crash!

[amerifinn]

Hi, I'm new to this. I have a 135 gallon fish w/ liverock. It was a running system when I bought it, and included live sand but no rock or anything. I have had it running for 1Ã"šÃ‚½ months.

Everything was testing ok, so I bought 45# of cured liverock and of course re-cured it for 15 days, scrubbing it twice. After I added the LR, the system tested fine the next day, but my ammonia and nitrites shot up to .50 2or 3 days after and several of my fish weren't looking too olympic. Two died and so did one of my cleaner shrimp. I immediately yanked out the LR back to the curing bin and pulled the remaining fish out and had to cram them into my 5 gallon nano (1 6" blue tang, 1 yellow tang, 1 5"powder blue tang, 1 dwarf angel, 1 blue-jaw trigger, 2 perculas, 1 damsel) they look like sardines in there. Poor things.

The fish quickly perked up once in the little tank.
The blue tang is kinda floaty looking, so I have been trying to do the frozen pea (thawed & peeled) soaked in garlic x-treme trick, but she won't eat it. Everyone else is eating well.

I guess my question is now that my 135 is essentially empty except for 2 anenonmes, 2 blue damsels, a 1 scooter, and 1 large lawnmower and a bunch of livesand, how long will it generally take to get the nitrites and down? (the ammonia looks ok now) I have been doing daily 10-20 % water changes, added Prime and Cycle.

Also what can I do about the "Dori" tang?

Thanks so much.

 

[PoukieBear]

You realy didn't put all those fish in a 5 gallon tank did you?

You're going to have more problems with all those fish in there than you are with them in your larger tank.

The levels in the nano are going to spike realy fast.

 

[graveyardworm]

If the ammonia is undetectable I would make sure PH, SG, and temp match and reintroduce the fish to the larger tank ASAP.

 

[amerifinn]

I had to. I believe they were going to die. My fish were dieing 1 by 1. they are now ok, and all levels are perfect. Of course they ARE NOT going to stay in there, it was a rescue situation. I just got a 30 gallon long tank to put them in. I have to get some cycled water from someone local, post haste.

Thanks for advice though...

 

[amerifinn]

sorry, levels are perfect in the small tank. The 135 still shows .50 for ammonia and .50 for nitrites.
Thanks

 

[nunnu]

??

 

[kau_cinta_ku]

start doing 30% water changes on the 135 gal. get those back to normal. then start to intoduce the fish back in 1 at a time.

 

[TOURKID]

did you expose the rocks to air when putting them into your tank? I know that can cause problems. sponges dieing etc

while your fish are in the 30, id get the live rock to finish cureing in the 135 gal.

how do you anemones with just sand in your tank?

 

[Danster]

I agree with Sam. Do water changes until the nitrates and amm. are back something reasonable. Then start adding the fish.

 

[amerifinn]

Kau, do you suggest 30% daily or every 2 days?

Tour, I transported the rocks from downstairs to the tank in an empty bucket, so maybe the air did do it harm. I pulled all the LR out of the tank and put it back into my LR curing bin to finish it up. I suspect that was the culprit in this whole ordeal. As far as the anemones go, I have 2 large chunks of "artificial" rock that they have happily perched in/on.

Thanks for the advice so far.

 

[Randall_James]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7279247#post7279247 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by amerifinn
Kau, do you suggest 30% daily or every 2 days?

You need to change as much water as necessary to get the ammonia levels back under .15 or lower.

If the levels are at .30 then you need a 50% water change to get to .15. I have had tanks that required a water change every day to help maintain safe levels while bacteria populate the tank.

 

[amerifinn]

Thanks. I will do that.

 

[Randall_James]

Not to be the bad guy here but,

The Anemone's are a bit distressing as the prospects for survival are dismal at best even with a stable tank. A tank that is a month old is most certainly unsuitable for them. These animals live to be 100 years or more in the wild.
Most any authority with any credibility strongly discourages Anemone husbandry within the first year or 2 of a tank and even then promote "Captive bred" animals only.
Your tank just is not the place at this point in time for any Anemone is all.

I do not mean to sound so critical but sure gets old seeing how many of these guys die and the void that is created when they are removed from the wild. I have been diving in areas where there are no Anemones left at all. (harvested to extinction).

 

[rustybucket145]

Sound like you overstocked before your tank was ready. You should have had the live rock in first, tank fully cycled, then add fish ONE or TWO at a time. It sounds like you kinda went backwards on this whole setup. I have a feeling that this is going to lead to many long term problems with the tank. I think the only thing that can save you is to do massive water changes, monitor the levels and reintroduce the fish and some of the liverock. Maybee not all of it but a piece or two. Sounds like to me instead of 'curing' the rock you are just killing everything that is live on it. I wouldn't reccomend 'scrubbing' live rock to anyone. You paid $10/lb for it to be live and you just killed everything on the surface of it by scrubbing it. Doesn't seem right to me. Oh well, just my $.02.

 

[nunnu]

We were told by F&S to scrub these rocks twice during the curing period. After we had the spike I did about a 45% water change immediately. They told me I should NEVER do that again !



It's unbelievable how much different advice one can get when having a problem. Everyone seems to have a different answer, even the "experts" on this forum.

Sincerely........

 

[Randall_James]

Well there is not really much mystery to this, you had rock that was not really cured in the sense that it was ready for your tank (Ammonia spike shows this), adding fish merely complicated matters that much more as the tank was not a suitable habitat (experts will generally agree 90 days is minimal before adding fish and many say 6 months or more)
Adding livestock of any kind to a green tank that is not even out of the first cycle of adding liverock is just a bad move.
We all want to hear "Oh it will be ok just do XXX" Well this is not the case, you got caught up like so many new reef builders do and added a load of fish that should have been at least 3 month away if not more. Those fish added to the bioload and just exacerbated an already bad condition. There are only 2 ways to reduce ammonia in a tank time and or water changes. As you had fish involved already, the only fix is water changes and massive ones at that.
Please do keep in mind there is no one here trying to sell you a thing, unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) most of the people here have far more knowledge and concern for your livestock than the store you purchased all the stuff from. They have years of husbandry behind them where as the store has years of 1 week fish. You tell me who to belive.
Nothing good happens fast in this hobby, adding live rock is a 2 to 3 week operation not 1 or 2 days. The clock starts when the rock goes in the tank, not from when the tank was setup.

The fish store should be ashamed of selling you all the fish knowing your tank was new in the first place....(instead they are counting your money)