Tank REcyling

[elcapitan1993]

So I went away for the weekend only to return to a cloudy tank, come to find out a fish had died while I was gone, when I got back my water was cloudy and my ammonia was sky high, my corals were all closed up and some have melted, I have been dosing bacteria and am guard every day and doing 10 gallon water changes on my tank every 2-3 days, my tank is a 90 gallon with 20 gallon sump, my question is is their something else I should be doing? My corals are still dying although they are doing a little better, I do not have another tank I can move them to or any way to set one up, I’m just trying to save the corals I have can anyone help?
EDIT: I forgot to mention this is day 8 of trying to keep my ammonia low with cloudy water

 

[MERKEY]

So sorry to here this

Damage is done so yes you are doing what you can.

A 100% WC wouldn't be a bad idea and adding some snake oil/bottle bac wouldn't hurt.

Some will say add prime but that bonds the ammonia and then needs to be taken which is basically a large WC so that's up to you.

Time and water changes are your friend

 

[WVNed]

So sorry to here this

Damage is done so yes you are doing what you can.

A 100% WC wouldn't be a bad idea and adding some snake oil/bottle bac wouldn't hurt.

Some will say add prime but that bonds the ammonia and then needs to be taken which is basically a large WC so that's up to you.

Time and water changes are your friend

Which is why you add the prime and then do the large water change.

 

[brandon429]

the #1 first thing to do is drop lighting intensity down 40% and don't raise back up a while. it would have been ideal to do a full water change at the start but I know getting 90 gallons is hard.

 

[count krunk]

Do you have any idea what might have happened? How old is the tank? Could you post some before and after pictures?

 

[brandon429]

Bottle bac is absolutely not indicated here, this tank is full on bac all surfaces

we'd remove the rot

adding more bac lowers oxygen, its not indicated in any tank crash its for starting tanks.

 

[Azedenkae]

So I went away for the weekend only to return to a cloudy tank, come to find out a fish had died while I was gone, when I got back my water was cloudy and my ammonia was sky high, my corals were all closed up and some have melted, I have been dosing bacteria and am guard every day and doing 10 gallon water changes on my tank every 2-3 days, my tank is a 90 gallon with 20 gallon sump, my question is is their something else I should be doing? My corals are still dying although they are doing a little better, I do not have another tank I can move them to or any way to set one up, I’m just trying to save the corals I have can anyone help?
EDIT: I forgot to mention this is day 8 of trying to keep my ammonia low with cloudy water

Yeah I would agree that a 100% water change is a better course of action than anything, if you are already doing 10 gallon water changes a day. The thing is 10 gallons is not much, since that amounts to less than 10% of the total volume of your system.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I'm very sorry to hear this. I hope a few Larger water changes as said above helps.

 

[MERKEY]

Which is why you add the prime and then do the large water change.

Maybe I should have been clearer....

Adding prime and only doing 1 water change won't do anything.

Do not continue adding prime unless you do a WC evertime you add it

Why I suggested just WC, people get lazy or get other things going on and think it's ok to just dose their tank with prime and think it's all good.

@brandon429 has a ton of evidence on his threads about ammonia.

 

[Azedenkae]

Oooh, on the topic of dosing Prime, I found this: https://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000125454-Info-Seachem-Prime-dosing-instructions

Which seems to be saying Prime can only/should only be used to detoxify up to 5ppm ammonia. More than that and even 5x normal dosage might not be enough.

 

[WVNed]

Maybe I should have been clearer....

Adding prime and only doing 1 water change won't do anything.

Do not continue adding prime unless you do a WC evertime you add it

Why I suggested just WC, people get lazy or get other things going on and think it's ok to just dose their tank with prime and think it's all good.

@brandon429 has a ton of evidence on his threads about ammonia.

Adding Prime while you get a 100% water change ready will do something. It will give you time.

 

[brandon429]

etiology is fascinating here. Slight insults cannot just overcome a biosystem to lead to a classic cloudy wipeout

but 2 fish dying as a loss cascade due to velvet, timed right while no one is home to remove 1st and 2nd...easily can cause this.

in my opinion has to be fish as the prime source first, no other form of insult would undo the biofilter, but a couple rotting fish can overcome it easily and the bac bloom zaps the 02

 

[brandon429]

can we get a full tank picture here pls we need it for crash studies.

also does the water smell bad

 

[elcapitan1993]

So sorry to here this

Damage is done so yes you are doing what you can.

