AAAAAHHHHHH HELP!!

[fangelillo01]

So i wake up this morning and almost everything is dead, clowns, angel and cardinal. Now going to the begining of my issues lastweek i used my well water instead of the usual RO water in my tank and it killed all my hermits and most of my snails. Anyway i cleaned out all the dead stuff got a bunch of new carbon and filter pads and that pouch bio zorb. The tank was crystal clear and all reading were normal for the most part. BUT this morning my ammonia was over .50 way up from the .05 it was the other day. So i was already late for work so i changed out all the filter pads with new carbon and such and tonite i'm gonna change some of the water. WHAT HAPPENED!!! I'm starting to get discouraged

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by fangelillo01
http:///forum/post/3282856
So i wake up this morning and almost everything is dead, clowns, angel and cardinal. Now going to the begining of my issues lastweek i used my well water instead of the usual RO water in my tank and it killed all my hermits and most of my snails. Anyway i cleaned out all the dead stuff got a bunch of new carbon and filter pads and that pouch bio zorb. The tank was crystal clear and all reading were normal for the most part. BUT this morning my ammonia was over .50 way up from the .05 it was the other day. So i was already late for work so i changed out all the filter pads with new carbon and such and tonite i'm gonna change some of the water. WHAT HAPPENED!!! I'm starting to get discouraged

OOOO I would have missed work to try and fix it..The tank will cost more than a day’s pay to fix the crash..

The problem is because you changed out the filter pads.... When you change the pads you lose the good bacteria you need to hold down the ammonia. Get a nylon stocking and put your carbon in that, tie a knot and hang it in front of a power head in the tank...Get some Purigen and do the same.
Get a product called cycle to try and build the bacteria in a rush…Keep us posted…don't give up, now you will know this for the future, so try and see it as a hard learned lesson..we all live and learn, and sometimes it is costly..Hang in there. I just went through a crash (broken heater), I know how bad you feel.
I also got one of those ammonia monitors you can hang in the tank to keep a quick eye on things, it's easier than a test, and you can jump right in with a water change...Keep a new mixed batch of water on hand until your tank is 100% again

 

[fangelillo01]

damn my ammonia spiked that much cause i put new filter pads in?? maybe i didnt get all the dead stuff outta the tank i cant believe i lost all my fish uugh

 

[spanko]

Originally Posted by fangelillo01
http:///forum/post/3282856
So i wake up this morning and almost everything is dead, clowns, angel and cardinal. Now going to the begining of my issues lastweek i used my well water instead of the usual RO water in my tank and it killed all my hermits and most of my snails. .................
I don't agree, I think there is still a source of deaddecaying matter in the tank causing the ammonia spike. With the death of all the fish that would have seriously reduced the bio load here and removing filter pads would not IMO have been enough to compromise the bio-filtration. What has caused it is the remaining dead matter in the tank.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3282861
I don't agree, I think there is still a source of deaddecaying matter in the tank causing the ammonia spike. With the death of all the fish that would have seriously reduced the bio load here and removing filter pads would not IMO have been enough to compromise the bio-filtration. What has caused it is the remaining dead matter in the tank.

Wrong wording on my part..Yes I agree the dying critters is the cause, but with the filter pads changed he lost allot of his good bacteria and at this point he needs all he had and then some...The remedy is still correct I believe..It is what I did for my crash when my heater killed almost everything. All of you guys helped me. OP went to work...should I erase the post and redo it, he hasn't seen it yet.
The hanging stocking also allowed exra bacteria to grow on it, I left that in my tank for a month before removing it.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by fangelillo01
http:///forum/post/3282859
damn my ammonia spiked that much cause i put new filter pads in?? maybe i didnt get all the dead stuff outta the tank i cant believe i lost all my fish uugh

I type too slow....sorry wrong way to put things..Spanko is here to help

 

[meowzer]

