bad water quality to good

rtoycrow

Member
Ive had my 240 up and running for about three years, about a year ago, i came home to my breaker being tripped, several of my fish died, several about did but the revived luckily, all the coral i had died and my carpet anemone hasn't been the same since, it is usually spread out but now just stays pretty closed up, and i have an outbreak of alge, now i am ready to get things back right, i just did a 20% water change, how often do i need to do a water change to get the water quality back to good?
 

mr. limpid

Active Member
That is strange how long was the power off if you know. The only problem if power goes off is water movement low oxygen and temp. As for your water quality you would need to take test to know what the water quality is.
 

rtoycrow

Member
its been a while, but i think i went home for lunch and it was working, got off work at 5 and came home and everything was off, had a powder blue lying in the sand, luckily he recovered, 3 stripe damsel doing the same thing, recovered, but a green chromis didn't make it, and they are supposed to be hardy, all my other fish were just hiding in the rocks, it was weird, i would say maybe 4 hrs the power was off?? should i do water changes every few days to get the water back right or wait a week b/t changes?
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtoycrow http:///t/392462/bad-water-quality-to-good#post_3485014
its been a while, but i think i went home for lunch and it was working, got off work at 5 and came home and everything was off, had a powder blue lying in the sand, luckily he recovered, 3 stripe damsel doing the same thing, recovered, but a green chromis didn't make it, and they are supposed to be hardy, all my other fish were just hiding in the rocks, it was weird, i would say maybe 4 hrs the power was off?? should i do water changes every few days to get the water back right or wait a week b/t changes?
I agree with Mr. Limpid....what does the water tests read? To decide if you need to do emergency water changes.
Once the power is back up, and you removed the dead fish, it should be just fine. Lunch time to 5:00 pm should not have had the fish stressed enough for fish to be dead. Something else is going on. Fish hide when it gets dark because it means sleepy time. Lying in the sand is not normal, considering such a short time frame you may not have enough oxygen to begin with, or is it very warm out by you? I assume this is a good size tank with a PB tang in it.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtoycrow http:///t/392462/bad-water-quality-to-good#post_3484935
Ive had my 240 up and running for about three years, about a year ago, i came home to my breaker being tripped, several of my fish died, several about did but the revived luckily, all the coral i had died and my carpet anemone hasn't been the same since, it is usually spread out but now just stays pretty closed up, and i have an outbreak of alge, now i am ready to get things back right, i just did a 20% water change, how often do i need to do a water change to get the water quality back to good?
I just read this...That will teach me to answer before checking out the whole thread first.
I would do a big 3% change, then 10g water changes every day for a week...Use reef crystals and not regular salt mix. Then go to a WC once a week until the algae is cleared. Drop the temps to 76 if the corals can take it because the colder the water the slower the algae growth.
Check the lights age to be sure the bulbs are good and watch the temp so it doesn't get too warm...also make sure the power heads are working right, my Koralia's lost flow power over time, I don't know what PHs you have. If they are covered (they should be) because of the anemone, check to be certain the covering isn't clogging the PH.
 

rtoycrow

Member
well all my corals have died since all that happened, i had two power heads that quit working so i put 2 maxi jet 1200 in there that i had from another tank, i also have 2 seio 650's (i think) in there as well, it is a tank with the overflow in the middle and i have the sump underneath, ill work on those water changes and lower the temps and see if that clears things up and gets my carpet anemone back to normal, i have always used reef crystals so i should be fine there, thanks
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtoycrow http:///t/392462/bad-water-quality-to-good#post_3485019
well all my corals have died since all that happened, i had two power heads that quit working so i put 2 maxi jet 1200 in there that i had from another tank, i also have 2 seio 650's (i think) in there as well, it is a tank with the overflow in the middle and i have the sump underneath, ill work on those water changes and lower the temps and see if that clears things up and gets my carpet anemone back to normal, i have always used reef crystals so i should be fine there, thanks
The algae will act like macros to get rid of phosphates, giving you a negitive reading (you have phosphates because the algae feeds on it). Do some water tests and tell us what they read right now. I would like to see the before and after water change readings.
 

rtoycrow

Member
im gonna have to order a test kit, i have one but im pretty sure its expired, so far im doing 20 gallon water changes every three days to get some of that bad water out, i just replaced all the filters and membrane in my ro/di system so i should be good there
 
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