Tank Disaster, help

[oli5]

hi everybody. I recently (yesterday and this morning) had a tank disaster. First off, I have a 75g tank with a couple mushroom corals, along with a deep sand bed. 2 days ago I decided I wanted to change the rocks around, so I did. It took me about an hour, moving many rocks in the sand, creating a huge sandstorm. When I was done, the water was extremely cloudy. The next day I woke up and the tank was crystal clear and I saw my nice rockwork, but in the sand lay my scopas tang and neon goby dead. I immediately did a 15 gallon water change when I saw that my nitrites were over 1.0 and my ammonia .8. The fish looked ok for the rest of the night. This morning again I woke up to see my fish half dead. All of them were gasping for air rapidly not moving and discolored. So I did a 50 gallon water change. Now they seem pretty good and I got my ammonia down to .1 and my nitrite to .5. Now I've been told that deep sandbeds are great filters but are known to release a load of bad nutrients into the tank if moved greatly. I didn't realize this while working. Is this even the cause? What else can I do? more water changes? Thanks.

 

[risika67]

I would only say that was the cause of your problems. I would just keep up with water changes!

 

[dastratt]

I would recommend an ammonia reducer like Amquel as a one time fix to get ammonia down.

How many fish did you have in this tank at 4 mo old? Already the dead fish sounds like a lot for a 4 mo old 75g. A DSB is reputed to build up sulfates over a long period of time (not 4 mo) that can in theory be released by stirring up. I've done these kinds of re-scaping many, many times in my tank with no ill affects whatsoever.

What is your Ph? Temp? Alk?

Perhaps you may want to restock more slowly after this -- just a suggestion.

 

[oli5]

fish wise, i have a domino damsel, yellow chromis, green chromis, neon goby, foxface, blue devil damsel, and maroon clownfish. temperature is constant between 84 and 86. Ph is normal and i don't know my Alk. My tank had the stocking with the tang and goby for over 3 months. the tank has been up since february (6 months).

 

[ricks]

9 fish could be a bit much for a 4 month old 75 gallon...

I only have 20 in my 500 gallon, and it took me 3 years to get to 20..

The Foxface and the Tang need something larger than a 75 gallon..

Sorry about your loses..

 

[reefD]

slow down! ur experiencing ammonia .....thus ur bacteria isnt establish/aged (still new or crashed). aged ea-stablished tanks take a whjile to create. in them ammonia never ever spikes. but a crash will make bacteria not absorb ammonia. when ammonia is high the natural approach is let the ammonia create or allow the bacteria to feed it and grow/establish...this is cycling. thats why if u add too much to a cycled tank it recycles aka crashes....meaning they spike ammonia. in ur case ur tank is months old. u went to fast!!!!!!!! added too much before the ammonia was effectively replaced with bacteria,/

 

[nynex]

I think your temp is way too high!

should be between 78 and 80...

86 is pushing it...sounds like you need to get a fan or 2...

 

[Craig Lambert]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10940615#post10940615 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefD
slow down! ur experiencing ammonia .....thus ur bacteria isnt establish/aged (still new or crashed). aged ea-stablished tanks take a whjile to create. in them ammonia never ever spikes. but a crash will make bacteria not absorb ammonia. when ammonia is high the natural approach is let the ammonia create or allow the bacteria to feed it and grow/establish...this is cycling. thats why if u add too much to a cycled tank it recycles aka crashes....meaning they spike ammonia. in ur case ur tank is months old. u went to fast!!!!!!!! added too much before the ammonia was effectively replaced with bacteria,/

I agree with this. I would do a few more 10-20% water changes and you should be out of the woods. I would not add any chemicals to the tank, BTW, Nitrites won't hurt the fish, its the ammonia you need to be concrned about.

 

[tmz]

Nitrates won't hurt the fish. Ntrites will. Even though less toxic than amonia ntrite poisining will kill fish.
If you have a dsb and you stir it up deep you could be hitting pocketts where the sand gets no oxygen. In these areas the bacteria form hydrogen sulfide(smells like rotten eggs)When a pckett is disturbed this gas can release into the water and kill fish.

 

[Mac Inger]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10941034#post10941034 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tmz
Nitrates won't hurt the fish. Ntrites will. Even though less toxic than amonia ntrite poisining will kill fish.
If you have a dsb and you stir it up deep you could be hitting pocketts where the sand gets no oxygen. In these areas the bacteria form hydrogen sulfide(smells like rotten eggs)When a pckett is disturbed this gas can release into the water and kill fish.

Are you sure about that ? I remember reading one of Randys articles mentioning that nitrite is actually NOT harmful to fish.

Amquel and water changes man,..nothing much else you can do. You will get it back on track in no time.

When i move stuff around i try to a do it in parts. Say, a few rock today, then a couple others after two days and so on. Big changes are never really good.

good luck

 

[rickh]

What kind of filtration do you have on this tank?? Sump with filter sock?? R

 

[Craig Lambert]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10941034#post10941034 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tmz
Nitrates won't hurt the fish. Ntrites will. Even though less toxic than amonia ntrite poisining will kill fish.
If you have a dsb and you stir it up deep you could be hitting pocketts where the sand gets no oxygen. In these areas the bacteria form hydrogen sulfide(smells like rotten eggs)When a pckett is disturbed this gas can release into the water and kill fish.

His Nitrite level is .5 after being at a high of 1.0. That isn't going to bother the fish. Nitrite is toxic to freshwater fish but doesn't really bother saltwater fish. (unless you were able to reach a level of maybe 100X higher. Here is a link to an article by Randy:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php#6

 

[tmz]

Mac Inger
Craig Lambert
Thankyou both for the nitrite info and as always thanks to Randy

 

[oli5]

thanks so far everyone. I'm going to keep up with 30 gallon waterchanges for the next few days. I don't have much filtration, just a fluval 405 (no sump), 100 pounds of live rock and a lot of live sand. When I moved the rocks I moved the sand quite a bit so this is probably the reason for my spike in ammonia and nitrite. When I started my tank I didn't add anything for a month, waiting until all my levels reached 0. Then I slowly added fish. I had the tang and goby in there with the other fish for a couple months now and haven't added anything since. Anything else I could do? Thanks.

 

[rickh]

You need more filtration. You need something to physically remove the suspended junk from the water column. The tank is clear now because things have settled out. If you stir up th rocks again you will have the same problem. Live Rock isn't enough.
Use more filtration. Periodically use a power head to blast off areas of rock and allow the filter to remove the debris. R