Tank Crashing
- Thread starter Chef Reef
- Start date
Hi,
I looked at the other thread just briefly....
I'm suprised that nobody in the other thread asked you what type of ammonia test kit you have. Your 0.50 ppm reading at that high of a pH is certainly close to the level that would start harming animals. The reason the test kit type is important is that if you used a cheapo hobbyist kit, your .50 reading could easily be + or - 0.50 ppm! If you are using a salicylate / cyanurate kit, then this is less likely to be a problem. Moving the remaining animals out to a stable system (as suggested by one person) certainly seems like the way to go. You could also use Amquel to de-toxify the ammonia.
JHemdal
I looked at the other thread just briefly....
I'm suprised that nobody in the other thread asked you what type of ammonia test kit you have. Your 0.50 ppm reading at that high of a pH is certainly close to the level that would start harming animals. The reason the test kit type is important is that if you used a cheapo hobbyist kit, your .50 reading could easily be + or - 0.50 ppm! If you are using a salicylate / cyanurate kit, then this is less likely to be a problem. Moving the remaining animals out to a stable system (as suggested by one person) certainly seems like the way to go. You could also use Amquel to de-toxify the ammonia.
JHemdal
coralnut99
New member
Try Salifert. If you have access to / can afford them, Hach or Lamotte are even better.
So sorry about your losses.
I recently lost two fishes too, the grievance period is not over, even two months later. I feel your pain.
I had only one tank crash, but not everything was dead - relocated them in containers right after realized, that the troubles are quite serious.
It will not help you now, but what I did:
- removed all to a separate rubbermaid containers, sorted by prognosis: dying, have chance, LPS separately (they took a lot of space):
and so on.
Water was new, IO in tap water with conditioner, plus 30% of the aged water from the big tank (lucky me).
It could be coincidence, but I don't like reaction of the tank inhabitants on 100% new Reef Crystals and Red Sea water.
- activated carbon is a must, from Wal-Mart is good for a purpose too. Changed it may be 3 times a day in the first two day, twice a day - next couple of days, with following reduction in frequency of changes.
- Had Purigen in the house, used it too, just in case, without changes, but swishing it in a clean water during water changes. The same - for additional biomedia, taken from big tank's sump (again lucky me to have an additional tank).
- water changes - same as carbon.
- the crashed tank was cleaned, water and aragonite sand were discarded - too much risk. Cleaned, dried, cleaned again with table salt (hypersalinity, osmotic shock), washed, then - with peroxide (disinfection). Dried again.
- when started again - this time bare bottom. Observable, controllable, no surprises. But it's up to you.
What had to be done different, but I didn't know it then:
- the LR should be cured again, separately from fish and invertebrates, with the same water changes and carbon, as everything else. $3 for a 400g bottle is not the unreasonable price for the produced effect.
- sea slugs should be kept separately, sponges, probably too - in another container.
- cynarina as indicator - it momentarily reacted on the cause of troubles, as I think it was - sea slug, affected by the death of sponge. Moved sea slug out, but it was too late for sea cucumbers.
What can be done now:
1. The cleaning tank part and carbon. And I wouldn't reuse the sand.
2. In a couple of weeks after separate containers keeping, the tank can be set again, with addition of the bacteria, like Seachem Stability or Big Al's Multipurpose bacterial support (or something like that).
3. It you have space and some spare morey, may be later, set the second thank or container - just in case, as a source of aged water and back up. Carefree kind - no filtration, no feeding, no water changes. alkalinity dosing and top off water only. Heater, flow and light. Light can be from the window. Corals, like red mushrooms, hammer, yellow polyps will live there. Macroalgae too. Some LR, may be sand. No fish or invertebrates, that require feeding. Keep 3-4 bags of ceramic biomedia there for emergencies. Seachem Matrix or PondMatrix is a cheapest, being good.
There were threads about keeping tanks without water changes, don't have a link, sorry.
It's all, that seems matter.
I recently lost two fishes too, the grievance period is not over, even two months later. I feel your pain.
I had only one tank crash, but not everything was dead - relocated them in containers right after realized, that the troubles are quite serious.
It will not help you now, but what I did:
- removed all to a separate rubbermaid containers, sorted by prognosis: dying, have chance, LPS separately (they took a lot of space):
and so on.
Water was new, IO in tap water with conditioner, plus 30% of the aged water from the big tank (lucky me).
It could be coincidence, but I don't like reaction of the tank inhabitants on 100% new Reef Crystals and Red Sea water.
- activated carbon is a must, from Wal-Mart is good for a purpose too. Changed it may be 3 times a day in the first two day, twice a day - next couple of days, with following reduction in frequency of changes.
- Had Purigen in the house, used it too, just in case, without changes, but swishing it in a clean water during water changes. The same - for additional biomedia, taken from big tank's sump (again lucky me to have an additional tank).
- water changes - same as carbon.
- the crashed tank was cleaned, water and aragonite sand were discarded - too much risk. Cleaned, dried, cleaned again with table salt (hypersalinity, osmotic shock), washed, then - with peroxide (disinfection). Dried again.
- when started again - this time bare bottom. Observable, controllable, no surprises. But it's up to you.
What had to be done different, but I didn't know it then:
- the LR should be cured again, separately from fish and invertebrates, with the same water changes and carbon, as everything else. $3 for a 400g bottle is not the unreasonable price for the produced effect.
- sea slugs should be kept separately, sponges, probably too - in another container.
- cynarina as indicator - it momentarily reacted on the cause of troubles, as I think it was - sea slug, affected by the death of sponge. Moved sea slug out, but it was too late for sea cucumbers.
What can be done now:
1. The cleaning tank part and carbon. And I wouldn't reuse the sand.
2. In a couple of weeks after separate containers keeping, the tank can be set again, with addition of the bacteria, like Seachem Stability or Big Al's Multipurpose bacterial support (or something like that).
3. It you have space and some spare morey, may be later, set the second thank or container - just in case, as a source of aged water and back up. Carefree kind - no filtration, no feeding, no water changes. alkalinity dosing and top off water only. Heater, flow and light. Light can be from the window. Corals, like red mushrooms, hammer, yellow polyps will live there. Macroalgae too. Some LR, may be sand. No fish or invertebrates, that require feeding. Keep 3-4 bags of ceramic biomedia there for emergencies. Seachem Matrix or PondMatrix is a cheapest, being good.
There were threads about keeping tanks without water changes, don't have a link, sorry.
It's all, that seems matter.
cutegecko3
Member
Sounds kind of like a chain reaction from one thing dying and contaminating the water.Do any of your dead fish show any obvious scaling marks or damage.You would be shocked to see what a fuzzy dwarf can fit in his mouth if he really wants to.He may not be able to swallow it,but mine got a pygmy angel 3/4 of his size in his mouth and killed it.If i didnt see it and get it out it would have rotted and stated killing everything else.
