Reef never recovered from tank crash

[subzero]

About 4 years ago, i had a beautiful 32gal Biocube full of amazing coral. Went away for the weekend and the apartment AC gave out in middle of AZ summer. Tank water got up to 95. 95% of coral died (all but mushrooms and anemone). all fish lived. water wasnt murky or anything just everything died.

anyhow, i did heavy water changes, got rid of what i could. I didnt take out the rocks and clean them, nor clean the sand; left it as such.

over the past 3 years, the tank has had uncontrollably high nitrates (like 100+ on the color) even after 50% waterchange. I run cheato in the back that grows nicely, all my fish and coral shrimp are healthy and happy. The simple mushrooms have grown very well, but every zoanthid, GSP, cloves, softies i put in there just close up and shrivel and die within a week. I have hair algae everywhere, even with a pencil urchin. I want to just throw everything out but feel sorry for the fish. Also now my anemone has shrunk and hid in the rocks for the past month. Also lots of hair algae everywhere now.

Why didn't my tank ever recover?

 

[Subsea]

I don’t know why your tank didn’t recover. However, I would RIP clean the substrate.

 

[Tahoe61]

Is that is an anemone in the second image? What type of lighting?
How many fish?
The unfortunate crash might be a contributing factor but have considered over feeding and insufficient lighting?

 

[billyocean]

Hard to tell but in thr 2nd pic top left is that a coral or a pencil urchin?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Those powerheads look like they haven't been cleaned in months, I mean how effective can they be that dirty? What state is your other equipment in?

Keep changing water, your nitrates must be sky high. The salifert nitrate tester goes up to 100, I once had to do 3 x 50% water changes just to bring the nitrates lower than 100 so I could see it on the test. OTherwise, high nitrate to me is an imballance in the filtration system, the nutrient export is not keeping up with the nutrient import.

 

[subzero]

Pencil urchin. I feed sparingly. Powerheads provide movement i can see it. I do need to rip off the hair algae - I did multiple times in the past to get off of the rocks, just no matter what I do the nitrates stay very high, I don’t know all of the extra nutrients are coming from.

 

[subzero]

Is that is an anemone in the second image? What type of lighting?
How many fish?
The unfortunate crash might be a contributing factor but have considered over feeding and insufficient lighting?

Starburst anemone. Nothing changed after crash so I don’t lighting cycle had anything to do with no recovery

 

[EnterName]

It looks like you removed a majority of the rocks which could potentially help with water filtration. I would keep doing large water changes for a while, and add more rocks again. At some point nutrients have to come down eventually.

If you want to re-use the rocks you took out, you could give them a "nuke" treatment with a hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) bath, maybe even bleach (NaOCl) followed by a dechlorination bath, and a final rinse with RO/DI. This should clean them up for a proper "fresh start".

Do you know your current phosphate levels?

 

[Ef4life]

I would get a big amount of saltwater ready for a large water change, then would take out rocks 1 by one and Scrub and clean them aggressively. Rinse off in old tank water. Place them in another container full of water so the tank can be mostly empty so you can really vacuum clean the entire sandbed. Fish should be fine in the tank while cleaning as long as your not stirring up the sand too much, go slow to remove the gunk out of the sand with the gravel vac but not stirring it up into the water. You could also remove the sand and wash it. But I think it might be more than necessary, but not unseasonable either. Make sure all you equipment is fresh and clean, remove pumps and clean impellers to restore performance. Clean any of your drain /return pipes with tubing brushes as best you can to remove anything growing in them, clean out the back chambers of the aio, Big 50-75% water change to finish it off.

Do daily testing for a few weeks and record the results. Continue with weekly cleaning, sand vacuuming and normal 10-20% waterchanges until the situation improves. Go to testing once per week.

 

[subzero]

Thanks for the replies - that’s how I can restart - but my question is why the rank never recovered even after all the water changes etc

 

[EnterName]

Thanks for the replies - that’s how I can restart - but my question is why the rank never recovered even after all the water changes etc

I assume water parameters aren't where they should be, so your tank can't recover.

+100ppm nitrate after 50% water change is quite a lot, and we don't know about your phosphate levels and other parameters yet.

 

[Tahoe61]

Starburst anemone. Nothing changed after crash so I don’t lighting cycle had anything to do with no recovery

Unfortunately I don't think the lighting is meeting the needs of that Anemone or corals and then the added stress of elevated nutrients is further preventing the system from bouncing back.
The Anemone is slowly starving as evidenced by the stubby tentacles.

 

[Ef4life]

Thanks for the replies - that’s how I can restart - but my question is why the rank never recovered even after all the water changes etc

About 4 years ago, i had a beautiful 32gal Biocube full of amazing coral. Went away for the weekend and the apartment AC gave out in middle of AZ summer. Tank water got up to 95. 95% of coral died (all but mushrooms and anemone). all fish lived. water wasnt murky or anything just everything died.

anyhow, i did heavy water changes, got rid of what i could. I didnt take out the rocks and clean them, nor clean the sand; left it as such.

over the past 3 years, the tank has had uncontrollably high nitrates (like 100+ on the color) even after 50% waterchange. I run cheato in the back that grows nicely, all my fish and coral shrimp are healthy and happy. The simple mushrooms have grown very well, but every zoanthid, GSP, cloves, softies i put in there just close up and shrivel and die within a week. I have hair algae everywhere, even with a pencil urchin. I want to just throw everything out but feel sorry for the fish. Also now my anemone has shrunk and hid in the rocks for the past month. Also lots of hair algae everywhere now.

Why didn't my tank ever recover?