help? tank crash?

[Kyliegirl]

I am new at reefing and had been cycling a tank with a small amount of live rock for two weeks, I recently added alot more live rock, it looks fined, then the next day the whole tank had gone milky white, all the hitchikers are dead, its now the second day i cannot see the back of the tank with lights on or off, the tank is murky white with lights on and i can barely see anything apart from near the glass. The is no sign of life in the tank, and the water is beginning to smell of dead fish or something, but it doesnt smell very plesant.

I was trying to raise the ph daily with a buffer, which i read yesterday it can unbalance your alkalinity and calcium, which i think is what happened, the last time i tested the ammonia was at 1.0, the ph was as low as it could get (it was 8.0 but after adding rock it dropped massively.

I guess its good i have nothing but the salt water , sand and rock in the tank, and no fish.

Should i remove all the water, clean the sand and scrub the rocks off dead debris and start again? what did i do wrong?

the rocks werent cured, they had alot of dying algae plants on them, and other creatures living on them, from what i have gathered, the live rock is collected by divers off a reef near cairns and is then shipped instantly to the store, so no curing is involved.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like the uncured rock had a massive die off. At the very least, you should do a large water change and try to syphon out any dead material. You should also take the rocks out and scrub them a little in a bucket to get dead material off them.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what you should do. I've never had to deal with uncured rock.


What did you do wrong? You probably should have put all that rock in a rubber maid trash can with a power head and changed the water a few times along with a few rock scrubs before putting it all in your tank.


Hope it all turns out right.

 

[Omni2226]

Mmmm just do a water change of 25% or so and dont add any more additives to the system till the curing/cycling is over with.

Like Manny suggested syphon or pull out the bigger dead things.
I wouldnt start all over, just put all the rock in and let it cycle. It may get a little stinky so be ready to do 25% water changes once a week or so.

 

[FragMaster]

Take the rock out and scrub it down. Basicly everything Manny suggested.
Do you use a skimmer?
If you do then change out 50% fo the tanks capacity keep the skimmer on high and wait the full term this time before placing critters in there and trying to balance out tanks chemistry.
I would let the tank set as long as you have the patience enough to stand it setting there with live rock in it. ( IMHO AT LEAST 3 WEEKS IF YOU HAVE MORE THAN 20 LBS OF ROCK IN THERE) Let it take its sweet old time cycling and balancing its self out and you will have ZERO problems with it in the future as long as you follow the "golden rules", water changes, good filtration, and add things slowly.
IME two weeks of cycling is not enough time. Ihave let tanks set up with just rock and substrate in them for more than 3 months before. LOL!!!
But you know what? Those tanks have the best coraline growth you have
ever seen now.

Patience you grasshoper! Thats the key to success in this hobby.
You may hear of "short cutts" but trust experienced reefers.
It may sound old school but it has obviously worked for a couple decades
so...........

 

[jumpincactus]

Well all is not lost. Dont beat yourself up. First thing you might try is before you do anything else in the future concerning your tank come in here and bounce your ideas off the folks in here. There are many knowledgable folks in here. Dont be afraid to ask lots of questions.

What has happened is the cycle you had going pretty well was set back to the beginning by adding more dying uncured rock. Now your cycle will have to start all over but no big deal. Just do as the others suggested and pull the rocks and in a bucket of salt water gently scrub as much of the dieback off that you can. Then do a good sized water change 25- 50 % Then just figure on another 3- 4 weeks maybe longer for your cycle to get done with.

After you have your tank up and running with fish and critters, never introduce any more live rock unless it is fully cured. Even then I would not take the chance especially if you have a lot of money and critters invested. It is standard practice to put all the rock your are going to use in the tank all at the same time and cycle it out.

And I could not agree more than with what Fragmaster said. Nothing, absolutely nothing, good happens in a reef tank quickly. It is a hobby of slow and steady wins the race.

 

[Kyliegirl]

i removed all the sand and water, the smell was so bad it was making me feel like throwing up, i am sure it shouldnt have smelt that bad. it was like rotting fish.

the rocks are all in a big tub with the salt water from the tank, i will scrub them all tomorrow and add new sand etc (bf wanted new sand, so new sand it is)

i guess you could call it a restart, at least i learnt my lesson. i think i have plenty of live rock, like 16-20 kg of it.. i wont add buffer now so the alkalinity and calcium levels wont go out of whack, i would prefer to restart the cycle, than to keep the current and go through the trouble of balancing things. Better to do it now while its young. I have plenty of time to wait for the cycle to end, I just want to give it a better start.

Ill just chuck some dead shrimp in to start the bacteria going.. which is what i was hoping to do in the first place...

i havent got a skimmer yet , it is being sent this monday coming. It is a aqua c remora skimmer. I heard theyre pretty good

 

[FragMaster]

No need to chuck any dead shrimp in there. That will hurt you more than it will help you .

Thats a "fast fix" for cycling fish only tanks faster in a none reef enviorment, and keeping quarantine tanks with no rock cycled.

What you wan to do is try and save as much as the rock as you can by scrubbing off the dead stuff and simply rinsing it off realy well in salt water. Then after you have rinsed the bejesus out of the new substrate ( assuming its dry dead substrate) and placed it in fresh SW, place the well rinsed and cleaned rock back in.
Even if there is just a minuscule amount of bacteria present on the rock it will seed the entire tank on its own as it cycles.
Its just going to take longer now (Possibly, maybe not though it all depends on how much of the rock remains "alive")
You can also get a cup full of live sand and some coraline chips from a friend who has a reef to seed it with as well.
Patience young grasshoper!
Dont rush mother nature and you will surely have a fine tank.
Let it "take as long as it takes".

 

[Kyliegirl]

i wouldnt call it a fast fix as I am sure if i do it like this i will need to wait a little longer for the cycle..

i thought adding a dead shrimp would boost the bacteria population? is that bad?

I am planning a reef tank, both corals and fish. not too many. as the tank itself is only 20 gal.

i just want to remove the dead stuff off the lr, and then wash it off a bit, leave whatever algae is on it.. put it in, let it go, and wait.

 

[FragMaster]

Then there is no need to add the shrimp. Your fine. Just wash it off stick it in a let it simmer. :wink:

 

[ChrisRD]

Trying to cure raw live rock without a skimmer is not a good idea unless you plan to do massive water changes daily. As Manny mentioned, you basically had a lot of die-off on the new rock that caused ammonia levels to skyrocket and nuke the tank.

In the future when trying to cure fresh live rock make sure you have a good skimmer and lots of circulation. You also need to monitor ammonia and be ready to do a very large water change if it's getting too high.

I agree with FM - just get the rock/sand cleaned up (in saltwater) and get the system refilled with new saltwater. Get the skimmer on there and make sure you have lots of circulation (some strong powerheads, etc.). Once it's all up-n-running give it a couple of months to settle down.

 

[ritchie1]

I agree that a skimmer should be used as much as possible. It helps remove the decaying matter from the aquarium and at the same time provides the much needed aeration. The decomposition of the decaying matter from the rock consumes a lot of oxygen. Less oxygen, even more dies. Not to mention the smell. The power head insures the oxygenated water gets to as much parts of the rock as possible. If you can't use a skimmer, increase aeration by using the air intake of the powerheads and/or air stones. It might even help adding extra aeration even if a skimmer is used.