My tank is "crashing"/"recycling" :-(

[eng50]

Just another observation and hopefully someone else like a shark will continue on this idea...
You are using a powerhead with quite a bit of air injection (as per the picture)...Corals, IME, REALLY hate that, they start to do poorly rather quickly, possibly adding to the speed of your decline. I know you are trying to get O2 in the water, but surface agitaion would be better, bubbles stress fish and coral, and add to feeding algea...
Just some added input, its not your entire issue, just a contributor, I feel. Good Luck and keep posting with updates, we need to learn from the unfortunate occurances...
If you are able to get the fish and coral out, let it sit, doing too much is usually our downfall, ammolock and the like are really not the answers..but I know what its like to feel you must do something ASAP!! Slow and simple is the way to go.
Bill

 

[azonic]

I have to disagree with your idea on the venturi I have running on the powerhead. I believe it is doing no harm at all. Whatever is rotting in the tank is eating up everybit of oxygen in the water and therefore taking it away from the fish and making it MUCH more stressful on the fish to get oxygen through their gills.
That is why when there is a high level of ammonia the fish appear to be gasping at the gills for air. Using the venturi on the tank increases the oxygen level in the water and therefor less stress on fish.
It can cuase problems for corals if they bubbles get in or around them but the powerhead does not push the bubbles anywhere near the corals.
I got this advice from a marine biologist locally who works in a marine lab in my city. He told me to use the directed amount of ammo lock, use a venturi on your powerhead, and do a water change. I did all of that and the next day all the fish were breathing normally and they still are ever since even with the ammonia level at around 8mg/l.
Thanks for the time/suggestion but I think for now I'll stick to what I have running...I haven't lost a single fish in the 8 days my water has had the ammonia in it.

 

[thomas712]

I have to disagree with the bubble statement as well. One of the best things you can do for your tank is increase the O2 levels whether that be a powerhead/venturi or even just an air stone in your sump, I would also have to say that it would depend on how much or how well your protien skimmer is working as to whether or not extra O2 production is warrented.
Extra fine bubbles have been known to annoy soft polyp corals but they get used to it, also if a tiny extra fine bubble gets lodged in the fish gills this could also cause a problem for the fish.
Other than that more O2 is a good thing and in Azonic's case was a good move, with the use of fresh carbon. Two simple things to do when something goes wrong with a tank.
Thomas

 

[azonic]

Yet another update...All my fish/inverts/corals were brought to my LFS today and are very happy in his tanks. I'm going to drain the tank down to around 30-40 gallons of water.....remove my sand bed completely......Then I'm adding around 180 pounds of new sand to make a deeper sand bed this time around....then I'll seed that bed with several pounds from my old one. Then I'll add the remaining 50-60 gallons of new water and let it cycle again.
This has been such a terrible week. I've included a picture of my pitiful tank....the only occupants are a dieing colt coral which needs to be removed and discarded....and a net.