Every thing died

[Joeya491]

I did a water change vacuumed the sand and stupidly cleaned the filter in running water bc i had a stupid idea that one time would be ok the tank was running for a 3 months i went away for vacation had some one feed the fish and they didnt turn the light out so now i have green alge everywhere cleaned the tank up did a 25 % water change and since i was gone so long i changed the crabon and stupidly ran the spunge filter under sink water added the bacteria and chemicals to the water checked the parameters in the tank everything was fine but the kh was high so i have an acid buffer to lower the kh ammonia was fine cleaned the alge off the glass crabs layed eggs found that out the hard way ps no more eggs. Did the water change everything was at the top of the tank gasping for air.

Its a 5 gallon fluval spec 5 nothing special

But i had 2 clown fish die some snails 2 crabs and there eggs cromies and shrip die

Did another water change added a ph up to get the ph back to 8.3 kh is sadly at 12 drops until 3 days when im planning on doing another water change get the ph right this time leaving the filter and adding an alge fix to the tank i use the water from my local fish store plus bactiria additive purple up and a few other chemicals to keep water sufficient

What do i do to save the inverts

 

[Timfish]

Sorry to hear your loss! If it was my tank I'd stop adding stuff and just stick to weekly water changes (at least 5% but not more than 20%) and be patient. The equilibrium of the ecosystem has been all screwed up and it will take time for the microbial and biochmeical processes to stabilize. Adding all the stuff is just adding the the perturbations in the equilibrium

 

[IKD]

Agree to slow down on adding things and stick to water changes to stabilize things. Also, the gasping at the top sounds like a low oxygen issue. Do you have a bubbler or other way for air exchange (surface agitation) to happen?

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

Slow down! Those are a lot of changes pretty quickly for a small tank

 

[Jodey3232]

Sorry to hear your loss! If it was my tank I'd stop adding stuff and just stick to weekly water changes (at least 5% but not more than 20%) and be patient. The equilibrium of the ecosystem has been all screwed up and it will take time for the microbial and biochmeical processes to stabilize. Adding all the stuff is just adding the the perturbations in the equilibrium

Well said agree 100%

 

[Joeya491]

Sorry to hear your loss! If it was my tank I'd stop adding stuff and just stick to weekly water changes (at least 5% but not more than 20%) and be patient. The equilibrium of the ecosystem has been all screwed up and it will take time for the microbial and biochmeical processes to stabilize. Adding all the stuff is just adding the the perturbations in the equilibriumwee

 

[Joeya491]

Ok ill stick to weekly water changes... how often do i clean the filter.. its a built in sponge with carbon and the lil white things

 

[brandon429]

there's a better way though, you wouldnt leave your current mix in place, its the bad mix of too much stuff.

do exactly what we did to these tanks here, using no form of additives, making the tank with all new water, rinsed sand, clean rocks, 100% fixed in two hours. then at that point cease adding things, responding to test params with kits that are merely approximates and not the actual number.

in a small pico, cease testing for anything beyond temp and salinity considering the animals you have. when you want to alter a parameter anyway, do it via 50% water change matching temp and salinity, don't actually alter the param with a dose of something. this will fix you up:

A week without power - Recoverable?

So, tank went without power for a week following hurricane Ida. There was no flow(obviously) and temps hit 85-86 during the day. I came back to the city to rescue my 2 clowns who are currently living in a 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler. Basically my question is: what are my options from here...

www.reef2reef.com

that set of total cleaning moves, on the whole tank at once, is what you need. all procedural details have been covered there/merely copy and your after pics will look the same. its called a rip clean, it undoes all the unneeded additives and stressors currently in place. for them, it was storm rebuild. same set of moves either way.

 

[Isopod80]

You also had too many animals in a 5 gallon tank to begin with.

 

[Joeya491]

You also had too many animals in a 5 gallon tank to begin with.

I had just the 2 clown fish 3 hermit crabs 3 emerald green crabs but added the cromids and 4 snails every thing was fine

 

[Isopod80]

I had just the 2 clown fish 3 hermit crabs 3 emerald green crabs but added the cromids and 4 snails every thing was fine

Like I said, too many animals for a 5 gal.

