Woke up this morning...walked into my tank area @ 6:30...125 Gal tank tube worms out of the tubes, corals all looking bad...except for the leather coral(Xenia and Bubble coral especially bad), tank looked funny...hermits and snails seem ok...did a quick water test...pH 8.4, ALK 2.8, Nitrate, very little, nitrite 0, Ammonia 4.0!!!!!!!! Did a 50% water change...ammonia down to .25...looked for dead things...nothing to be found...I am lost as to the cause of the spike...it's like my tank just blew up...any ideas??? Any help appreciated...
HOLY SH...MAJOR OMG in progress...
- Thread starter Stuart McCowan
- Start date
Stuart,
Time for some big water changes and run some carbon.
Could your power have been off during the night?
Lack of circulation/oxygenation for several hours can cause major problems.
Also, do you have any Turbo Snails? My own "Crash of '99" was the result of a big Turbo dying back in the rocks where the hermits couldn't get to him and the resulting Ammonia spike caused some real problems...
Dick
Time for some big water changes and run some carbon.
Could your power have been off during the night?
Lack of circulation/oxygenation for several hours can cause major problems.
Also, do you have any Turbo Snails? My own "Crash of '99" was the result of a big Turbo dying back in the rocks where the hermits couldn't get to him and the resulting Ammonia spike caused some real problems...
Dick
I did a another 75% water change, ammonia down to less than .25 at this point, the tube worms look to be history...the Xenia and Bubble Coral as well...the Leather looks good actually...as does the Gonipora, the green star polyps look good too...I don't know what caused it the huge spike...I pulled everything out looking for dead stuff, no dead snail, no dead anything. I had a problem with bg algae which seemed to die off, I wonder if that was the cause. Anyone know how I can tell if the Xenia and Bubble are done for good? They are all shrunk up and there doesn't appear to be any polyp activity at this point.
Man this hurts the tank was doing so well...
[ November 30, 2001: Message edited by: Stuart McCowan ]</p>
Man this hurts the tank was doing so well...
[ November 30, 2001: Message edited by: Stuart McCowan ]</p>
STuart, one possibility that I saw on a earlier tank crash problem: The person that had this one pulled out one of his pieces of LR and accidently dropped it while cleaning some slime algae off, the rock broke, and in the middle he found a dead peanut worm that was causing his ammonia to rise. I don't remember who this happened to, if anyone does, can they put a link to the thread?
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tazdevil:
<strong>STuart, one possibility that I saw on a earlier tank crash problem: The person that had this one pulled out one of his pieces of LR and accidently dropped it while cleaning some slime algae off, the rock broke, and in the middle he found a dead peanut worm that was causing his ammonia to rise. I don't remember who this happened to, if anyone does, can they put a link to the thread?</strong><hr></blockquote>
For a stable tank one or two animal dead will not cause a problem. It is something that cause moderate die off that will start a crash.
A large snail, or a peanut worm died in a 30 g tank IMO, will not crash a tank. It is likely that the tank crash kill the peanut worm instead of the other way around.
Stuart,
What changes happened in the last week or last few days? Did you change or added anything? How long have your tank being up? Temperature problem?
<strong>STuart, one possibility that I saw on a earlier tank crash problem: The person that had this one pulled out one of his pieces of LR and accidently dropped it while cleaning some slime algae off, the rock broke, and in the middle he found a dead peanut worm that was causing his ammonia to rise. I don't remember who this happened to, if anyone does, can they put a link to the thread?</strong><hr></blockquote>
For a stable tank one or two animal dead will not cause a problem. It is something that cause moderate die off that will start a crash.
A large snail, or a peanut worm died in a 30 g tank IMO, will not crash a tank. It is likely that the tank crash kill the peanut worm instead of the other way around.
Stuart,
What changes happened in the last week or last few days? Did you change or added anything? How long have your tank being up? Temperature problem?
I had a similar problem in my tank over a year ago. I had xenia crashing and red slime buildup. Lost many sps colonies to rtn. Turned out I just needed to change my ro/di unit as it had run out and my phospates went sky high. This resulted in the red slime algae followed by the xenia crash, followed by rtn.
Jim
Jim
I agree totaly with Minh. A dead fish should not cause a major crash, in a stable and mature tank.
