bad tank.

[cmom3]

have a 55 gal tank..with skimmer,undergravel filter, a magna system,gravel with plenty of live rock..things went great till this week (had it going for a year and half)..now the ammonia is going high and we have lost all the fish in the tank...started when we had to get the dominoes out of the tank and everything went down hill from there. do we have the right set up?.we were told that all you really need is a good skimmer and powerheads for movement..(live rock)

 

[jacrmill]

are you over feeding? did you add any medicine to the water? what kind and how big are the fish you have? i dont really have enough info to be able to tell you what the problem is, but i would guess it is overstocked or maybe youre overfeeding or something. basically what has changed for your tank that was doing good for a year and a half to all the sudden go down? and what fish do you have in it?

 

[uel]

The guy at the LFS suggested I not put any substrate in my new 180. He removed all of the substrate from his show tanks over 2 years ago. He said that gasses will get trapped in the sand or cc, the water will be testing fine and you will wake up one morning and all of you fish will be dead from a nitrite or amonia spike. I use a hang on filter, can't remember the company's name, with a built-in skimmer and denitrifier on my 55 and it has worked great for 5 years. In my new 180 I have an Aqua Medic sump with a denitrifier and protien skimmer. I also have a great deal of live rock in the 180 and none in the 55. I would recommend getting rid of the undergravel and all of the substrate and getting a denitrifier. I know several people will disagree with me, but I can't argue with the success I have had and the LFS's as well with the same systems. Good Luck
[ August 27, 2001: Message edited by: Uel ]

 

[cosmosbasement]

Hey gang-A lot of people are doing away with an undrgravel filter. A possible problem could be that there is a lot "gunk" build up under the gravel filter and causeing some ammonia spikes. Sometimes if something crawls under there (and things do) it could be sitting there and decaying. If everything you had is dying or dead, there's no time better then now to get the UGF out of there.
peace
doug

 

[cmom3]

thanks..we have lost all the fish that were in there..after the damsels were taken out we lost a few big fish but then things calmed down, then when he just did another water change the amonia spiked big time and all the rest died. so now we are starting from scratch..we still have some blue legged and red legged crabs that are still alive..also have a duster still o.k...we did treat the water for ick after one of the fish from stress, got it...

 

[cmom3]

also forgot to say that when were getting the damsels out, it did take a long time to get them and we had to move around allot of the rocks..also the skimmer has been skimming a green color(sometimes a bright green) instead of the brown color it was doing when first put on?? anything with that?

 

[cmom3]

I would like to know now what we should do witht the tank..the amonia is high still and we don't know if we should get rid of the gravel and really start over or what..not much in the tank anyway..but not sure where to go from here..still also not sure why this all really happened either..thanks for all the help..D

 

[twoods71]

I agree with Cosmos about the UGF. An unbelievable amount of gunk can build up under the filter in a short amount of time.

 

[flydan]

Hey,
I agree with getting rid of the UGF, but I couldn't help but notice you said you had treated your tank for ick. How did you do that? The UGF and cc should go, and now is a great time to it. Sorry. But your last comment about treating for ick caught my attention.
Take care,
Dan'l

 

[youbetyourwrasse]

I think FlyDan solved the mystery! I can't imagine adding anything (except supplements) to my tanks for any reason! I just don't think they're indicated in the marine setup, though they can work well in FW. (an exception might be Copper in a QT for external parasites.) But I imsagine I would try almost anything if I awoke to see my tank in pain!
CMom, maybe you'd like to clean the tank and get some FW hardies, fancy goldfish, a lizard, or a terrarium of tropical plants. Your name says 'mom' so not only are you busy but your kids don't care if they have exotic SW fish or bright, chubby, fancy goldfish. Both types are happy to see you approach the tank at feeding time.
Marine aquaria is not for everyone; when the effort outweighs the pleasure, it might be time for a change. I may be fairly successful at SW aquaria, but there are a lot of things I'm not proficient at and don't care to becomes so. Some things I have to try before I know if I like them, regardless of success or failure. So don't worry that you might have "failed." It sounds that you put some time and $ into this project in order to have things work. Like having LR and a skimmer. Also know that if you do decide to try something else, there is a pretty good market on ---- for used equipment, especially things like skimmers. Like jewelry and musical instuments, marine aquaria accessories tend to retain their value.
<MY TAKE ON THE DSB>
DSB is the way to go! I like what the LFS guy said: '...gasses will get trapped in the sand or cc, the water will be testing fine and you will wake up one morning and all of you fish will be dead...' Sure, if you do something dumb like vacuum the substrate and stir all those gasses up! Substrate IMO is necessary to harbor scavengers, those 'gases' mentioned above (they are from bacteria that actually eat nitrates the endpoint of the traditional "cycle" and only live in areas deprived of Oxygen,) to give a "natural" look, and to make the fish almost believe they're still in the wild! Did I mention a home for scavengers?
Isn't it amazing how quickly this hobby is evolving? The cool part is that it is also getting SIMPLER! It takes more planning on the front end, but it really is easier and more spectacular. I could keep my Picasso in a subtrate-free tank without too much trouble. But I have the Picasso AND a whole nighttime WORLD living on my LR that is a spectacular reward that I didn't even know existed when I started!
DSB, lots of circulation, and tons of LR are an asset to any system. Whether you want to keep corals, fish, Octopi or Lobsters. (Even seahorses, but powerdown during the day.)
YBYW >>{{{~}}">

 

[cmom3]

thanks for all the help with this...but my husband is the one that is into this tank and he just don't want to let it go..went to a LFS.. and got some help with are problems..they had said the city water supply puts chems. into the water about once a year and he thinks that might have been the problem. we have a reverse osmosis? not sure about the spelling and that is what he said to use for water change because it is cleaner..we did have a FW tank for years and I have to say nothing beats a SW for looks and fun fish..so I think we will try this one more time now that we found someone who we think will help and know what he is talking about..were we live there is really not much of a choice in saltwater places to go...will let everyone know when we get it going again how things are,...again thanks..