I wanna cry

coloradodeb

coloradodeb

Member
Checked all my parameter levels in my tank last night before bedtime......all were great....water clarity clear.......fish happy and swimming.......Got up this morning to feed them, and I could not see a fish, nor could I see anything else!! It was totally BROWN! Grabbed phone to call fish store to see if I could rent a tank there to house my inhabitants.......no answer.......Grabbed a bucket and started emptying water like a mad fool....was able to catch inhabitants and put them in my Q tank ( 10 gal).....Rushed to the nearest pet store which is 30 minutes away.....got almost new everything......sand.filters new protein skimmer....salt anything I could think of. I even "borrowed" 7 gallons of their salt water, and a quart of their live sand........Set up a very quick 10 gallon tank.........Problem.......my tank is not gonna cycle again for several weeks..........
55gal
2 power heads
2 HOB filters
DSB
heater
protein skimmer
LR (not a lot)
LS (DSB)
anemone
clown
yellow ruffled coral
1 ricordea green
varied snails
watchman goby
domino damsel
chromis
gobie
Tank has been up since January......
Any ideas??????? LFS thought my protein skimmer overloaded......I had just cleaned it and it was working
Sorry about long post...........I am hoping and praying all will work out...........
 
lesleybird

lesleybird

Active Member
Do you have a pet or a kid that might have thrown something into the tank? Did you have a sea cucumber that died or some other thing die in the tank? What were the water paremeters in the morning? Things don't go from perfect water to brown over night without reason. Do some investigation. Sorry for your loss.
Lesley
 
jarvis

jarvis

Member
Hum Im clueless. Brown Water? First isolated incedent of red tide in an aqaurium? Regardless it does sound like some kind of algea bloom. If it not to late and you still have water in the tank I would run GAC and see what it does and Test the water parameters. In my opinion your inhabitants were probobly better in the grungy brown tank. Your inhabitant are over welmed in such a small tank now and well exceding a bioload what a few pounds of live sand can handle. Bacteria doesnt live in the water but rather on the surface of rock and sand or any other form of filter you are running. But by entirely removing the contents of the tank in one full shot you tank will go through a mini cycle. I would suggest the fish be held at the petstore vs you trying to QT them in a 10 gal .
 
coloradodeb

coloradodeb

Member
The parameters this morning were off the charts!!!!!!! No kids or pets......just hubby........I too am thinking red slime.......sure appreciate the replies....after I took the one HOB filter off.....it felt slimy and horrible brown/red looking........
 
jarvis

jarvis

Member
Was there alot of red slime in the tank prior to the crash? Any idea on what you last parameters were. NO3, PO4, and Ph?
 
legend

legend

Member
I could relate....sounds like the time my lil bro put a whole thing of fish food into my reef and killed everything. I knew something was wrong when got off work and i smelt a rotten fish smell from my fish room. I took down the whole tank and started fresh....
 
saltwaterdave

saltwaterdave

Member
what excatly were the #s last night before you went to bed? What kind of "anemone' did you have under what kind of lights? Lot's of things to look at here.
David
 
T

thomas712

Guest

Originally posted by coloradodeb
Checked all my parameter levels in my tank last night before bedtime......all were great....water clarity clear.......fish happy and swimming.......Got up this morning to feed them, and I could not see a fish, nor could I see anything else!! It was totally BROWN!
I want a pic of this tank if possible?
*
Do you use a RIO pump for anything?
*
What type of water do you use, well, tap, ro ?
*
When you say you had just cleaned it, describe with what and how you cleaned it right down to any items you used, towels, sponges, scrapers, did you do a water change, what type of salt.
Things do not go from clear to brown like that during one 8-10 hour sleep cycle and without the lights on. Hmmm.
Thomas
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
coloradodeb:
Sorry to hear about your problem. Good idea to remove the inhabitants. Especially with parameters off the charts.
I don't know what could cause such a fast tank crash but maybe others do know. One possiblity is caulpera going sexual, another is some failure of the filtration such as the skimmer.
At any rate, I think you will find that the fastest best means of getting the tank back is to allow it to continue running. If you do not have plant life then add it. I find a canister filter with the water polisher will clear up a mess in a couple of days. Otherwise carbon will help.
without livestock, parameters should return to normal in a week or two. then ad you livestock back slowly while watching the parameters.
Again sorry and we have all been there. Report back on your progress
 