Over the years i've lost snails, fish which where the size of lamb chops (well close) in my tanks and never noticed any ill effect. I also still use a Sump with Bio Balls and an algea scrubber, i wonder if the bio sys still has a far quicker recovery than a DSB.I suppose you've checked the obvious like - Skimmer working to Max.
- Some "little" person feeding the fish - like a half tin of flake - this happened to me.
Over the years i've lost snails, fish which where the size of lamb chops (well close) in my tanks and never noticed any ill effect. I also still use a Sump with Bio Balls and an algea scrubber, i wonder if the bio sys still has a far quicker recovery than a DSB.I suppose you've checked the obvious like - Skimmer working to Max.
- Some "little" person feeding the fish - like a half tin of flake - this happened to me.
WELP...I found the the problem(s)...Did a 75% water change yesterday...ammonia down to .25, woke up this AM, did a test Ammonia UP to 8.0!!! So I started pulling all the animals out and putting them in a 29gal holding tank that has 30lbs of LR in it. Out of 20 Hermits I had put in the tank, I FOUND 15 alive. Out of 25 assorted snails, I found 12 alive. Put them, the leather coral and gorgonian and the green star poylps (The only corals to survive) in to the holding tank. THEN the real work began...I pulled out ALL LR and SNIFFED IT...yes SNIFFED...Most of the rock smelled fine, but then I pulled up one piece and found the "DEN OF EVIL", It LOOKS like a snail or 2 crawled under the overhang of this rock and died, a few hermits followed to feed I added some rock, trapping all the above in a little pocket of nastiness that eventually spewed out into the rest of the tank, the rock stunk like well nasty stuff, all over...which started a the whole ball rolling...HUGE SPIKE of ammonia = dead critters = MORE ammonia. I moved all the rock out, soaked it in CLEAN saltwater (ph 8.2, 0 Ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates) with lots of powerheads to HOPEFULLY pull out any residual ammonia. then DRAINED the whole tank down to the sandbed, and refilled it. Put the all the rock back in tonight, except for the "den of evil rock: which is currently still in the clean saltwater, and did a check, ph 8.3, .25 Ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 78 degrees. I guess now I will wait a couple of weeks before I put the critters back in to let the tank recycle. Well no one said this hobby isn't work...
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jamesw:
<strong>You didn't put any new Live Rock in your tank did you Stuart?
Cheers
James</strong><hr></blockquote>
I put 8 pounds of fully cured LR in on Weds. It was mostly small pieces with 1 larger piece that made a good arch...but I didn't put any new rock since then...right now...ammonia is back up 1.00, and I did another water change, could it be leaking up from the sand bed now, i.e. dead stuff in the sand bed?
This is REALLY bugging me...
On a kinda of neat note...my leather coral, which is doing VERY well...has split into two heads...looks like a BIG toadstool mushroom...polyps all extened looks neat...
Stuart
[ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: Stuart McCowan ]</p>
<strong>You didn't put any new Live Rock in your tank did you Stuart?
Cheers
James</strong><hr></blockquote>
I put 8 pounds of fully cured LR in on Weds. It was mostly small pieces with 1 larger piece that made a good arch...but I didn't put any new rock since then...right now...ammonia is back up 1.00, and I did another water change, could it be leaking up from the sand bed now, i.e. dead stuff in the sand bed?
This is REALLY bugging me...
On a kinda of neat note...my leather coral, which is doing VERY well...has split into two heads...looks like a BIG toadstool mushroom...polyps all extened looks neat...
Stuart
[ December 02, 2001: Message edited by: Stuart McCowan ]</p>
I would consider, or reconsider, two things:
1) The addition of the new LR seems too coincidental; did you cure it or buy it from somewhere and transport it home? Also I'm sure you smelled the rock before adding?
2) Any household chemicals used in the same room as the tank? Glass cleaner, carpet cleaner, anything that could drift toward your tank?
I don't think in a system your size that the random death of even a few animals would spike your ammonia to the point of causing more death and hence more ammonia. Good Luck!
1) The addition of the new LR seems too coincidental; did you cure it or buy it from somewhere and transport it home? Also I'm sure you smelled the rock before adding?
2) Any household chemicals used in the same room as the tank? Glass cleaner, carpet cleaner, anything that could drift toward your tank?
I don't think in a system your size that the random death of even a few animals would spike your ammonia to the point of causing more death and hence more ammonia. Good Luck!
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