If you see death starting to proliferate in your tank...don't hesitate. This is the start of a tank crash. Something's gone wrong chemically.
Step one: prepare salt water enough to fill your qt. [Meanwhile run tests to see if you can TELL what the problem is.---but cloudy water or smelly water is a clear indication that the water is not carrying enough oxygen for your critters and bacteria are getting out of hand: there's some nutrient in there that is overwhelming the tank.]
Or a 5 gallon polyurethane white bucket..I don't trust the silver or orange ones. A Rubbermaid Brute trashcan will also work. Or a garbage sack liner in something otherwise unusable.
If your fish store is near, BUY sufficient jugs of salt water. Or if you don't have ro/di get ro from the supermarket, and in a pinch, just use tapwater and Prime [never be without either Prime or Amquel in the house!]. It'll be good enough.
Mix it with a strong pump (everybody also needs a mixing pump: the small Eheim is good for this) and be sure the water is clear.
Set up the qt and get every healthy living thing into it with the pump going.
2. put 'wounded' or 'sick' critters into a separate qt if you can. If you have to triage, toss a sick nem or coral to get it away from the healthy ones. Corals that have a good area left can be fragged to save the good part: cut only into the good tissue to break it so that no unhealthy tissue comes with the frag.
3. keep pump, warmth, circulation going in the 'sick' tank. Do a 30% water change this time with ro/di or ro based water. [using conditioned tapwater in a qt is not a problem unless your water is spectacularly bad---but you don't need the problem in your regular tank.]
4. keep things alive, toss the dead or hopeless, and keep it all going. Your tank may go through a minicycle. Test it again now that it's clear of dead things. Test it after the 30% change. And just let it run. The same principle that let it cycle and become fit for life is now working again, and perhaps in as few as five days it will have cycled and be ready to handle life again.
Many reefers do experience a crash somewhere in their learning curve, or something unanticipated (a visiting nephew or drunken guest) does in a functioning tank. You can prevent this sort of thing by testing weekly, so nothing creeps up on you. For the nephew or the guest---a heavy canopy is a deterrent.
Hoping you never have to cope with it---but if you ever should, memorize the priorities and steps, and save what you can.
Step one: prepare salt water enough to fill your qt. [Meanwhile run tests to see if you can TELL what the problem is.---but cloudy water or smelly water is a clear indication that the water is not carrying enough oxygen for your critters and bacteria are getting out of hand: there's some nutrient in there that is overwhelming the tank.]
Or a 5 gallon polyurethane white bucket..I don't trust the silver or orange ones. A Rubbermaid Brute trashcan will also work. Or a garbage sack liner in something otherwise unusable.
If your fish store is near, BUY sufficient jugs of salt water. Or if you don't have ro/di get ro from the supermarket, and in a pinch, just use tapwater and Prime [never be without either Prime or Amquel in the house!]. It'll be good enough.
Mix it with a strong pump (everybody also needs a mixing pump: the small Eheim is good for this) and be sure the water is clear.
Set up the qt and get every healthy living thing into it with the pump going.
2. put 'wounded' or 'sick' critters into a separate qt if you can. If you have to triage, toss a sick nem or coral to get it away from the healthy ones. Corals that have a good area left can be fragged to save the good part: cut only into the good tissue to break it so that no unhealthy tissue comes with the frag.
3. keep pump, warmth, circulation going in the 'sick' tank. Do a 30% water change this time with ro/di or ro based water. [using conditioned tapwater in a qt is not a problem unless your water is spectacularly bad---but you don't need the problem in your regular tank.]
4. keep things alive, toss the dead or hopeless, and keep it all going. Your tank may go through a minicycle. Test it again now that it's clear of dead things. Test it after the 30% change. And just let it run. The same principle that let it cycle and become fit for life is now working again, and perhaps in as few as five days it will have cycled and be ready to handle life again.
Many reefers do experience a crash somewhere in their learning curve, or something unanticipated (a visiting nephew or drunken guest) does in a functioning tank. You can prevent this sort of thing by testing weekly, so nothing creeps up on you. For the nephew or the guest---a heavy canopy is a deterrent.
Hoping you never have to cope with it---but if you ever should, memorize the priorities and steps, and save what you can.
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