Originally Posted by fangelillo01
http:///forum/post/3282859
damn my ammonia spiked that much cause i put new filter pads in?? maybe i didnt get all the dead stuff outta the tank i cant believe i lost all my fish uugh
I hate to disagree with Flower, BUT I also do not agree that changing your filter pads would cause everything to die.....I have 2 filter pads in my 29G HOB filter.....I usually change one at a time, BUT I have changed both a few times also...I have never lost anything...
I do agree with Henry that you more than likely have more dead/decaying stuff in there....
most you can do now is a large w/c...maybe try to find what's dead in there

 

[florida joe]

start dosing with Prime ASAP

 

[fangelillo01]

yeah im gonna go on a search and destroy mission tonite, recharge my purigen and change the water than i guess just wait.

 

[geridoc]

I don't know that the cause is the big issue - it's the ammonium, wherever it came from. I would get some Amquel into the tank right away to protect whatever is still alive, and let the tank cycle in its protected state.

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by GeriDoc
http:///forum/post/3282873
I don't know that the cause is the big issue - it's the ammonium, wherever it came from. I would get some Amquel into the tank right away to protect whatever is still alive, and let the tank cycle in its protected state.

It's important to know what went wrong to be able to fix it...My advice didn't include get the dead and dying out...the main cause of the problem, so ammonia would just continue to climb.

 

[slice]

Originally Posted by fangelillo01
http:///forum/post/3282856
Now going to the begining of my issues lastweek i used my well water instead of the usual RO water in my tank and it killed all my hermits and most of my snails.
Looking for root causes. Are there solids in your well water that killed your beneficial bacteria as well as your inverts?

 

[fangelillo01]

who knows it was so stupid using that well water but i couldnt get to the store and i dont have the money right now for an ro unit. I gotta pull out whatever else is dead in there and siphon out some of the sand i guess to be sure.

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3282861
I don't agree, I think there is still a source of deaddecaying matter in the tank causing the ammonia spike. With the death of all the fish that would have seriously reduced the bio load here and removing filter pads would not IMO have been enough to compromise the bio-filtration. What has caused it is the remaining dead matter in the tank.
Agree 100%

 

[flower]

Originally Posted by fangelillo01
http:///forum/post/3282877
who knows it was so stupid using that well water but i couldnt get to the store and i dont have the money right now for an ro unit. I gotta pull out whatever else is dead in there and siphon out some of the sand i guess to be sure.

LOL...I'm not sure I want to chance any more advice today...but please wait and don't stir up your sand until one of those in the know chimes in. If you had a sandsifting goby fine, because the sand has been moved around by the critter already, but if your sand has not been moved around you could cause another problem to stir it up...

 

[spanko]

No need to siphon the sand out IMO. The Amquel or similar products is a good idea. That and some water changes.

 

[beaslbob]

I can't say what happened but I do hope you had not accidently introduced some toxin to the tank. Like antiseptic, flea shampoo, carpet cleaner, glass cleaner. and so on.
It is hard to tell if the ammonia spike was the cause of the deaths of if the deaths caused the ammonia spike. Could be a little of both actually.
I would recommend that if you don't have a refugium full of macro algaes you seriously consider setting one up.
Plant life like macro algaes prefer to consume ammonia over ntirates so that if something goes bump in the night the macros prevent the ammonia spike. therefore system wide crashes are prevented.
my .02

 

[fangelillo01]

i cant figure out what i did i mean i cleaned my house on sunday but i NEVER spray anything in the living room near the tank. Now that i think of it tho my gf had an incense candle burning in the kitchen and it was wafting alittle into the living room, could this have been the cause??? i'm seriously afraid to go home and see how bad it is now from this morning i mean it was a greenish blue color in the test tube it was bad.

 

[fangelillo01]

Another question is it possible that my petstore has a bad RO unit cause i just put a couple of gallons of RO that i got yesterday in a couple hours after i got it

 

[fangelillo01]

i also have a huge chunk of chaeto should i put that into the tank??