coloradodeb

coloradodeb

Member
As far as the cleaning went, took filters out (HOB) scrubbed them with hot water and a new toothbrush, replaced filter media, took apart skimmer same way and put it back, did 20% partial water change usinjg Instant Ocean. Have been doing this same procedure since the beginning....... Have been running a power head.....use our water, we have well water.....(have ordered a RO unit). As far as a pic goes.....I freaked, and grabbed a bucket to start changing water........sorry, never even thought about a camera.
Right now, the fish are doing okay, placed them in a tiny QT knowing full well that n overload would soon happen..........and it did...PLEASE don't yell at me for this.......but had the 55 gallon cleaned up again, with a small cycle starting and the parameters were a lot lower than in the QT so I stayed up till midnight lst night transferring fish back.....and right now they are showing no signs of distress........I am doing everything in m y power to keep all alive and healthy. Yes I also have some macro in tank.....not a lot, but some. Anyway, will continue to update any failure or success
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
deb:
Sounds like you are doing all you can. In this situation I have some shocking advice.
First and foremost stop changing the water! As you have said you have been doing that from the beginning and you are having this problem. You system needs to balance out and stablilze.
second and even more critical. Don't feed the fish. Wait until nitrites come down to 0.0. Should not take more than a week. the fish may ignore the food for a few day anyway.
Be careful of cleaning filters. I only clean half my filters each week. they contain the bacteria which maintains the system. Cleaning removes that bacteria.
With your paramters already comming down, I think you will find the system will recover nicely in days not weeks.
Keep us posted.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
First and foremost stop changing the water! As you have said you have been doing that from the beginning and you are having this problem. You system needs to balance out and stablilze.
On what basis do you recommend this?
Cleaning the filters in that manner could have removed your bio-filtration causing a spike in your ammonia. Have you checked the ammonia?
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by ReefNut
First and foremost stop changing the water! As you have said you have been doing that from the beginning and you are having this problem. You system needs to balance out and stablilze.
On what basis do you recommend this?
...
Already explained in my reply. Backed up with years of experience. Balanced and stable systems do not require daily water changes. Constant tinkering with systems results in unbalanced destabilized systems. In this case, removing a small amount of say ammonia or nitrite, removes and changes all the tanks parameters such as ph. that further shocks the bacteria needed to remove the ammonia and nitrIte. Additionally it shocks the livestock fcreating additional bioload. By allowing the system to generate the needed bacteria and keeping the bioload a low as possible, in a system with minimum changes, the system will produce the needed bacteria, balance out and stabilize.
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member

Originally posted by ReefNut
I haven't read anything on this post about daily water changes... Did I miss something? :rolleyes:
From deb:
As far as the cleaning went, took filters out (HOB) scrubbed them with hot water and a new toothbrush, replaced filter media, took apart skimmer same way and put it back, did 20% partial water change usinjg Instant Ocean. Have been doing this same procedure since the beginning.......
Daily or weekly or monthly, that was the reason for my emphasis in letting things settle down.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Water changes has Nothing to do with the current situation and at this point could only help.
 
coloradodeb

coloradodeb

Member
As far as water changes go....I do bi monthly changes..not daily.....And for the cleaning of the filters. my bio filter wheels are just kept wet while I scrub gunk off of hard plastic of filters.....and I keep fresh carbon packs in also...about twice a month, I guess this may not be enough? It i s my understanding that these bio wheels hold a ton of beneficial bacteria....am I wrong? zzzthank you for all your help!!!!!!
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
deb: you are correct-- the wheels do have a ton of bacteria. My filter has a sponge and I decided to rince it (once). NitrItes bumped up the next day. Now i leave it alone
 
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