HELP, Where do I start from here?

[antkri]

My 33 gal. tank crashed on Wednesday, everything, but one polyp are dead, I think it is on its way out.
So question being....where do I go from here. I found R/O water and want to use that from now one. Should I empty the tank and start all over or just add some R/O water?
I do have live rock...however that is probably dead too!
Help..lost in Nebraska

 

[antkri]

Maybe some more info would help...
To make an extremely long and sad story short...I have had the tank for about 9 months it had been running great...Did a water change cause nitrates were extremely high...Went to *****(the fish killers) to get filters and some AmQuel, to take the chlorine out of the water, they talked me into buying AmQuel Plus and new product that is susposed to be better and help with Chlorine, Chloramines, Trates, Trites and Ammon. ...
Well as far as me and the LFS can figure it was a bad batch and did not de-chlorinate that water and all the fish died a painful terrible death along with the mushrooms, beautiful starfishes, snails and crabs
The only thing that seems to still be hanging in there is the polyps.
So after 3 days of listening to my children cry (cause dorie and Nemo) are dead! I am trying to figure out how to fix it. Without extensive costs or labor.
That is why as a safety measure I am going to get R/O water. I have that much figured out.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[scarybo]

What was your fish load on the tank.
Dory and Nemo are a tang and clownfish. I would wonder if your nitrates where high due to fish load. The tank may have crashed from that. Give a few more details about your set up. Filtration (skimmer)? Amount of LR, Sand bed, the more info the better.

 

[clarkiiboi]

I had read your previous posts about this. RO or RO/DI is the best choice to start over. I stated what I used (store bought) in your other thread. If everything is gone IMO, I would go ahead and do a large water change, try to get it all stabilized again with the better water.

 

[clarkiiboi]

Also, the tang in the 33 was not the best choice, just too small of a tank in time. Your nitrates may of got a little high b/c of this, but the AmQuel was the culprit in this case, IMO. But down the road the tang would of been alot for the tank to handle. All in all, you learned, we all do. Water change and go from there.

 

[sheracr123]

I have a 29 that I just redid. It didn't crash, I just couldn't get rid of diatoms and algae. I took out all the water except for about 4". I replaced the cc with a dsb. Then I filled it back up with RO/DI water. I used the same filters that I had originally, including the pads. I let it sit for 2 weeks just to make sure there was no mini cycle.
All I hace in it now are 2 clowns. If I decide to add anymore fish, I will wait atleast a month to make sure my bacteria is reestablished again.
HTH
Mendee