteria - especially not the kinds introduced via microbe-lift, which are heterotrophs. Typically bacterial blooms in tanks have a kind of whitish coloration to the water column. Green/yellow/brown indicates photosynthetic properties. Possibly dinos released from dying corals or something else. Coral deaths are likely responsible at this point for the water color. Likely there is ammonia as well. Link to comment
jonybravo_bg Posted April 30, 2015 Author Share Posted April 30, 2015 Befor I added microb lift stuff to my tank everything was growing and looked beautiful. I even had some SPS corals. Some other guys in the hobby were jelous about what I acheaved in my tank (especialy the guru guy in LFS). When I added the new bacteria I had PO4-near 0, NO3-10, PH-7,9, KH-8, Ca-420. By now I'm trying to save what has rest in a friend's tank except the 4 fishe I have, they are still in the swamp . Tomorrow I will change near 100% water and I hope not to kill the fish.also I'll rince the media in the old water. I already tried WC (5gal+1+1gal) but no big difference and my wife said the water smells bad. That's why I'm going for 100% WC. I forgot I also experience massive star fish dead, the sand is covered by dead bodies. Link to comment
Neebles Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I would do whatever you can to get your fish out of there ASAP, including seeing if your friend can watch them..or put them in a bucket or something. I'm not sure they can make it until tomorrow unfortunately. Link to comment
D Z Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 It sounds like the xenia was the first to have issues. Not sure whether the bacteria supplement was to blame, but if you had a massive xenia die off, this could have kick started the rest of the coral die off, and the cloudy/smelly water as well. It would not be the first time that I have heard of xenia die off crashing a system. Xenia can be some pretty toxic stuff once it decides to go. Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I'm with cchsoracle on this one. I'm guessing the bacteria may have upset the balance somehow causing a coral (the xenia) to melt away which is very likely to poison a smaller sized tank. If the bacteria was expired or spoiled in some way you may have put a dose of hydrogen sulfide into the tank which can be very deadly as well. I'm sorry for the losses and hope you can recover from this. Link to comment
ReviloM Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I was actually contemplating about getting this stuff a few days ago. I am glad I didn't. I was told by a rep that it smells terrible and can have my whole home smelling terrible after dosing. Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 I was actually contemplating about getting this stuff a few days ago. I am glad I didn't. I was told by a rep that it smells terrible and can have my whole home smelling terrible after dosing. I recently dosed my tank for the first time and it does smell for a few minutes, but it disperses rapidly and I've not seen any negative effects. Link to comment
CJJon Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Befor I added microb lift stuff to my tank everything was growing and looked beautiful. I even had some SPS corals. Some other guys in the hobby were jelous about what I acheaved in my tank (especialy the guru guy in LFS). When I added the new bacteria I had PO4-near 0, NO3-10, PH-7,9, KH-8, Ca-420. By now I'm trying to save what has rest in a friend's tank except the 4 fishe I have, they are still in the swamp . Tomorrow I will change near 100% water and I hope not to kill the fish.also I'll rince the media in the old water. I already tried WC (5gal+1+1gal) but no big difference and my wife said the water smells bad. That's why I'm going for 100% WC. I forgot I also experience massive star fish dead, the sand is covered by dead bodies. Sorry to hear, sucks big time. Especially since you really didn't need it seeing the tank was doing so good. Don't give up though! Losing a tank is hard, but you must keep going! I recently dosed my tank for the first time and it does smell for a few minutes, but it disperses rapidly and I've not seen any negative effects. Do they use hydrogen sulfide to keep the bacteria in a sort of suspended animation/stasis? That is what I had read. Link to comment
tibbsy07 Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 The hydrogen sulfide seems to be a nutrient source for the bacteria in the bottle. It allows them to reproduce slowly and store energy, basically. Hard to know without knowing exactly what is in the bottle. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I agree this is a really strange occurrence. IMO the bacteria weren't to blame. As Tibbsy said usually bacterial blooms are cloudy white and heterotrophic bacteria are the cause (not what's inside the bacterial supplements). This is because the heterotrophs reproduce very quickly. Signs of this are stringly slimy areas on the glass and other things. Autotrophs multiply much slower so any "bloom" in their populations would probably take at least a day or more not hours to see effects. On top of that given it was an established, balanced system so the right conditions probably weren't there. Here's my bacterial bloom: Does it have an expiration date? Did you change anything else in the tank around that time? What was your tank temperature when this was happening? Seriously the only things I can think of that would cause such mass death in a day at a seemingly random time would be a heater malfunction cooking everything up or possibly a toxin that could cause the corals to start expelling zooxanthellae and other stuff. But if it were a toxin I would think it would have to be pretty potent stuff, not a tiny bit of hydrogen sulfide. And both of those scenarios would also affect the fish equally bad. The xenia could certainly be a contributing factor here - though what caused them to go? . They are bastards when it comes to releasing toxins. This is a tough one - and a total bummer. I would be super pissed. Save the bottle and contact the company maybe? They probably won't do anything about your losses I'm guessing though because I'm not sure how you could prove that it was the additive that caused your issues... It's almost like you would need a way to verify that the product was expired or somehow defective. Link to comment
jonybravo_bg Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 So another day on and I lost 2 fish (dragonette and fire fish), 2 clowns still left. I decuded to make 100 % WC. So made it and also rince the sand, I washed the palstic bio balls. During the procedure I kept my rocjks in old water. So everything is done, the new water seemed a bit clowdy at the begining but a few houers later looks good. The clowns seem also happy. Now the only thing I hope is not to have a amonia spike or high nitrites (NO2). I also pray to good God to have some good bacteria left ... Link to comment
jonybravo_bg Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 2 weeks later and complete restart... When I added the fhish (1 week afrer I started to add seachem good bacteria) and one LPS coral (during brown phase) I have my water a bit green. I tried to introduce 5 snails (small and one big guy) they died for couple of houers. I thik that I still have some pison in the water left inside the old rock and leaking in the tank. So bad news...my tank is not going well. Good thing is my 2 clowns are happy water parameters (salifert tests): PO4- almost 0 no3- 1,5 PH-8,2 KH-10,5 Amonnia- 0,30 Link to comment
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