I think my tank is crashing

alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
This morning I noticed the water in my 55 was a little cloudy. I did a WC and this afternoon the water was REALLY cloudy. I tested the water and the ammonia was 1.0 and trites were 5.0 :scared: :scared: :scared: I don't know what the heck happened. That tank has been running for over a year and I haven't added anything new in 6 months. Nothing was dead. My readings in that tank have been ammonia and trites 0, trates between 10-30 and ph 8.2 for as long as I can remember. Luckily I only had 4 fish in there, I moved two of them to my 75 and two into my seahorse tank. I had a horrible time trying to catch them b/c the tank was so cloudy I couldn't see to the back. The only thing I have done in there is move a couple of rocks around yesterday, but I didn't disturb the sandbed. Has this happened to anyone else?
 
anthropo

anthropo

Member
Originally Posted by V-Lioness
Are you running carbon? If not start, see if that will clear your water up.
Kaye
agreed....also do small water changes until the water is zero across the board except for ph. since you took your fish out that shouldn't be too hard. make sure to stir the sandbed before the water changes.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
I wouldnt bother the sand bed. - do you have any corals in this tank. I would just do several waterchanges over the next week or so, and maybe change your carbon and filter media.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by TeresaQ
I wouldnt bother the sand bed. - do you have any corals in this tank. I would just do several waterchanges over the next week or so, and maybe change your carbon and filter media.


No corals in this tank, luckily!!
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Hi Alyssia, what you described isn't all that uncommon. It's the end of a bacteria bloom. You've received good advice as far as the water change.
Tell me about your sand bed. It's not functioning properly or a small disturbance wouldn't cause a bacteria bloom. How much waterflow goes over the sand, source of the live sand, stuff like that.
Is your skimmer working well? It should be removing the dead bacteria. If it was then the Ammonia wouldn't have spiked.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
Hi Alyssia, what you described isn't all that uncommon. It's the end of a bacteria bloom. You've received good advice as far as the water change.
Tell me about your sand bed. It's not functioning properly or a small disturbance wouldn't cause a bacteria bloom. How much waterflow goes over the sand, source of the live sand, stuff like that.
Is your skimmer working well? It should be removing the dead bacteria. If it was then the Ammonia wouldn't have spiked.

I used caribsea LS, and actually, I don't think I have enough flow over the sand. I was just thinking about adding another PH last week. My skimmer was partially clogged, but I got it fixed two weeks ago and it has been working great since then.
Is a bacteria bloom the same as a cycle in terms of how long it will take to run it's course?
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by alyssia
Is a bacteria bloom the same as a cycle in terms of how long it will take to run it's course?
No, it's actually the opposite. What happens is there is a sudden increase in nutrients in the water column. The bacteria populations increase rapidly to take advantage of the extra food. Once the food is all consumed the bacteria die-off, this is what causes the ammonia spike. I'm not concerned about the Nitrite at all but the ammonia is deadly.
As far as live sand. What you purchased wasn't live sand, it was wet sand with bacteria. This works fine for the Nitrogen cycle but it does nothing for detritus build-up and removing excess food & waste.
I strongly recommend you find some real live sand that has a diversity of worms, Ostracodes and other natural sand-bed infauna. They will eat and process the stuff that built up in your sand bed. You don't need a lot because they will reproduce and populate the rest of your sand bed. Live rock has some of these animals but not the diversity required for a healthy sand bed.
The waterflow over the sand bed is crucial to keep the sand bed infauna healthy so they can do their job.
 
promisetbg

promisetbg

Active Member
Originally Posted by anthropo
make sure to stir the sandbed before the water changes.
Never stir your sandbed.

Hi Bang Guy & Alyssia!
Hope you get this resolved soon.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by promisetbg
Never stir your sandbed.

Hi Bang Guy & Alyssia!
Hope you get this resolved soon.

I was wondering about the stir your sandbed comment also....
Hi Promise!
Anyone have any idea how long this will take to fix itself? I really don't want to leave my pygmy angel and chromis in with my seahorses for long. The fish are eating all of the seahorses food.
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
When you say you moved some rocks do you mean live rocks? The surfaces of LR that are on the substrate or up against other LR may have dead stuff on it from lack of flow to that part. when it's stationery it doesn't effect the parameters that much because the lack of flow that killed it off also keeps it from dissolving into the water that fast, but when you move it you expose it. you might not actually see any dead stuff but it could be under the surface of the rock.
IMO, judging from the fact that the trites are higher than the ammonia, it would appear to be on it's way to correcting itself already.
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by Bang Guy
The ammonia spike should be over quickly. Did you test it today?

Yeah, it's down a little and so are the trites. The water isn't as cloudy either. Once my parameters are okay is it okay to put the fish back in right away?
 
alyssia

alyssia

Active Member
Originally Posted by xDave
When you say you moved some rocks do you mean live rocks? The surfaces of LR that are on the substrate or up against other LR may have dead stuff on it from lack of flow to that part. when it's stationery it doesn't effect the parameters that much because the lack of flow that killed it off also keeps it from dissolving into the water that fast, but when you move it you expose it. you might not actually see any dead stuff but it could be under the surface of the rock.
IMO, judging from the fact that the trites are higher than the ammonia, it would appear to be on it's way to correcting itself already.

Yep, LR, so what you've said makes sense.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Originally Posted by alyssia
Yeah, it's down a little and so are the trites. The water isn't as cloudy either. Once my parameters are okay is it okay to put the fish back in right away?
Yep
 
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