HELP- Tank Crash

[taytay_1119]

Went on Christmas vacation (8 days had mom feed the fish/dose and watch it we just didn’t tell her about the water level bc we thought ato was not an issue) and when we got home the tank salinity was really high (not sure how high as we don’t have a refractometer just a basic one that goes up to .030). Our ATO came unhooked (probably dogs bumped it) and water level dropped a good 1.5-2 inches (20gal long). All corals looked in bad shape fish seemed ok. Got home on 12/31 and now 1/10 lost over half the corals and half our snails. Pretty sure all of it will die. We did water changes and took out dead stuff as we saw them. Today I tested and salinity is 1.024, ph. 8.2, alk 7-7.5, ammonia .03, nitrite 1.5, nitrate 20 (last three done on fluval tests other 2 on seachem). Will be dosing an ammonia remover and another thing to bump alk up. But my question is, is if salinity was raised that high will it kill off our beneficial bacteria essentially causing us to have to restart cycle??? Super new to this (started this in August). All threads I find are related to low salinity not high spikes.

 

[Dbichler]

Really not much you can do now but ride it out maybe run some carbon. Sorry this happened to you sucks it always happens when away. I personally would have just added rodi water slowly to get salinity down but that’s past the point now so just hope everything else recovers.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Went on Christmas vacation (8 days had mom feed the fish/dose and watch it we just didn’t tell her about the water level bc we thought ato was not an issue) and when we got home the tank salinity was really high (not sure how high as we don’t have a refractometer just a basic one that goes up to .030). Our ATO came unhooked (probably dogs bumped it) and water level dropped a good 1.5-2 inches (20gal long). All corals looked in bad shape fish seemed ok. Got home on 12/31 and now 1/10 lost over half the corals and half our snails. Pretty sure all of it will die. We did water changes and took out dead stuff as we saw them. Today I tested and salinity is 1.024, ph. 8.2, alk 7-7.5, ammonia .03, nitrite 1.5, nitrate 20 (last three done on fluval tests other 2 on seachem). Will be dosing an ammonia remover and another thing to bump alk up. But my question is, is if salinity was raised that high will it kill off our beneficial bacteria essentially causing us to have to restart cycle??? Super new to this (started this in August). All threads I find are related to low salinity not high spikes.

Do a 10% water change and top off with fresh seawater and wait 48-72 hours to see how they look

 

[KrisReef]

The bacteria is fine. The elevated salinity was not high enough to kill the biological filter.

Quit making changes and let things have stability for a week or two before you start meddling to make the levels perfect. The parameters you posted are fine. Additionall changes isn’t good for your livestock. Give them a rest

 

[taytay_1119]

Really not much you can do now but ride it out maybe run some carbon. Sorry this happened to you sucks it always happens when away. I personally would have just added rodi water slowly to get salinity down but that’s past the point now so just hope everything else recovers.

yeah bf flipped out and just topped off with water soon as he saw how low it was so I’m sure that shocked everything and made it worse. I just feel so bad.