need help!!!

[mlt]

My ammonia level has been off the test chart for over a week now. Now my nitrite level is also as dark as the darkest level on the chart. My Nitrate level is at 20. A little background-this tank has been set up since Nov 16. I went through a complete cycle once already. I set this tank up using all my LR-LS and most of the water from my 75 gal tank. I added home-depot sand on the bottom and my LS on the top. In the last two weeks I have lost all my fish and snails and the only thing that has lived is my CBS, horseshoe crab and cleaner shrimp. I even lost my damsels! I went to my LSF and they told me to add Nitromax and detox 2 chips. I have done that for almost a week now with no improvement on the ammonia level. My nitrite and nitrate levels have increased. How long should it take for all my levels to come back down to normal? Will my LR/LS be alright? What would cause another cycle to happen? I had my 75 gal tank for over 8 months and I never had anything like this happen. In fact I wasn't "into" my 75 gal tank as much as I am with the 125 and I never even did any water testing and everything was ok. I am running 2 emperor 400 filters-a protein skimmer-and a power head. I am just sick over the loss of all my livestock! Please someone help! Should I be doing water changes? I did 3 back to back 30% changes last week.

 

[gesswhosbak]

What all did you have in your tank as far as fish and inverts. Could be possibly you added too large of a bioload at one time and that in turn is causing another cycle. I would just wait it out and let the cycle run its course, if thats what it is. Should take about a month or so depending on what levels are at.

 

[beaslbob]

Feel your loss.
As you have found out water changes aren't much help.
I assume you have found out what caused this and have removed it.
But even if you haven't the best thing is to do nothing. Let the bacteria catch up with the bioload. Once there your ammonia will drop to 0.0 in hours. NitrItes will take a couple of days longer.
Add all the plant life to you system you can and add them now. Plants consume ammonia directly and will really help in getting outta whack systems back in line.
Finally, the same thing happened to me when I first started my 55g, went too fast and had 8 anemones die. I took about a week and a half for ammonia do come down. Hang in there.

 

[birdy]

Perhaps list what inhabitants you had in your tank, sometimes when something dies, it will cause a spiraling effect and things keep dieing and causing the levels to continue to spike. I would also supect you may have had too many animals in the tank too early perhaps pushing the bioload too much and crashing the tank, you have a couple options. Do you have any livestock in the tank now? if so,you may want to do waterchanges until the levels are correct, or you could just let the tank cycle again. then start over.
In any case please list everything (including equipment and amount of LR, LS) that was in the tank before the crash and what is in the tank now.

 

[mlt]

I had moved the fish I had from my 75 gal tank over. I had a number of snails-4 damsels-1 yellow tang-1 foxface-2 tomato clowns-1 naso tang-green madarin. I also lost 2 pencil urchins-1 pin urchin and a couple of bubble tip amenones. The only thing I had added since the change over was the naso tang and the horseshoe crab and some kind of grape like plants. My ammonia level has been up for over a week now and the nitrite level just raised, About how much longer will this take? Should my LR/LS still be ok? Do you think the shrimp will hand in there since they have so far?

 

[birdy]

If it were my tank, I would do water changes, high nitrite levels could very well kill off anything alive in that tank, including stuff on the LR and LS. You could do daily waterchanges until things start to level out.

 

[beaslbob]

With the ammonia levels off the charts you are lucky there is any animal still living.
How is the grape caulpera (plant) doing? I got some caulpera which was basiclly dead and really messed up the macro culture tank for about a week. Could be happening here also.
Again. healthy plants are the best to correct this. But it takes more than just a strand or two. And they do have to be healthy, live, and growing.

 

[mlt]

Will adding the Nitromax and the detox2 chips help with the nitrites like it says it will? How long should I expect the nitrites to stay high? I have about 75-80 lbs LR and about 2-3 inches LS and home-depot sand. I hate to lose all that!

