Finally!

[mlt]

After crashing my tank-finally my levels are getting back to normal. After almost 2 weeks of high readings on ammonia and nitrites (darkest color on chart) my ammonia level is at .25 (the lowest it has ever been and I am using aquarium pharmaaceuticals master kit and been reading on other posts that alot of people never get a reading below .25 with this test kit.) My trites reading is at .50 and nitrates are at 40. I have brown alagea on everything>glass-sand-rock. Since I don't know why my tank crashed and killed all my fish I am planning on leaving tank empty of fish for atleast 2 more weeks, but my question is can I start to add a clean up crew yet? I know the nitrites need to be at zero for fish. Right now I have a CBS-1 peppermint shrimp-1 cleaner shrimp and a few scarlet hermits that made it through the crash. I also have a horseshoe crab that I understand I need to get rid of. I also have quite a bit of grape like plants that have multiplied since I have nothing eating it. I have a 125 gal tank-what and how many clean up crew should I get?

 

[karajay]

Glad to hear the situation is improving for you. :joy:
You will need to wait until your nitrites are down to 0 before adding the inverts too. When you hit 0, you should also do a 25% water change to get the nitrates down. They should be no higher than 40 for inverts, preferably less than 20.

 

[beaslbob]

sure you can start a cleanup crew. And they will eat the most important thing helping get you tank back to normal-the algae. Although ugly it is that algae which is consuming the ammonia nitrates and phosphates and helping to establish your tank. Eliminating all plant life will help insure the system will crash again.
As usual I recommend you establish plant life you desire. That way the algae will be starved for nutrients and the beneficial effects of plant life continue.

 

[kreach]

Originally posted by Fish_Boi
really thats all? you were the one who told me the snails+crabs=gallons method. or is this for smaller tanks?:notsure: :notsure:
I think she meant that the nitrates should be under 20, not the number of inverts...

 

[jrpage]

I think it's important to figure what made the tank crash in the first place.
Even then, I would add maybe one inexpensive hermit or snail and see how they do first.

 

[mlt]

I still have the CBS-1 peppermint shrimp-1 cleaner shrimp and a horseshoe that are still in the tank (they made it through the crash) and I never took them out. They seem to be doing fine. I had to add water due to evaporation and that helped bring the readings down. Thanks to everyone how has helped me through all this!

 

[jedininja]

Originally posted by beaslbob
Eliminating all plant life will help insure the system will crash again.
As usual I recommend you establish plant life you desire. That way the algae will be starved for nutrients and the beneficial effects of plant life continue.
Bob, that is so BS. Why would you tell someone that without plants, thier tank will crash? Most on here agree that plants are benficial, but just because someone is not following your method that a tank will crash! There are many ways of keeping a tank healthy such as water changes, skimmers, DSBs. You can even have a crash if you have tons of macro in your tank.
MLT, try to figure out why you crashed in the first place. A dead fish you didnt take out, over feeding, failed equipment, overstocked tank? The main thing is not to repeat your mistakes when you start over.

 

[mlt]

Thanks again!
As of today ammonia is a 0.25 (Aquarium Pharmaceutical test kit)
nitrites at 0
nitrates at 20
CA at 400
Salt 1.024
temp 82
Brown alagea everywhere-green just starting.
I went over my whole tank lifted up and checked under each piece of LR and found nothing dead.
I checked all equipment and everything is running fine.
Set up a QT for all new arrivials.
Will do a 25% water change this weekend and will SLOWLY start to re-stock.

 

[kzlen]

I want to know what you had in your 125g tank?? Why not go get another ammonia kit or have your LFS test the ammonia for ya to be sure? why u in such a hurry to add more stuff to your tank after a crash? The algae isnt hurting it. I would wait the 2 weeks to get inverts and slowly work up to fish. you already have a few things in there for now. If you have grape like plants, sounds like calupra to me. Which is a plant beaslbob likes. I dont mind him reccomending plants but i dont think he gives enough info about it. Theres more to it than just putting plants in your tank. What about the care of the plant and the option of having a fuge and placing your plants in there if you dont like the look of it in your main tank. I let all my algae run its course and my pods ate it up, they are cleaning the tank nicely for not having inverts in there yet. Just a tiny bit of green on the back glass. They even ate my hair algae. Busy little guys

 

[beaslbob]

sorry i missed the grape like plants. My bad. Too bad you don't have more. Whatever you try to protect those. The fish may (probably) prefer eating those to the food you add. Even an in tank refug is a good idea.

 

[mlt]

I was planning on leaving the tank fishless since I haven't even bought anything yet and I plan on QT everything that I get for 4-6 weeks before putting in main tank again. I just thought that I could get a clean up crew to get the tank clean again. It looks so ugly right now and I also kept my other tank CLEAN!
The more I think about it I think it crashed in the first place because I listened to the LSF and put my fish from my 75 gal tank in to soon and the bioload was to great for a new tank. I used all the LR and LS and about 3/4 of the water from the 75 gal when I changed over. But all the equipment (filters) were new. I used my protein skimmer and heaters from my old tank. LSF told me I could transfer my fish right over. Since finding this site I think I should have never done that. I had my 75 gal tank for 8 months and I cycled it with damsels (bad advise from LSF) and slowly added fish. I never had any trouble losing fish in the 75 gal tank.
It is hard to look at an empty tank after having fish for so long-but I will take it real slow this time-I don't want to go through this again!