I started with a 30 gallon octogon originally at least a year ago. I then had to go to a different tank because I thought I had a leak. I then put together my 40 gal. I put in about 70 lbs live rock and Crushed coral over an underground filter, using 2 powerheads to push the water. I also added a Bio wheel designed for a 50 gal tank. I then added a small protein skimmer that hangs on the side of the tank. The live rock was in my 30 gal for over a year and actually came from another tank established for over another year. The water was mixed in a 30 gal tub and temp and PH where taken care of there. I also added chemicals stress coat and stress zyme to get the cycle rolling.Once the tank was filled with water from my well, I had to add the fish and clean up crew about 2 days later. This wasn't the problem. All were good for at least 6 months. Yeah, I said straight well water. Big time algae problems too. Anyway, fish were healthy. Showed no signs of stress. Plenty of space for all and all had healthy hungry belly. My food was frozen and flake. I only fed about 4 times a week, so I wasn't over feeding. I wanted to start looking at getting coral, so I bought a power compact light fixture and purchased an RO system. Light cyle was 9 hours on and the rest off. When I finally had my RO unit professionally installed, I did about an 80% water change, mixing all in a tub with again adding all the same chemicals to get the tank going and try to prevent stress to the fish. After about 3 days, I tested everything again to make sure I had mixed all correctly. All was ok. Ammonia was showing up a little. Nitrates were still high, but actually lower then they were before I did the water change. I added Ammo lock to tackle any ammonia that may have been there. A couple days later, all the fish had died and most of the other creatures where fading fast. I originally thought maybe because of the fact that I had pulled my bio wheel and protein skimmer to wash off the algae build up. Note that the crabs acted like they were being burned or something. They were actually coming out of there shells at times. The snails however showed no signs of stress what so ever. I then took what was left of my tank and moved it to my QT, which I had also recently changed the water out in. It's test came back perfect. All was in spect better then I have seen it. Here is the thing, 2 days after I added Ammo lock to my 40 gal. I added it to my QT. This may explaine why my QT crashed too but took longer then my 40 gal. QT was started much the same way the original octo was started. I added called for amount of live sand and added dead coral for show. The tank had 3 snails and 1 domino and 1 bio wheel and 1 protein skimmer. It set up for about 1 month before adding any live goods. I started I started the cycle using 2 small domino damsels. Really, I feel the cylce was ok and all in all everything I was doing was for the best, till I added the Ammo Lock. This was the only really same element that was done around the same time that may have possibly did everything in. Any more questions and I would be happy to comment. Thanks for everyones time and efforts. All the communication is what led me on my journey to find the Ammo lock issue. I hope this was it.
The RO unit is a top of the line drinking water unit. Is there a difference between RO units used for drinking water and the ones used for fish tanks? I figure RO is RO.