A 100% WC wouldn't be a bad idea and adding some snake oil/bottle bac wouldn't hurt.

Some will say add prime but that bonds the ammonia and then needs to be taken which is basically a large WC so that's up to you.

Time and water changes are your friend

I was thinking about a 100% WC but of course I’m in the middle of switching salts from IO RC to Red Sea blue bucket,

would a 30% WC suffice?
I’m using amgaurd but the corals still won’t open

 

[elcapitan1993]

etiology is fascinating here. Slight insults cannot just overcome a biosystem to lead to a classic cloudy wipeout

but 2 fish dying as a loss cascade due to velvet, timed right while no one is home to remove 1st and 2nd...easily can cause this.

in my opinion has to be fish as the prime source first, no other form of insult would undo the biofilter, but a couple rotting fish can overcome it easily and the bac bloom zaps the 02

Yeah w

Yeah I would agree that a 100% water change is a better course of action than anything, if you are already doing 10 gallon water changes a day. The thing is 10 gallons is not much, since that amounts to less than 10% of the total volume of your system

Wouldn’t doing such a large water change make the problem go on longer? Or would it take the cloudy water away permanently?

 

[Azedenkae]

Wouldn’t doing such a large water change make the problem go on longer? Or would it take the cloudy water away permanently?

So to better understand your concern, can you elaborate why you think doing a large water change may make the problem go on for longer?

 

[elcapitan1993]

So to better understand your concern, can you elaborate why you think doing a large water change may make the problem go on for longer?

I just heard it could make cycling your tank take longer but I don’t know if there is any truth to it or not, that’s why I was wondering if that has any marit or not

 

[brandon429]

No merit. All the recommends for the large water change are correct but the light drop is very important as well. Pouring in new water on top of bad sand might make a poison cloud, but that’s a matter of bad sand bedding not bad water being added.

one reason to keep beds clean in reefing vs full of waste is for emergency water change ability.

Can you post a cell phone pic we like to tie in the overall visuals with the losses, what might survive etc. we can get ideas about the sand/unstated variables from the pics. where the remaining fish are positioned in the pic tells us the current ammonia status etc

 

[elcapitan1993]

No merit. All the recommends for the large water change are correct but the light drop is very important as well. Pouring in new water on top of bad sand might make a poison cloud, but that’s a matter of bad sand bedding not bad water being added.

one reason to keep beds clean in reefing vs full of waste is for emergency water change ability.

Can you post a cell phone pic we like to tie in the overall visuals with the losses, what might survive etc. we can get ideas about the sand/unstated variables from the pics. where the remaining fish are positioned in the pic tells us the current ammonia status etc

Here is a before and current FTS, I have turned my lights down almost all the way for a few days now, glad to know that was the right move, I am now I’m the process of making ro/di water for a big water change

 

[brandon429]

from your picture we can deduce the ammonia event has passed; they resolve quickly in reefing given removal of the cause. your fish would be hovering at the top, trying for air with nh3 burnt gills were the ammonia not resolved, so the burn phase is over.


the clouding which nearly always accompanies ammonia noncontrol events is likely bacteria capitalizing on the initial loss compounds


you can sub in charcoal filtration at this point since its no longer ammonia but bac mass we want removed. bacterial floc/aggregate dead mass is well removed by granual carbon filtration.


its a fine water polish but as we read in the chem forum won't grab ammonia, ammonia event has passed here the burn phase is done.

pics are better than any test details for ammonia tracing in my opinion. various metabolites that are irritants and compounds leftover from the massive dieoff of bacteria that were suspended is best removed by either carbon filtration or big water changes, I bet you get a quicker response with carbon filtration. buy a $70 canister filter from petsmart, pack it with *rinsed* carbon media, very well pre rinsed it'll be solid black for a while mud water, then filter all that it'll clear by tomorrow I bet.

You had very rare event in reefing. It was nice of you to take time to document it helps others plan and for sure you have corals that will make a rebound, if your light intensity has been lowered to accommodate the burn/sunburn risk during the event.