need advice

M

mike73367336

In Memoriam
So last week i decided to change my sump big mistake. Well doing that i did about 4 things wrong and killed half my tank . Allmost al corals are gone i lost my wrasse and my powder blue i have had for over a year. so now my nitrates are like blood red and my ammonia is 2.0. The tank is 210 gallons i did 100 gallonwater change then 4 days later a 50 gallon. Nothing changed so now i pulled more fish and have them in a 50 gallon tote . tommorow im setting up a 120 to put them in till i figure this out.

Well i think i should say what i did wrong without that probably have different suggestions.I tried putting baffles in the new sump i used silcone . Well here is where i went wrong i added water way to fast blew out baffles then tryied silaconing them wellwater was in and pumping into display. I know stupid dont know what i was thinking. next i decidedto use the sand from this tank i bought and put in sump another stupid thing . So next day i came home my tank was cloudy and powder blue was died. so i disconnected that sump and went back to my regular one and did the 100 gallon water change.

So my options what do you suggest
1- empty whole tank and do all new water
2- keep doing big water changes
3- throw in the towel

Sorry about the book .Im really on the fence here
 
sorry to hear about your troubles- a lot of times it seems like things "snowball" when going bad.

I would continue with partial water changes. Don't throw in the towel- chalk it up to a learning mistake. We all make them. This is how you get good at reefkeeping.
 
what type of silicone did you use? I read some where you need to be very careful about the silicone you use and unless you let it cure properly it can leach some nasty stuff into the water. I would also suggest lots of carbon. along with the water changes
 
jfl14609 said:
what type of silicone did you use? I read some where you need to be very careful about the silicone you use and unless you let it cure properly it can leach some nasty stuff into the water. I would also suggest lots of carbon. along with the water changes
Click to expand...

+1, make sure you didn't use a household grade silicone with anti mold chemicals.
 
When silicone cures it gives off acetic acid (vinegar smell). Water changes will help but I'd take the sump out of the loop until the silicone has cured properly. Keep an eye on your pH if you still have the sump going.
 
+2 on carbon...............AND WATER CHANGES. no one has answered his question about taking the fish out. Mike, I think that's a 50/50 either way. stressed if they stay in, stressed if you take them out. How do they look?
 
They looked stressed bad i caught the emperror , the achillies and the scribble angel and the 2 clowns last night got them all in tote last night they look way better today. Im setting up the 120 tonight .

It was home silacone that said anti mold chemicals. so yea i totally messed up . Should i just drain all water and start over?
 
Sounds like it's pretty toxic. So: I would Dump the water and sand . Wipe down the tank with vinegar and rinse it. .Scrape out and toss the silicone. Don't know if the anti mold agent sticks to rock;it might , but I can't find what it is exactly. Might need to give the rock an acid bath and rinse.

Sorry to hear of the troubles.
 
In the meantime, I'd disconnect the sump, put in a good powerhead and AMQUEL. Run carbon in a canister filter. Grab a salicylate-based test kit to test ammonia while using amquel.

GL, this is horrible news:(

-A
 
how will i know if it leaches out ? I still haavn't caught my clown trigger and desjardii tang. Tangs to fast and clown is to tricky hides in the rock i guess ill have to waittill sunday tll i take it down and rinse . I don have to take it out for this right? Its a 210 and plumbed to basment and i have all hardwoods wood . would be a nightmare and wife would murder me.
 
tmz said:
Sounds like it's pretty toxic. So: I would Dump the water and sand . Wipe down the tank with vinegar and rinse it. .Scrape out and toss the silicone. Don't know if the anti mold agent sticks to rock;it might , but I can't find what it is exactly. Might need to give the rock an acid bath and rinse.

Sorry to hear of the troubles.
Click to expand...

x10 ..I'd toss the sump and start from scratch there anyway..
 
I would just toss the sump or at least take it offline and be 100% sure that all the silicone is gone before even trying to re use it. as far as the rest of the system I doubt anyone can tell you exactly what will happen. personally I would do a few extremely large water changes and run tons of carbon and watch it closely for a few weeks before even attempting to put anything in it. Although I tend to be very cautious but just remember most people have thousands of dollars invested in fish and corals so its worth it to be careful
 
a friend of mine used GE type II , it had the anti mold agent in it as well. it was a pain in the ARS. we drained the whole system. lost almost all of the coral, and a yellow tang. all other fish recovered when i put them in my QT. the rock was dried and cured then put back in and seems to be fine. i would not use the sump again unless you can be 100% sure you removed all the silicone. i hope all works out for you. keep us posted and let me know if you need any other details on what we did to correct the problem.
 
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