HELP cloudy tank and corals dying

[Jonathan lee]

3 days ago i woke up to a cloudy tank and lethargic livestock and corals not opened up and mushroom splitting maybe from stress. Turns out my return pump in the back sump of my all in one tank had broke most prob the night before and i didn’t notice till 11am the next day so maybe 24h with no return pump circulating water. Only my wavemaker was running. I came home around 3pm and changed my pump out with the new one and had it running again. Hours later no change in cloudyness, fish and corals still same. Snails falling off the glass and urchin half dead(alive but not moving just like the snails) and my cleaner shrimp died. My anthelia literally looks like its melting, torches not fully opening, my gsp from metallic green now yellow with only 10% of polyps opening, giant hairy mushroom shrinked up 1/3 the normal size and split. I did 40% water change, added seachem prime later that night and popped in a uv bulb in the sump(no bio media in that section). Water cleared up abit with the uv in but corals still lethargic as ever and last night i lost 3 snails. This morning i found a chromis half dead flopping in the tank spazzing out. I dont know what to do anymore. Tested water twice that day and today. My ammonia is 0.5 as expected since i had snails die, nitrite is 0, nitrate is 0 too(maybe because of Prime), phosphate below 0.3. I dont have other test kits. I was told to add prime just in case and also to do a big water change and to add a uv in. I did all that but 3 days later little to none improvement. Im currently making some rodi to do a 50% water change later. That would add up to 90% water change in 3 days. What should i do? Anyone gone through this? Its only a 2foot 25g system. Ive had this setup for 2 years plus now. Never had something like this happen before except few months back i had a crash from something falling in the tank and all the fish died immediately except my algae blenny but corals were happy as ever.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Actually do a water change and add ChemiPure Blue and assure filters are clean and adequate water flow.

 

[Flippers4pups]

GAC is not a bad idea in these cases.

Cloudy? White?

 

[brandon429]

I’m linking this to two very large threads right now.

1. the microbiology of cycling thread
this is what true free ammonia looks like. In a world of nearly guaranteed false ammonia readings, perfect tanks and some test showing .5 daily, this is what true free ammonia causes and it’s fast, and obvious. Cloudy, smelly and loss cascade.
2. the sand rinse thread which is 23 pages of taking tanks apart to make them safe when moving homes and remedying invasions or insults



anytime you have an ammonia event in a nano reef, the single most important lifesaving cpr move is the 100% water change. It is imperative and vital to know that deep cleaning an aquarium doesn’t harm it, it’s literally the medically indicated CPR move for your aquarium because we know how skip cycle biology works now, twenty years ago everyone thought the bacteria would die if you winked at them

 

[Jonathan lee]

GAC is not a bad idea in these cases.

Cloudy? White?

I do have it running already. Theres a smell like a bacterial bloom too. I was told the bloom could be caused from the return pump failure cause water from the tank wasn’t running thru the filter and bio media during that period of time

 

[Bastray]

I would do a 20+ gallon water change. Almost a full 100% replacement since your system is 25 gal. Should be fairly manageable. Agree with GAC as well. Don’t start dumping stuff in the tank, it will just make it worse.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Actually do a water change and add ChemiPure Blue and assure filters are clean and adequate water flow.

Water change will be done asap. Waiting for my rodi to be full. I cant get chemipure blue here i dont live in the states. Anything else i could use?

 

[Greg P]

Until you are able to do another large WC, I'd get some seachem AmGuard happening.
Forget the Prime.
I'd also get some carbon running and get some major surface agitation going on.
Even though you have some ammonia happening, I'd still recommend trying to get some more gas exchange accomplished. Sounds like your fish 'may' be starving for O2, or it's coral chemical warfare which the carbon will help with.

 

[Jonathan lee]

GAC is not a bad idea in these cases.

Cloudy? White?

Opps sorry yes the tank was cloudy not really milky white. But it was cloudy enough to make me panic

 

[Flippers4pups]

I do have it running already. Theres a smell like a bacterial bloom too. I was told the bloom could be caused from the return pump failure cause water from the tank wasn’t running thru the filter and bio media during that period of time

Chances are there was some die off due to lack of O2. If you have a sump, also lack of temp if your heater is down there.

 

[Jonathan lee]

I would do a 20+ gallon water change. Almost a full 100% replacement since your system is 25 gal. Should be fairly manageable. Agree with GAC as well. Don’t start dumping stuff in the tank, it will just make it worse.

Ok i will try a 80-90% wc. Waiting for my rodi to fill up.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Opps sorry yes the tank was cloudy not really milky white. But it was cloudy enough to make me panic

Yep, bacterial. UV should take that down.

What test kit for ammonia are you using?

 

[Greg P]

Does or did it smell like rotten eggs before you got the pump running?
If the water in the back went bad it could have released hydrogen sulfide into the tank. Not good.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Chances are there was some die off due to lack of O2. If you have a sump, also lack of temp if your heater is down there.

I live in asia so instead of heaters we use chillers lol. Ive got my chiller set to 25c. By die off you mean bacteria die off? Im guessing that may have happened as well

 

[Flippers4pups]

I live in asia so instead of heaters we use chillers lol. Ive got my chiller set to 25c. By die off you mean bacteria die off? Im guessing that may have happened as well

Maybe bacteria, but inverts that you stated, corals releasing toxins from stress, especially soft coral.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Yep, bacterial. UV should take that down.

What test kit for ammonia are you using?

For ammonia i only have the api HAHA but the rest i use salifert kits and for ph i use the hanna ph pens. I was told for ammonia the api one is good enough but the rest i should get salifert. So thats what i did lol. Is the api ammonia one bad?

 

[Jonathan lee]

Maybe bacteria, but inverts that you stated, corals releasing toxins from stress, especially soft coral.

Could my anthelia be releasing stuff? They look like they are melted all flat. I dont really wanna toss them because my clowns like to sleep in them.

 

[Jonathan lee]

Does or did it smell like rotten eggs before you got the pump running?
If the water in the back went bad it could have released hydrogen sulfide into the tank. Not good.

it did have a smell. Not really sulphuric like rotten eggs but there definitely was a smell. I always smell the water in my tank and normally it doesnt have a smell at all. This time there was a smell. Cant explain the smell but it smelled like something died. Wasnt a strong smell tho.

 

[brandon429]

Your bacteria are not affected they’re temp overwhelmed. It’s important for you to do what’s listed here if you want the safest option. Interestingly, what we recommend for your tank to save it is ironically what I recommended for this poster to run to guide out his minor invasion.

and when people want to successfully make instant reefs at MACNA and other conventions, the run the same protocol

 

[Flippers4pups]

For ammonia i only have the api HAHA but the rest i use salifert kits and for ph i use the hanna ph pens. I was told for ammonia the api one is good enough but the rest i should get salifert. So thats what i did lol. Is the api ammonia one bad?

It can read sometimes a false positive, even if there's no ammonia. But, with what you described happened, I would think you had some ammonia happening.

Water change, GAC and UV, sounds like your doing all you can do at this point.