Why me????

[coolcats_13732]

I went to Petsmart and was having troubles with Nitrites in my tank. They tell me to buy this Cycle stuff that they had (Because they say that my protein skimmer {seaclone 150 } does not remove nitrites and that skimmers are useless) and to follow the directions on the bottle (which I did). In a matter of two days after the second dose my tank looked like someone had dumped milk in it and it looked like there was smoke in the water as well. In about an hour I had everything out of the tank and into my rehab tank. All I could do was sit there and watch as one by one everything died. I called Petsmart and they claimed no responsibility to the problem even though I had the water jarred and looked at by their people and showed them pictures of the tank a few days before and then after. I lost everything and spent a little bit to buy some things. The tank is back up and running again (anorexic again....... lol) and all levels seem to be stable now. Atleast I know not to buy that **** again. Live and let learn I guess. Has anyone ever had this problem???????

 

[truebeliever71]

Well.. for one thing... you're listened to someone at a chain pet store that knows nothing about the products they sell. Did you see any saltwater fish there? No, you didn't. Why even think of listening to a store that doesn't even sell livestock and products geared towards saltwater aquaria?

What are the ammonia and nitrate readings? They are right about one thing.. skimmers do not remove nitrites. They remove DOC (dissolved organic carbons) which produce ammonia and so on. My guess would be that you don't have enough bacteria and/or filtration that can handle the size/bioload of the tank. How much sand and live rock do you have? Are you over feeding?

**Stepping down from the soapbox...**

 

[coolcats_13732]

I have 5 bags of the live agrareef and 120 pounds of live and base rock mixed. I am running a seaclone 150 with a fluval 405 canister and 4 hang on dual c filters. My ammonia is always very low. I was only feeding once every 2-3 days as there was only a clown and 3 damsels at the time. And when I fed it was 2 or 3 flakes crumbled up is all. Thought they would know what they were talking about as they have a whole section there devoted to saltwater. I know they don't sell fish or corals but they had a bunch of stuff there for setting up and maintaining a saltwater tank.

 

[Piazzon12]

next time, ask here for suggestions first. That stuff is nothing but bacteria in a bottle. The tank cloudiness was a bacterial bloom. Normally, that shouldn't be an issue but you probably dropped paramters too quickly, and maybe even had side affects from bacterial die off. Plus the stress of moving everything into a second tank, with different paramaters.
Hope you didnt get stuck with 2 liters of that stuff.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754936#prodTab1

 

[coolcats_13732]

No it was just a bottle about the size of my wifes saline solution. There was just enough of it to do 2 doses on my 150 gallon tank.

 

[fatrip]

now im not trying to be harsh, you are just learning and everyone goes through something where they kill some animals. but the algea bloom that the bacteria in a bottle didnt cause your animals to die/ maybe some of the corals but highly unlikly. I would suggest the lack of immune system from feeding habits esp if you were just feeding flake food. also the stress from the move. and if the move was into a tank with different parameters. It was definatly not from the bacteria break out. i have had my 55g look like a white cloud the first time i used prodobio, a bacteria that eats nitrates, and nothing died. I would suggest to read a bit more of the sticky threads on the beginner reef forum and ask some questions in here. I hope you understand that many people have killed animals and that you arnt alone in doing so. don't get down on your self, you'll know now that fish stores around here are not to be trusted with anything they say about the hobby, esp the ones that done have fish them selves. so it is good to see you are getting back on the horse. do you have a sump with your 150? also would suggest to get a larger skimmer and feed some frozen foods every day or other day.

 

[fatrip]

also if what you had was the cycle stuff that adam showed i had used that in the very beginning of my reef experiences to seed the system and i saw good results, im not sure that i would use the suggested amount the first time but it wouldnt have killed anything unless you werent able to skim anything out of the water after the bacteria died from the large bloom.

