Another failure, time for a reset. Need advice

[oreocookie]

I thought I had successfully treated my remaining clown for brook, butI now find myself with nothing alive except bacteria and algae. I have already ordered some clean up crew that I’m supposed to pick up this weekend, so no time to be discouraged.

I need to a quick reset (both mentally and in the tank) to be ready for new inhabitants in a few days. My nitrates are high (around 50, I think) so I know I need to bring that down. I plan to do at least one water change before the weekend, but my question is how much and when?

I have enough water on hand at the moment for a roughly 25% water change. Do I do that 25% change now, let the algae grow to use up nitrates, get more water and do a larger change (50% or more) or some combination of the above? What is my best bet for getting ready for new creatures? À it’s a 12 gallon tank, so a drastic water change is doable

Thanks in advance

 

[Euphyllia97]

Only having bacteria and algae in the tank sounds like your best case scenario when it comes to highly lethal pathogens.

If I were you, skip on the fast reset. As your tank is now running fallow, Keep it that way until 60 days after you have added the last species of your clean up crew. Increase to 81F (keep an eye on your snails and inverts). Ghost feed the tank to keep the bacteria alive and the tank stable.

Really, take this chance and perform a reset of your tank this way. It’s the only way to be sure you start of with a pathogen/disease free tank… it will save you money, frustrations and above all the life of fish.

Once you introduce fish again, the pathogens will just continue their life cycle and it will be the same story. Maybe one or two fish will survive and you will be stuck in this situation or will have to tear down your tank to catch and treat them followed by…. Again this same 60 days fallow period

Put the new fish through a quarantine as described by @Jay Hemdal in the fish disease section of the forum. Your tank will be ready to go once the fish are finished with quarantine.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Can you post a tank picture so we can see what we're dealing with?

25% water change will reduce nitrates by 25%, 50% water change will reduce by 50%, etc.......

But personally I would suggest to slow down, it feels like your trying to hurry and honestly I see some red flags in your post that tell me things are not happening correctly.

 

[Waters]

How long ago did your last fish die? Assuming it was long enough to rid the tank of any pathogens or diseases, I would change 90% of the water since it is only a 12 gallon.

 

[oreocookie]

Ok, so now that I’ve had a day to chill, I realise that I was probably still somewhat flustered when I wrote last night’s post, In hindsight, I asked a question that now feels quite stupid to me, and didn’t ask one that I should have, but which has already been answered.

The quick backstory on why it comes across that I’m in a hurry: I had ordered the starting members of my clean up crew on Sunday, when I thought my clown was doing ok. Fast forward to last night when I’m wondering if it’s even safe to put them in.

At this point, my tank has been fishless for about 24 hours. My initial question (which now feels dumb) about how much water to change came from the fact that I had already been planning to do 25% changes every 2-3 days until the nitrates were at a more reasonable level, but with no fish, I can change as much as I want.

My current plan is to do a large water change, like 80% or 90%, probably tomorrow night, so things are safe and more comfortable for the incoming clean up crew (2 blue leg hermits, 3 trochus snails and 3 cerith snails)) on the weekend, and then wait. While I’m waiting for the parasites to die off, I’ll use the time to properly research and plan what I want for my future reef. Is there anything else I should consider right now?

This is my “lovely” brown mess

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If I could offer just one piece of advise that I believe will greatly improve your reefing experience it would be to add a pair of powerheads into the tank. The build up on the rocks is very visible, there is just not enough flow in your tank. That alone will provide huge improvement IMO. Otherwise the tank looks overall ok and no huge action needed IMO, the small tweaks you mention you are doing sound good to me. Good luck.

 

[Tahoe61]

Get some Zoanthids or other soft corals and chill for a couple months. A 12 gallon really isn't large enough for two adult clowns.
Your tank has a great scape. Stick with corals and other inverts for awhile.

 

[W31Olds]

I don't think a cleanup crew is what you need. I see Dynos (maybe Cyano) and not Algae, so your water parameters are off. What are your Phosphate levels? Can you Take a pic under White Lighting.
#reefsquad

 

[oreocookie]

Get some Zoanthids or other soft corals and chill for a couple months. A 12 gallon really isn't large enough for two adult clowns.
Your tank has a great scape. Stick with corals and other inverts for awhile.

Zoas are definitely on my radar, but at this point I will wait a bit to give myself some confidence that I can keep parameters stable, before I look to put in anything that costs more than a few dollars.

 

[Troylee]

Def Dino’s! Put a uv on there and dose phyto and silicates!

 

[oreocookie]

I don't think a cleanup crew is what you need. I see Dynos (maybe Cyano) and not Algae, so your water parameters are off. What are your Phosphate levels? Can you Take a pic under White Lighting.
#reefsquad

I don’t have anything to test phosphates at the moment, but wouldn’t that change with the almost complete water change I’m about to do?

 

[Rocks reef]

If I could offer just one piece of advise that I believe will greatly improve your reefing experience it would be to add a pair of powerheads into the tank. The build up on the rocks is very visible, there is just not enough flow in your tank. That alone will provide huge improvement IMO. Otherwise the tank looks overall ok and no huge action needed IMO, the small tweaks you mention you are doing sound good to me. Good luck.

Absolutely agree with this

 

[Rocks reef]

Def Dino’s! Put a uv on there and dose phyto and silicates!

^this

 

[Rocks reef]

I don’t have anything to test phosphates at the moment, but wouldn’t that change with the almost complete water change I’m about to do?

Depends on how much is bound to the rock and sand

 

[W31Olds]

My phosphates were high in my DT and one of my small Tanks. WC's will not work, however they will lower Nitrates. I believe Dyno's take off with low Phosphates anyway.

 

[sgdnycct]

Those look like dino’s. I would not do a big water change. I suspect this is a newish tank?

If so, a huge water change is going to wipe out a lot of the microfauna you need to colonize the tank. You don’t have anything delicate in there. Let it run for a while as-is so it stabilizes. 50 NO3 isn’t bad. With dinos you’re better off with some nutrients in the water. If the dinos don’t go away on their own in a couple of weeks come back for advice to deal with them.

I do suggest you get a Phosphate test kit.

 

[Waters]

Def Dino’s! Put a uv on there and dose phyto and silicates!

While I agree with the phyto and UV, be careful with the silicates lol. I learned the hard way that unless you have a very established diatom population already, the silicates will just feed the dynos (and not the diatoms which are supposed to outcompete the dynos). My dynos EXPLODED overnight after dosing silicates. I tried for a few days and had to stop.

 

[BryanM]

12 gallon? For me, considering how long it took me to rid myself of dinos, I might very well opt for a full reset.

Caveat being, if that sludge/dino mess does go in to the water column at night, then it is very easily treatable with UV.

3rd opinion on adding at least one powerhead in the tank to get more water moving.

 

[Troylee]

While I agree with the phyto and UV, be careful with the silicates lol. I learned the hard way that unless you have a very established diatom population already, the silicates will just feed the dynos (and not the diatoms which are supposed to outcompete the dynos). My dynos EXPLODED overnight after dosing silicates. I tried for a few days and had to stop.

Did you put them under a scope to see the strain? Maybe you had diatoms to begin with?

 

[qtrashcan]

My advice is to get a UV light and have it on 24/7. You can definitely do a big water change to improve your water parameters. Based on the rock, I think the tank is not cycled enough. Maybe try to get some live sand or filter media from a more mature tank.