So we got into aquariums about 5 years ago with a little 20 gallon fresh water, within months we had a 20 gallon nano salt water to and from there it just got addictive. I spent lots of time researching eco systems with no mechanical filters, we first had hang on back refuges but then progressed to a 10 gallon sump, I even converted the freshwater to no filter and everything was running superb. When we moved from Idaho to Oregon we went over the mountains and got stuck in a snow storm, when we finally arrived at the new house after 33 hours the storm took the power out, this left all my tank that had been meticulously packed being out of the tank for little over 2 days, needless to say we lost everything, corals, clowns, crabs. It was devastating and although we set the tanks back up with the live rock and sand it was a real long time before we ventured into getting anything else. I picked up a 55 gallon tank and finally we made the switch about 6 months ago and we picked up sand from the coast, the tank came with rock so we set it up with about 40lbs of sand (a 3" sand bed), about 60lbs of live rock, upgraded the sump to a 20 gallon with chambers, center chamber is sand from the old tank and will be used for macros and growing things out then we have a single reactor with GFO and carbon mixture in it, no skimmer but the overflow is a multi level siphon. So the change over came and I cycled the tank by using water from the existing tank and the cycle actually took two weeks only doing it this way which I was really surprised at. A week later we moved the little clown we still had that we got after we moved and the few crabs we had. Over the next few months we added some peppermint shrimp, a chocolate star, a red scooter blenny, a lawnmower blenny, engineer goby, a green brittle star, decorator crab,1000s of pods, lots of snails and crabs (pods and cleanup crew went in before the others). Everything was running great, brittle was being hand fed and doing superb and so was everyone else. I had so hair algae but every test showed 0 to everything even phosphate and a ph of 8. I assumed the bloom came from the lights as they came with the tank and were who knows how old so we got new bulbs with a 50/50 65w, four of them.
Then came the baby .... my baby (16 months) managed to get into the stand and cracked the refuge tank with the heater, breaking the glass heater, needless to say the baby lock went on the stand. I picked up a new 20 gallon, drained the refuge, moved all the baffles and the sand in the center chamber and replaced everything and all was up and running again within 2 days and before I had 10 gallon of water on the floor. Things looked good, I had not disturbed the sand that much when I transferred it so the water was pretty clear and everything started running as normal. Everyone seemed happy, the following morning was not so happy. About 16 hours after the refuge was put back in I wake up to 3 dead peppermint shrimp, a dead emerald crab, a scooter breathing heavy, an engineer goby that is actually out his hole which he never fully came out, a brittle star losing all it's bristles and a lawnmower blenny not looking good either. I immediately started making up saltwater. I drained about 25 gallons and replaced with new water over the next few hours, I then replaced another 10 gallons or so throughout the evening, also cleaned the reactor out and put in fresh charcoal and GFO. The lawnmower died, brittle finally fell apart and died by the evening, did tests for everything and nothing showed wrong (results below). This morning chocolate is falling apart, scooter has barely moved and still breathing really heavy, clown just looks off and engineer is out but slowing in his movements, I am at a loss, I am guessing the sand bed released toxins that have caused the crash but I cannot trace them and just ordered another bunch of fish that are supposed to be here by the weekend.
Tests before water change were;
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
After water change I tested everything I could (yesterday afternoon before starfish died)
Ammonia barely 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.25 (between this and 0)
PH 8.0
Calcium 420
Hardness 10/179
Salinity 1.023
Tests this morning (about 10 hours since last water change and during the night with the loss of choc, also pretty sure there are at least another 2 peppermint shrimp in the tank somewhere but I cannot find them and don't want to disturb anything else, there are still lots of hermies that I am sure will find them)
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
PH 8.0
Calcium 420
Hardness 10/179
Salinity 1.023
Help!! apart from doing water changes is there anything else I can do?? We decided we will get a 3 or 4 chamber reactor system that we can use as a backup filter, or maybe a canister filter, something we can turn on whenever we do something out of the normal, such as replacing a refuge or after cleaning rocks or disturbing something, like a quick clean type of thing to give the tank cleaners time to catch up. But is there anything I can do now? is there any way of testing what is killing them?
Then came the baby .... my baby (16 months) managed to get into the stand and cracked the refuge tank with the heater, breaking the glass heater, needless to say the baby lock went on the stand. I picked up a new 20 gallon, drained the refuge, moved all the baffles and the sand in the center chamber and replaced everything and all was up and running again within 2 days and before I had 10 gallon of water on the floor. Things looked good, I had not disturbed the sand that much when I transferred it so the water was pretty clear and everything started running as normal. Everyone seemed happy, the following morning was not so happy. About 16 hours after the refuge was put back in I wake up to 3 dead peppermint shrimp, a dead emerald crab, a scooter breathing heavy, an engineer goby that is actually out his hole which he never fully came out, a brittle star losing all it's bristles and a lawnmower blenny not looking good either. I immediately started making up saltwater. I drained about 25 gallons and replaced with new water over the next few hours, I then replaced another 10 gallons or so throughout the evening, also cleaned the reactor out and put in fresh charcoal and GFO. The lawnmower died, brittle finally fell apart and died by the evening, did tests for everything and nothing showed wrong (results below). This morning chocolate is falling apart, scooter has barely moved and still breathing really heavy, clown just looks off and engineer is out but slowing in his movements, I am at a loss, I am guessing the sand bed released toxins that have caused the crash but I cannot trace them and just ordered another bunch of fish that are supposed to be here by the weekend.
Tests before water change were;
Ammonia 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
After water change I tested everything I could (yesterday afternoon before starfish died)
Ammonia barely 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0.25 (between this and 0)
PH 8.0
Calcium 420
Hardness 10/179
Salinity 1.023
Tests this morning (about 10 hours since last water change and during the night with the loss of choc, also pretty sure there are at least another 2 peppermint shrimp in the tank somewhere but I cannot find them and don't want to disturb anything else, there are still lots of hermies that I am sure will find them)
Ammonia 0.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate 0
PH 8.0
Calcium 420
Hardness 10/179
Salinity 1.023
Help!! apart from doing water changes is there anything else I can do?? We decided we will get a 3 or 4 chamber reactor system that we can use as a backup filter, or maybe a canister filter, something we can turn on whenever we do something out of the normal, such as replacing a refuge or after cleaning rocks or disturbing something, like a quick clean type of thing to give the tank cleaners time to catch up. But is there anything I can do now? is there any way of testing what is killing them?
