Urgent help needed, my tank is crashing !!

mmullaly

mmullaly

New member
I woke up this morning and find my tank has tea colored water !!
I don't have any idea what happened. There was a power outage for like an hour in the middle of the night. I checked the tank when the power came back and the tank was fine.
No changes to the tank other than a 15% water change this past Sunday.
There is this orange-ish film on the glass and I can only see about 1 to 2 inches into the water. Thats how dark it is.
Does anyone know what would cause this and how to fix it ????

Right now I did a 25 gallon water change and it didn't cleat it up, not even a little.

Steps I've taken so far:

25 gallon water change, making more RO/DI water now.
Running carbon in a media reactor
Put an airstone in the water
Turned off all lighting
Hooked up a temporary canister filter filled with floss
Running both vortechs at full blast


Anything else can / should do ??

Please help, I have thousands of dollars in coral and hundreds in fish !!!
 
Sorry to hear that. Have you checked your parameters? I remember a guy an Nano-reef that had something like this happen and his clam spawned. The eggs died and caused a nitrate/ammonia spike or something and crashed the whole tank.

It sounds like you are doing what you can. Keep doing the water changes and running carbon. I wish I could be of better help. If you had a large QT set up, maybe you could transfer everything, but if not it seems you are doing what you can. Good luck.
 
$hitt, I did buy a clam last week. Could that have done it? I mean it's a 155g tank with a 40g sump. I have had fish die in the past and never was able to find there body and never had any spikes in Nitrate, Nitrite or Amonia.
 
5 Tangs
1 Clown
1 Goby
1 Wrasse
1 Cardinal

Lots of soft coral, too much to list
Lots of LPS
Good bit of SPS
2 Anenomes
1 Clam

Every one was alive and doing fine when I fed nori last night
Water parameters
1.025
5 Nitrate
0 Amonia
0 Nitrate
.05 Phosphate
430 Calc.
8.25 pH
9 dkh
 
Are those params from after you noticed the cloudy water? That seems fine for sure if they are. From how I remember the story, yes his clam released the eggs and crash. You do have a much larger system though so that is going to be very helpful in recovery.

How old is your tank also?
 
Just tested for those water parameters about 2 hours ago.
Tank is on it's second year, upgraded from a 72g that was 2 years old.
So, total about 4 years.
 
If those params are from a few hours ago, I don't know what to tell you. Tank is mature, params seem fine. How do your corals look? It could have been a clam doing its thing and your tank is just doing a much better job at handling the spike. I wouldn't go crazy with doing too many water changes. Just keep an eye on the corals and fish for breathing and what not. Clean the glass and see how it looks then.

Do you always run carbon? Maybe there was some chemical warfare since you have lots of different types of coral.
 
before you start doing a lot of drastic things..... do your fish or corals appear to be suffering ?

If your parameters are fine, and stay that way, I would just do an extra water change, skim a little wet, and wait for it to clear up.

I've had snails spawn before and it looked like someone poured a half gallon of milk in my 125...

I think the words on the front of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" applies here... on the front cover.. in BOLD letters it reads DO NOT PANIC
 
Yes, always run carbon. I forgot to mention that I replaced with new carbon today as a result of my mess. The tank is so cloudy that I can only see one plate coral that's about an inch from the glass. He doesn't look good. I see a couple of fish on the side of the tank and they are laboring for air.
This isn't good at all.
 
Retest your ammonia? Some of my LPS don't always look so hot when the lights are off, maybe turn them back on. Just your PC, assuming that is your actinic, should be fine. If the fish are gasping for air, I would suspect ammonia.
 
Just re-tested about 15 minutes ago. No changes. I did put on my PCs to take a look. No change. The water looks just as bad as 6 hours ago. I mean it is dark as ice tea.
 
Try to get some pre mixed saltwater if you can and keep doing water changes. I would make sure to put fresh carbon in as well. Other than that I'm not sure what to do. I've heard of major bacteria blooms but they always made the tank white and not brown. Good luck.
 
If you have an LFS near by i would run up there and get some saltwater for a change, so you dont have to wait for rodi and for it to mix up.

could a Ph have fallin into the sand and kicked up a bunch of deturis.
 
Holy crap I think I know what it was. I run GAC and GFO in 2 media reactors in my sump. They are daisy chained together running off of one pump. The GFO reactor is almost empty. It looks like maybe 2 and a half cups of GFO made it out into my sump and DT.
After chaning out the floss in the temp. canister filter, I saw it was orange almost rust colored, Like GFO !! Is there a iron overdose going on in my tank now ??
 
mmullaly said:
Holy crap I think I know what it was. I run GAC and GFO in 2 media reactors in my sump. They are daisy chained together running off of one pump. The GFO reactor is almost empty. It looks like maybe 2 and a half cups of GFO made it out into my sump and DT.
After chaning out the floss in the temp. canister filter, I saw it was orange almost rust colored, Like GFO !! Is there a iron overdose going on in my tank now ??
Click to expand...

I'd say thats the best possible outcome of this situation. It shouldn't cause a water chemistry problem but will likely be a PITA to get it all out. I don't think it'll affect your water any differently then if it was in the reactor.
 
Agreed. A reactor would be much better and it is going to be a pain to get out. Good luck, and at least now you know what it is.
 
Make sure your returns have filter socks, and get ready to start changing them out. I would also get carbon if you haven't already. Sounds like you may need to do water changes daily for awhile.
 
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