 

[Joeya491]

Agree to slow down on adding things and stick to water changes to stabilize things. Also, the gasping at the top sounds like a low oxygen issue. Do you have a bubbler or other way for air exchange (surface agitation) to happen?

I was adding the bacteria weekly and purple up once a month fluval cloud clearer when it was cloudy and prime water purifier weekly

I have to finish getting parameters test kits
I have kh amonia and ph i had the reef kit but lost the color chart if some one could help me on pics of the parameters colors for nitrates and nitrites would be greatly appreciated this week im going to buy a alkalinity tester

 

[Joeya491]

Sorry to hear your loss! If it was my tank I'd stop adding stuff and just stick to weekly water changes (at least 5% but not more than 20%) and be patient. The equilibrium of the ecosystem has been all screwed up and it will take time for the microbial and biochmeical processes to stabilize. Adding all the stuff is just adding the the perturbations in the equilibrium

Ya likeninsaid to someone on here about the parameters and adding i wasnt adding much but ill stick to salt and temp

 

[Joeya491]

Agree to slow down on adding things and stick to water changes to stabilize things. Also, the gasping at the top sounds like a low oxygen issue. Do you have a bubbler or other way for air exchange (surface agitation) to happen?

I have a 5 gallon wave maker to move the water around but if i have to add bubbles ill get a skull or something

 

[Tamberav]

I did a water change vacuumed the sand and stupidly cleaned the filter in running water bc i had a stupid idea that one time would be ok the tank was running for a 3 months i went away for vacation had some one feed the fish and they didnt turn the light out so now i have green alge everywhere cleaned the tank up did a 25 % water change and since i was gone so long i changed the crabon and stupidly ran the spunge filter under sink water added the bacteria and chemicals to the water checked the parameters in the tank everything was fine but the kh was high so i have an acid buffer to lower the kh ammonia was fine cleaned the alge off the glass crabs layed eggs found that out the hard way ps no more eggs. Did the water change everything was at the top of the tank gasping for air.

Its a 5 gallon fluval spec 5 nothing special

But i had 2 clown fish die some snails 2 crabs and there eggs cromies and shrip die

Did another water change added a ph up to get the ph back to 8.3 kh is sadly at 12 drops until 3 days when im planning on doing another water change get the ph right this time leaving the filter and adding an alge fix to the tank i use the water from my local fish store plus bactiria additive purple up and a few other chemicals to keep water sufficient

What do i do to save the inverts

probably more the fact you are dosing stuff to mess with pH and alk which ups and downs and swings. I doubt washing the filter matters if you have rock.

Like you dosed an acid buffer but then tried to dose your pH back up. Which you should not be doing. Dosing pH effects alk and the effect on pH is often temporary.

 

[Joeya491]

Slow down! Those are a lot of changes pretty quickly for a small tank

I know i just didnt know what else to do i figured 30 % 40 % would save them but they never made it i added a acid buffer for the kh that was up to 20 drops so i added the buffer and it dropped to 12 drops but the fish were gasping for air it was a fresh water change a bucket i keep to the side with a weeks worth of water pre mixed that i added the buffer to it lowers the ph so i tested the ph it was a 7.8 put some other marine ph balancer in got the ph to 8.3 and everything died. Some one said that it could be the ph bc theres a ph balance that throws off the alkalinity now im running out to get an alkalinity tester this week mess with that and she what other test kits i need

So far i have kh ammonia ph copper i have the nitrate and nitrite tests but dont have the reading cardsand the phosphorus i believe some thing

 

[Joeya491]

probably more the fact you are dosing stuff to mess with pH and alk which ups and downs and swings. I doubt washing the filter matters if you have rock.

Like you dosed an acid buffer but then tried to dose your pH back up. Which you should not be doing. Dosing pH effects alk and the effect on pH is often temporary.

Ok how do i get the kh down with out effecting anything else

 

[Joeya491]

Like I said, too many animals for a 5 gal.

Ya figured

 

[Joeya491]

Like I said, too many animals for a 5 gal.

Ill get 2 clown and 2 crabs next time maybe 1 2 snails

 

[Joeya491]

Like I said, too many animals for a 5 gal.

What could i get to fit the size tank thats in that type of style the clowns the crabs and snails about how many of each because i liked how it looked it actually looked like an ecosystem