Tank Crashed!!!

[ogredawg]

It's the same old story, I went on a vacation and when I came back the water in my tank was milky and 80% of my corals died. I tried doing a big water change (30%) on a 20 gallon tank and putting new carbon it didn't really help. I think the water was too toxicated. I had a 55 gallon that I was going to setup next month, but since this happened I figure I should just start it now. So I transfered everything I had left in my 20 gallon (except the water) and put it in my 55. I waited a day before I put everything in the new tank.
What do you guys think I should do next? I'm afraid the livestock might not survive the cycle it might go through.
Here's the before and after the crash pics...The after pics is in my new 55 gallon tank...
Before...

After...

 

[ninjamini]

Sorry to hear it. What caused it?

 

[ogredawg]

I think the corals I had on top didn't acclimate well on the new light and so they all were dying first before I left and then I guess they died over the weekend and that might caused them to toxicate the water.
Any suggestions on what to do now? All I'm worried about now is ammonia spike. I'm not sure if my clam and anemone going to make through that.

 

[fishcake]

What a shame .. sorry to hear that.!!
I would bring the remaining Livestock to the LFS.
Start over!!!!
The livestock will not survive a new tank.

 

[slugg3r]

Did you transfer all your liverock from the old tank to the new? If so you won't see a cycle as long as you got all or most of the dead organisms out of your rock and water. Your liverock will have plenty of bacteria already on it to handle your bioload.

 

[ogredawg]

Yeah I transfered everything, sand, rocks, filter media, and chaeto macro algae. The only thing new are the water and sand because I did add some new "non-live" sand but I'm hoping the old sand would seed the new ones.