tank wipe =0(

matt_schultz · #1 01/02/2007, 03:08 PM

ok so i need some help tryin to figure out why my tank just wiped. its been going for about 2 months ok so here is what happened. i had just set up the basics got some live rock and there was crushed corral and 2 false perc's i have a cascade 700 nice heater. everything was going great (i don't have awhole lot of money to spend so my tanks go kind of slow) i didn't have any special reef lighting units in yet and i don't have a skimmer. only 2 clown fish was going to get it later besides the cascade seemed to be enough for a fo tank. ok so i was reading about doing a switch from CC to live sand. i bought some dry sand, rinced it till it was rincing clear. took the two fish out and drained about half the water into buckets. took the CC out put the sand in put the water back in put the LR back in. let the water settle for about an hour till it was pretty clear then dripped the two clowns back to aclimation and placed them back in. everything was going fine levels tested at 0 the next day and fish weren't too stressed. so the next day i bought some more base rock and i bought a cleaner package which was comprised of 7 snails and 5 assorted reef hermits. i also bought a stary blenny. ok so i rince the dry rock really well place it in the tank after taking the clowns back out again. then i drip the clowns stary and the cleaners for about an hour. put them in slowly over about a 2 hour period. then about 4 hours later i notice that one of the clowns seem sick. so i go buy some of that anti bacterial medecin. mix it just as recomended and fed about half a cube to the whole tank. i wake up in the morning and over night the entire tank wipes. what caused the wipe? no2 and no3 levels are up one testing level so to about .25 mg.L but the amonia went to 1 mg/L is that what killed them? what do yall think?

reeferchickdc · #2 01/02/2007, 03:13 PM

Too much to soon. I am very impatient myself but you have to take your time. I will give you my mantra.....slow and steady wins the race. good luck

matt_schultz · #3 01/02/2007, 05:04 PM

oops forgot to put that was all over a 2 month span the only thing i did this weekend was get the hermits snails and the blenny.

matt_schultz · #4 01/02/2007, 05:06 PM

well the sand was on friday and the fish where on saturday but i had kept basicly all the same water i just did a 20 percent water change

Illuminati · #5 01/02/2007, 05:16 PM

"so the next day i bought some more base rock and i bought a cleaner package which was comprised of 7 snails and 5 assorted reef hermits."

Was the rock cured rock? Did you buy it local or have it shipped?

Jimbo327 · #6 01/02/2007, 06:34 PM

I would be worried if I put uncured base rock into my nano. With a small tank, you have to slowly introduce bioload into the tank.

And you probably shouldn't have medicated your tank. Once the death starts, it starts a chain reaction of ammonia spikes as your tank goes into a wipe.

BLKTANG · #7 01/02/2007, 06:34 PM

Crushed coral is a ticking time bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!

TriniReefer · #8 01/02/2007, 10:53 PM

AHHH! What do u meen by crushed coral is a ticking bomb??!!

BLKTANG · #9 01/02/2007, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TriniReefer
AHHH! What do u meen by crushed coral is a ticking bomb??!!

Its a nitrate trap.

TriniReefer · #10 01/03/2007, 12:48 AM

If im running carbon will i be ok?

matt_schultz · #11 01/03/2007, 11:04 AM

it was not live it was just base rock
i rinced it for a good 20 minutes and soaked it in a bucket then put it in the tank it wasn't live rock and i bought it from a store. the only store in town with quarentein system and thats why i got rid of the CC because of the later problem with nitrate. but my nitrate was at zero

Jimbo327 · #12 01/03/2007, 12:23 PM

Here is the lesson you need to learn from this.

1) Go Slow (adding bioload and making any changes)
2) Do not medicate your tank unless it is last resort (might want to use a q-tank when using any antibiotics, certain antibiotics will help some fish but nuke inverts) When your fish looks sick, it is a sign that your water quality sucks and they are stressed, but usually corals react much faster than fish.
3) Use common sense, and double check your testings if something doesn't fit logically (if you change your substrate and get zero nitrates, don't you think something might be wrong?)
4) Actively run carbon after any type of medication is finished. And make sure medication is completely reef safe.
5) Keep your tank stable (once you detect a wipe, ammonia & nitrite, then you need to react quickly by running carbon and doing a series of water changes...best to keep the lights off as well)
6) Do not change your "working" system because someone says something is a nitrate trap. (Look, there are so many ways to run a saltwater reef tank, I've seen beautiful mature 5+ years SPS tank running CC). But if you want to make a change, go to step 1 again.

Consider yourself lucky it is a small tank, I've seen wipes on large tanks, and it is ugly and very expensive.

At this point, don't get too down on yourself, you need to check what is in that medication and if it is reefsafe. If the medication is reefsafe, ie not contain copper or other nasties, then you can run carbon and do a series of water change over a couple days to get the tank stable again. Then you gotta wait until your levels are low again for several days. One low reading doesn't mean much because of the different stages of the nitrogen cycle. Once it has cycled again, then you can start adding bioload slowly.

If the medication is NOT reefsafe, then you need to basically throw away all the LR and sand in the tank and scrub that tank, and start all over with new pieces because you don't want the medication leeching back out of the LR/substrate and killing more stuff.

matt_schultz · #13 01/03/2007, 12:56 PM

yeah i made sure the medication was reef safe and asked them if it would hurt any of the other fish in the tank they said that it is such a low dose that it wouldn't do anything i mixed it with frozen brine shrimp so it wasn't a water based it was a digested and gave it in 1 tiny bitsize chunk at a time and made sure the fish ate it.

matt_schultz · #14 01/03/2007, 12:59 PM

so i think i have figured out what happened. i checked the amonia today and it was 3PPM OMG!!! here is the best theory we came up with. when i put the LR in my tank the cycle started i charted it and gave it about 1 1/2 months to sit by its self. well the amonia had risen and lowered by its self. we are thinking that since i didn't have any fish in the tank to keep amonia comming to the bacteria that eats the amonia it cleaned off the bio rings and basicly i had no bacteria to kill the amonia so even something as small as one fish caused the amonia to peak and killed off the tank. at least that is the working theory right now

Hopeful Reefer · #15 01/03/2007, 01:15 PM

I have base rock in my 10g nano as well...I spoke with Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley, the genious of the chemistry forum...his advice for base rock is to soak it in straight vinegar for 24 hours and then rinse with RO/DI water...this will basically kill off any nasties that may still be lingering in or on the rock somewhere...

matt_schultz · #16 01/03/2007, 01:34 PM

oh yeah i didn't do that maybe i needed too. ok thanks )

Scott817 · #17 01/03/2007, 09:14 PM

adding any uncured rock to a tank can send it into a cycle.

adding uncycled sand would do the same thing.

Hopeful Reefer · #18 01/03/2007, 09:26 PM

He added base rock, not uncured live rock...

paulfromero · #19 01/03/2007, 09:47 PM

Hi,

Whenever my tank 'wipes', its because of low overnight oxygen levels....its my tank's 'archilles heal'. I dont have an overflow, so my tank just needs lots of surface disturbance and a skimmer.

GL,

Paul

spsgtr · #20 01/03/2007, 11:55 PM

you can keep a SSB in a nano without problems. just gets some ceriths to stir it up. or you can replace it and exhange out small amounts.