 

[birdy]

I am not familiar with those products, the only one I am familiar with is ammo lock, which I don't really recommend unless you have a lot of livestock you are currently trying to save.
Your LR will not die, a lot of the life probably will, but it will all come back with time, the biological filter of your LR and LS will re-establish itself.
You really have two choices, let the tank run it's course and re-cycle (this will probably be the quickest solution) and risk loosing some more livestock. Then rebuilding your livestock. Or you can do waterchanges to keep your levels under the toxic zone and your tank will eventually stabalize (this may take a while).
I would like to know how all of this started though. Which fish died first, and when did you lose your anemone's (they alone can crash an entire tank when they die).

 

[mlt]

I sure wish I knew what started all this too! I lost a PBT first-then the other fish all started to go. The madarin and one of the clowns were the last ones to go. The anemones were somewhere in between. It seemed like one day everything was ok-then BAM. At first I thought that I might have had ick-but the fish that died looked fine-no spots-no bloat-nothing. They just started lying on their sides and then upside down and gone. Since I have very little left (CBS-horseshoe crab-cleaner shrimp) I guess I will just have to wait until things settle down again. I am more worried about the LR LS right now-'cause I don't want to have to replace everything! I was going to start to add more LR at little at a time-but will have to wait until water is more stable to do even that. I am running teh filters-power head and protein skimmer full blast right now. How this doesn't take much longer. I am really down everytime I look at my empty tank! For the last week I have spent countless hours going over everything in the tank and can't find anything dead, I have done water changes and added everything that the LSF has told me about. I know I have to go slow now-but sure wish I had something swimming around. Atleast I got rid of the damsels (even they died) and I know I don't want another one in my tank again. I did not know about this site until the LSF had told me to cycle with the damsels then I could never catch the little buggers!

 

[karajay]

I know it sucks to look at an empty tank. I would recommend you look at it empty for a while longer, like about 4-6 weeks. In that amount of time, your water will have stabalized from the ammonia problem you are having. Also, any contagious fish diseases will have had a chance to die off. Since you still don't know what happened to start all this trouble, it seems to be the safest bet.
When it's time to restock, quarantine everything for at least a month, add slowly and don't overstock.
:happyfish

 

[birdy]

I agree with kara, let the tank sit with no fish for a month so that if there was ick it will all die off before you restock it. I would think it will re-cycle fairly quickly, since it has already cycled once. Probably within a couple weeks. I wouldn't worry about your LR and LS too much (if you are really worried then you can do daily wc to keep the levels down, but it make take a little longer to stalbilize) While you are waiting for your tank to get in line. Set up a QT tank, cycle it then you can put your first fish in there while you are waiting for your tank to stabilize.

 

[mlt]

Thanks-I do have a QT cycling now. I know I can't add fish for awhile yet I was planning on doing what was suggested and leaving the tank empty for a month or so. All my fish have been gone for over a week already and I am not about to rush into anything and crash everything again! But what about some snails and crabs? My cleaner shrimp-CBS-1 peppermint shrimp and a horseshoe crab has somehow made it through all of it. RIght now my ammonia has come down to 1.0 but nitrites are still at the highest color on the test chart. Atleast I know it is cycling since the ammonia has come down but I do know it has to be at zero. Before it was a darker color than the highest level on the test chart. Any idea how long before the trites start to come down? I found this site after I had already started my tank. The first time my first fish were damsels (which I know better now) so what should be the first fish I start to add? I would like a couple of clowns-a royal gramma-a blonde naso tang and a yellow tang. I will probably want to add a few small community fish in also. I do want to add corals once I get tank params settled. I have ordered my lights and I have a protein skimmer running. My CA levels are at 450. Can I added a few corals and then a few fish then more corals ect or do I need to add all the fish I want (slowly) then start with the corals or maybe the other way around? I do know that I will take it REAL slow this time around!

 

[birdy]

When adding fish, you want to start with the least territorial fish first, and add the most aggressive fish last. So start with the small community fish, and the royal gramma, then add the clownfish and tangs. As far as adding corals, I really suggest that if you want to go with corals that you stock fish on the light side (don't go over 1inch of fish per 5gallons). Corals should be added after the tank is established for about 6mo. Corals do not really change the bioload, so you can add them a little quicker than fish.