 

[coolcats_13732]

I have a sump but am waiting on a larger out of tank style skimmer that I bought on Ebay. The skimmer that I have currently is one of the ones that hangs on the tank. Does a good job but I think it is working too hard. There is no option for me but to get back on the horse. I am not one of these people that get a setback and give up. I can't do it. I have to get right back in the ring and start from scratch if need be. I was feeding flake food for the fish. I was also using bottled calcium for the corals and feeding frozen brine shrimp to my anenomies. Nothing was being overfed though. I was following instructions on feeding by both the bottles and by a few people that had given me suggestions from here. I took all the info I had and came up with a happy medium. Everyone that saw the water in my tank said that what they think happened is that I had the bacteria bloom and it changed the parameters of my tank too fast. When I say that things weree dying in the tank after they were moved. I had already lost about 3/4 of the stuff in my tank. I only had a handful of things that went into my 90 gallon rehab tank and they didn't look good upon removing them from the 150 anyways. I went and bought all new stuff and a few corals but I feel like I am back where I was 4 months ago. A huge *** tank with nothing in it. It is frustrating to say the least. A few of the members here had graciously given me some frags to work with and everything was doing great until that crap hit my water. Everything in the tank is back to normal for chems and levels and such. It was a really hard lesson to learn. Now I know that before I do anything to this tank I am coming here first.

 

[Piazzon12]

Out of curiosity, what were the before and after nitrate readings??

 

[drbronx]

Sorry to hear about the hard lesson. We have all done dumb things and learned the hard way at one time or another. I will gladly replace the xenia, anthelia and green star polyps you lost. I will be around much of the weekend if you want to stop by.

 

[coolcats_13732]

Adam the before was .5-1 it was in between. After the cycle it was a definative 1+ after cleaning the tank out and restarting everything it now is registering below .2.


DrBronx. Thank you that would be very helpful. I appreciate any help that I can get to get back on track. As I said everything was doing sooooo well. I was impressed. Maybe I should test my water less frequently and not panic when I see higher numbers. Also I will be coming here for my advice and not Petsmart thats for damn sure.......

 

[fatrip]

yea best thing to do is not panic because that is when things seem to die in this hobby.

 

[coolcats_13732]

Not trying to be a smartass or anything, but I just realized that after this painful experience.

 

[nwrogers]

I tried that stuff once in a 29 quarantine tank and it did the same thing to me. Within 24 hours the tank looked like milk and my last 4 fish died. Bad things happen sometimes but if we learn from them and share our experiences with each other than we can break the chain of deceptive product advertising and bad advice often given by people who mean well but really don't know what they are selling you. I should have come here before buying it but I didn't so I know exactly how you feel.

 

[RyanM]

You really should wait till you get the tank cycled before filling it with livestock again. Your are right tho about being right back where you had been 4 months ago. You are, and unless you follow some pretty basic beginner rules youll likely be doing this all over again for a 3rd time. There are some very good articles here at RC that you should read. I highly recommend it.

 

[RyanM]

I looked for the articles on starting a salt water tank and I cant seem to find them. Anyone know where they are?


You should fully understand the cycling of a new tank.

Starting right and following time honored, proven guidelines is the fastest and cheapest way to a nice tank.

A reef tank takes time. Years in fact. Not weeks.

 

[truebeliever71]

Craig,

If you want to good, inexpensive, way to cycle a tank dose pure ammonia (read the bottle and it should read just ammonia and water... nothing else.) Dose enough to raise the ammonia level in the tank to 5ppm. Do this every other day for 1 week. You should start seeing your nitrites and nitrates raise during this time. This means that the bacteria is forming and doing their thing. Wait a couple days and check your parameters... ammonia and nitrites should be zero but you should be showing some nitrates. Do a 50% water change and your tank is ready.

I have had great success with this "fishless cycling method" with both my fresh and saltwater tanks.

 

[coolcats_13732]

I as I wrote in the other post, have bought all new live crushed coral and premade salt water and did the tank that way. All my parameters are reading almost perfect and have been now for 2 days. The fish that I bought and the corals are seeming to love it in there. Thats about the only reason why I am not as depressed as I could be about this whole ordeal.