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How did one failed novel become ruin?

Nothing he wrote after it experienced more than modest success, while much of his output was rejected or criticized. His health and finances declined. He was forced to abandon writing as the main source of his income. His family worried for his sanity. He was little read at the time of his death.

But was that because of Moby Dick?

No. It was followed by the highly experimental flop Pierre. Maybe the closest he came later to getting back to his marketable sea-adventure formula was Benito Cereno.

Aside: There's a grossly unjust moral presumption in Cereno, one that can perhaps most charitably be accounted for by a desperation for book sales on Melville's part, and his assumption of benighted social attitudes among the intended readership.

Sounds like a fairly common case of late stage authorship.

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