55 Gallon Reef tank crashed...when to restart?

[MareR]

Hello hello.

I just got into the hobby after moving to a new place that would have the space for a 55 gallon tank. I figured going BIG but not TOO big would be a good way to start. Everything was going good for the last 5 months-had a lovely torch coral that was doing fantastic, a hammer that finally opened, a clownfish, whitetail angelfish, leopard wrasse, and diamondback goby for my sand sifter. Then a couple days ago, I decide to do a water test cause it's been a while-I wanted to go a week or so without you know puttin' my grubby bacteria filled hands in my tank-sometimes it's just best to let it alone for a while or so I thought.

The Nitrate SPIKED - beat red. I think it was in the 100+ range
Nitrite was dark purple around 2.0-5.0ppm - also way too high
ammonia was also NOT good-2.0ppm
only good parameters was high range being around 7.4-8.3

So I do a water change. STILL high so I evacuate my fish and do another change thinking if I quarantine them and get them in a new system it'd be ok...and then a couple hours later my fish-ALL of them were dead. I took at look at everything-and realized my temp in the water was NINETY. I'm not at all sure how that happened, but perhaps that caused the ammonia spike and shocked my fish? I'm legit sad about my clownfish and leopard wrasse, she was so pretty and the clown was my first marine fish. Not to mention the diamondback was a cool lil dude it was nice to watch him work. I'm wondering when it would be safe to restart? The torch and hammer are also gone it's all empty-not dead I just gave it to a friend so it would live lol. So far it's been three days since the crash and I'm just letting everything cycle. with daily water changes cause I'm paranoid. It's actually helped-the nitrite was at 0.25, the nitrate was 0, ammonia was kinda green so around .25, and ph range was 7.8. Should I keep doing daily water changes? Was it too much stock too soon? I'm not sure what the next steps are. But I wanna do it right this time if I did anything wrong the first go. I want my tank to last longer than like 5 months lol.

 

[LouisianaReef]

Hello hello.

I just got into the hobby after moving to a new place that would have the space for a 55 gallon tank. I figured going BIG but not TOO big would be a good way to start. Everything was going good for the last 5 months-had a lovely torch coral that was doing fantastic, a hammer that finally opened, a clownfish, whitetail angelfish, leopard wrasse, and diamondback goby for my sand sifter. Then a couple days ago, I decide to do a water test cause it's been a while-I wanted to go a week or so without you know puttin' my grubby bacteria filled hands in my tank-sometimes it's just best to let it alone for a while or so I thought.

The Nitrate SPIKED - beat red. I think it was in the 100+ range
Nitrite was dark purple around 2.0-5.0ppm - also way too high
ammonia was also NOT good-2.0ppm
only good parameters was high range being around 7.4-8.3

So I do a water change. STILL high so I evacuate my fish and do another change thinking if I quarantine them and get them in a new system it'd be ok...and then a couple hours later my fish-ALL of them were dead. I took at look at everything-and realized my temp in the water was NINETY. I'm not at all sure how that happened, but perhaps that caused the ammonia spike and shocked my fish? I'm legit sad about my clownfish and leopard wrasse, she was so pretty and the clown was my first marine fish. Not to mention the diamondback was a cool lil dude it was nice to watch him work. I'm wondering when it would be safe to restart? The torch and hammer are also gone it's all empty-not dead I just gave it to a friend so it would live lol. So far it's been three days since the crash and I'm just letting everything cycle. with daily water changes cause I'm paranoid. It's actually helped-the nitrite was at 0.25, the nitrate was 0, ammonia was kinda green so around .25, and ph range was 7.8. Should I keep doing daily water changes? Was it too much stock too soon? I'm not sure what the next steps are. But I wanna do it right this time if I did anything wrong the first go. I want my tank to last longer than like 5 months lol.

I doesn't sound that your tank for mature and ready for livestock. I would suggest doing a few W/C changes and check your parameters for a few weeks until you start to see things even out and get to the zero level they should be. As far as the temp you need to figure out what why it got so high.

 

[Spare time]

I would HIGHLY recommend an inkbird temperature monitor/controller. Also, keep a bottle of prime or similar around for emergency scenarios like this. Zeolite removes ammonia which is good in emergencies.

 

[MareR]

I would HIGHLY recommend an inkbird temperature monitor/controller. Also, keep a bottle of prime or similar around for emergency scenarios like this. Zeolite removes ammonia which is good in emergencies.

Thanks for the recommendation. I've taken out my other heater and already of course the tank waters are lower than 90 around 80 now so....I dunno what happened but i'm pretty sure the high water temp caused ben bacteria to break down thus causing all the crazy spikes. what a bummer.

 

[MareR]

I doesn't sound that your tank for mature and ready for livestock. I would suggest doing a few W/C changes and check your parameters for a few weeks until you start to see things even out and get to the zero level they should be. As far as the temp you need to figure out what why it got so high.

I'm 99% sure it was my heater that either malfunctioned or something...I had let it cycle for a solid month before even adding fish like you're supposed to-everything was perfect until a few nights ago. But I know that these things can take time so I'm DEFINITELY gonna wait a while before adding new fish in and keep up on the wcs. Would it be safe to keep my dry rock? or should that be new too? I just did a water test today and the nitrites are at .25pm, nitrates 0, ammonia still ehhhh at like that .25ppm it wasnt yellow but it wasnt GREEN either and high range was 7.8. And that was after one FULL water change the day before yesterday, another FULL 100% change yesterday, and 50% today. I'll be adding supplements when I do another wc tomorrow. with stocking fish I know you arent supposed to add in a lot of fish at once, but i thought one a month was fine.

 

[DonTavo27]

20+ gallon water change, A unit of chemi pure elite, and Make sure your protein skimmer is running properly, just to start.

 

[Ceez]

What kind of heater do you have and how old is it?

 

[LouisianaReef]

I'm 99% sure it was my heater that either malfunctioned or something...I had let it cycle for a solid month before even adding fish like you're supposed to-everything was perfect until a few nights ago. But I know that these things can take time so I'm DEFINITELY gonna wait a while before adding new fish in and keep up on the wcs. Would it be safe to keep my dry rock? or should that be new too? I just did a water test today and the nitrites are at .25pm, nitrates 0, ammonia still ehhhh at like that .25ppm it wasnt yellow but it wasnt GREEN either and high range was 7.8. And that was after one FULL water change the day before yesterday, another FULL 100% change yesterday, and 50% today. I'll be adding supplements when I do another wc tomorrow. with stocking fish I know you arent supposed to add in a lot of fish at once, but i thought one a month was fine.

Your rock should be fine to keep. A month to cycle a saltwater reef can be kinda quick as saltwater normally takes more time than fresh. The key thing to remember in this hobby is to take it slow and don't get into a rush.