Restarting a Crashed Tank

Ancarol2421 · Jan 31, 2022

Hi friends,

Long story short, my tank crashed on Friday (3 days ago) - unknown cause, suspect heat swing or water chemistry issue. I noticed something was amiss because a few corals were dead along with all my inverts. I was able to evacuate the survivors into a small sump I had laying around and put a HOB filter and a heater to make a makeshift tank out of it. Survivors include a clownfish (she was the only fish in the tank), bubble tip anemone and a few frags of softies and zoas. They have been in this sump since friday and seem to be doing okay. My duncans, hammers, xenia, mushrooms, monti, etc. are all goners. It was a horrible experience.

Thus, I did a 50% water change on my main system - a 65 gallon display with a 20 gallon sump. I left the existing sand and rock there. I've been removing as much dead and decaying tissue (dead bloodworms, inverts, coral, etc.) from the surface of the sand trying to keep the sand bed intact. I've been dosing microbacter 7 to get the cycle going. I used prime the first day to get the ammonia levels down (should I keep doing so?) I have turned off my protein skimmer. I replaced two of my chemipure elite bags to keep removing any lingering toxins from the tank. I have been monitoring my parameters, today they were:
Salinity 1.026 Temp 78F pH 8.2 Ammonia 0.5 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 0 Alk 9.0

My ammonia has been high this whole time, and while I know I need to be patient - I also have livestock that need a more permanent home. The rock in this system is over 2 years old (came from a 20 gallon I had previously) and this 65 gallon system has been set up since May. My question: how long can I wait for the ammonia to come down before adding the survivors back into the tank? I am nervous about keeping these guys in this sump for too long. I would truly appreciate any advice! Thanks so much.

See attached photos of where I'm keeping the survivors, and my sad, empty tank

fish farmer · Jan 31, 2022

Do you have a light on them in the sump?

I would just keep the sump going. I had a similar issue, cracked my display tank. I tossed what I could in the sump and kept light on them until I rebuilt.

kenbennedy · Jan 31, 2022

I think you would be able to monitor parameters in the sump/temp tank while you wait for the main tank to recover. I would consider a 100% water change in the main tank to help things along, then test again before introducing anything back.

Ancarol2421 · Jan 31, 2022

I just have the AI prime turned towards them, I haven't actually set it up on the sump itself. And sounds good, I can do a large water change today to get things going.

How did you keep the water parameters stable on the sump tank? My ammonia is high (0.5) so I was going to do a WC on the sump. I'm thinking if the ammonia is going to be high on both tanks, might as well be in the display since it has a bigger water volume. Let me know your thoughts.

MnFish1 · Feb 15, 2022

How are things going?

I would suggest a different approach - take your fish - put them in another tank - with whatever you want to use (a big plastic container, etc - and then get your tank and sump (your system as a whole up and running).

I would use something like a python to go through your sand-bed - and clean it out of dead stuff. Then do a large water change. I would make sure the test kit youre using is accurate.

What is confusing - to me - is what caused the problem. how could a heater cause this problem or chemistry (unless a toxin was put in) - Did you have a heater controller? Was anything new added to the tank (like a new coral) - that could have died - and caused a cascade effect? etc etc.

If, indeed your ammonia is still high - it suggests that your nitrifiers were severely damaged. How old was the tank? How long did it take before you started adding things? How did you cycle it?

Just asking - becasue the goal is to prevent it from happening again - and IMHO the best way to do that is to (while its hopefully recovering) - troubleshoot a little bit. Sorry youre going through this - its a royal mess.

Ancarol2421 · Feb 16, 2022

Hey! Its going well. Everyone is back in the tank and open and doing okay. Anemone and fish eating great.

I went through another cycle - took about 3 days, used microbacter and biospira. My ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are now settled. I am still dosing stability everyday to be safe, and prime once a week when I do my water change.

I do not have a heater controller. I haven’t added anything new to the tank in a while. I did dose Vibrant a few days before this - but I’ve been using it for months with no issues. The 65gal was set up in May 2021, but all I really did was move my existing system (20 gal nano) into the bigger tank. All the rock, sand, coral, etc Ive had for almost two years.

I’ll take any advice for sure - don’t want this to happen again. I did end up removing my protein skimmer because a little bit of wire was exposed and I am paranoid. I am going to go the refugium route this time around because I can’t afford a protein skimmer for this size tank and want to try it out. Tbh, my duncan colony (around 20 heads) was melting for around 2-3 weeks prior to this, I figured it was because they were too close to the anemone and were getting stung, so I moved them away from the anemone, but they never fully recovered. Maybe they started this snowball effect.

There was a cold snap the day before this happened, that being said, I have two thermometers in the tank now to monitor and the heater (same one have not changed it) has maintained 77F-80F this whole time, so I don’t think it was the heater. I also recalibrated my refractometer - it was fine.

Before this, I was doing biweekly (or honestly every 3 weeks) water changes, red sea black bucket salt, 15 gallons. I make my own water using 4 stage BRS RODI system. I am going to try to stick to weekly water changes now.

Any advice appreciated! Thanks so much.