Crashed Last Night...trying To Figure Out Cause...have An Idea, What Do You Think?

[ohiorn67]

Last night tank crashed...ph was soooo high, alk lowered, fish were acting nuts, was horrible....after hours we realized from when we did our water change on sunday that it appeared the outbar of our cannister filter was spraying as usual...usually really breaks the surface....do have a skimmer that does also, but we realized under that the tube was kinked and when we unkinked it , it sprayed hard again, but did release a bunch of crud into tank, which did quickly settle and get picked up by filter and skimmer.....ammonia 0, trites and trates 0, calcium 600 (hoping to come down soon), ph appeared to be at like 8.6 (never have ever had issue with ph before, always was constant 8.2 or so) Alk ALWAYS high was appearing low...we popped a powerhead to the surface along with the fixed filter bar and things calmed down, all look nice today, ph back to 8.2, alk still a little lower than usual, but will do water change tonight, all survived thank goodness..could this have been due to low O2 or elevated Co2 due to the filter? It was pumping away but barely.....please help just want to watch for it to never happen again.

 

[acrylic51]

So what your saying is your return line was pinched off a bit not allowing all the flow through????

 

[ohiorn67]

yes exactly...was slow coming out, still was just a bit, but truly was breaking surface either with power it had before, now it is jammin' again...all seems so much better today and they were happy to eat and all...

 

[acrylic51]

It's possible that could have been a major contributor to your problem....That's 1 thing I do everyday if not anything else is check the flow....Most people can even tell something by the sound their sump or pumps are making.... Good luck!!!!!

 

[ohiorn67]

I definitely think biggest issue...what do you think the filter crammed up like that did to the water and why? still have big skimmer and lots of live rock....skimmer still hitting surface but I guess not enough maybe?

 

[acrylic51]

Not really sure what type of skimmer are you running??? Is the skimmer skimming like mad? How did it skim after you discovered the line?

 

[dburr]

No, I don't think that would do it.
I'm interested in hearing more about the crud that came out of the filter. What was that stuff? Filter media, waste, what?
And what crashed? Corals died or fish?
What size is your tank?

 

[ohiorn67]

I have a remoraC pro...fantastic....through this has always skimmed well......I think everything would be gone without that skimmer....I guess I am wondering if it was possible that carbon dioxide could have built up in the water since the tube was kinked.....

 

[ohiorn67]

dburr, my tank is a 90.....skimmer remoraC pro...130 lbs live rock....all have been very very solid since cycle....about 2 months ago....did water change on sunday. took my water to lfs like I always do on tuesday, ph was 8.0..usually very solid at 8.2. He tells me do some buffer, so I did in some water that afternoon when I went to top off....(buffer was put in my water before adding to tank)...all seemed fine rest of day that I saw...usually I sit in that room....but that night I was in the tv room....about 12 midnight, got up and walked past and noticed my maroons in at the top left corner of tank scrunched by powerhead....very unusual, they did that when we first put them in a long time ago, and once used to tank they did not do that...so I knew something was wrong. checked parameters...ph was like totally high 8.6, alk measured low...was bad! My small maroon was acting nuts...swam erratically into walls of tank, was nuts. Wanted to do water change, could not find anyone at that hour with salt and I just had done a change and buy my water every week so had none...never again....so adjusted powerhead up for more oxygen...then we realized the filter bar was barely pushing anything into water, where we have it tilted up for more surface flow....checked underneath and it was kinked....probably since sunday...hubby unkinked and a bunch of white debree crud came flying out.....but soon settled....not sure what that was...but ammonia and everything always stayed at 0......never have had any since cycle.....about 30 min later, things started calming down, we put lights down to actinic alone, small maroon was more relaxed, yet still on wrong side of tank as usual...went over in the morning....took water to lfs that morning, ph back to 8.2..alk not super high as before but higher....will water change in a few minutes....had to wait for hubby since non emergency now...all did fine today.....they ate and all....

 

[andretti]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but a "tank crashing" means you loose all or most of your inhabitints. So your tank did not crash, it just skidded down the road for a little bit.

:notsure:

 

[ohiorn67]

I am not sure exactly the definition but I was very close to losing my fish last night, was not good, thank goodness they came back....

 

[kimber27]

I am in TN too. Do you shop at a lfs? If so, I was wondering what one, I am looking to find another one for varity and maybe better prices. The one I shop at is very expensive. Thanks in advance!

 

[thomas712]

Just in case no one mentions it, but I would be running some fresh carbon and getting another water change ready.
When was the last time you did any maitenance on the canister filter?

 

[ohiorn67]

HI, I take out the sponge in the filter every 2 weeks for cleaning. The tank is on ly up and running for just over 2 months. At 6 months I will repace 1/2 media. I also have remoraC pro skimmer and 130 lbs of live rock for the rest of my filtration of the tank. Things seem to be back to normal. I don't run carbon because it takes out alot of necessary trace elements from the tank and is truly just a sharpen up the look kind of thing. So far so good here. I think things are back to normal now.
thanks for the concern