STARTING OVER..

[FindingCoral]

So my tank took a nose dive last week and EVERYTHING DIED. I know what it was so that’s behind me now. Anyway…
Im starting anew and have a question…

if I have live rock, do I still add Bio-Spira?

 

[BarSnackz]

We don't know... what was your predicament and was your rock drying outside your tank prior to starting over?

 

[blaxsun]

So my tank took a nose dive last week and EVERYTHING DIED. I know what it was so that’s behind me now. Anyway…
Im starting anew and have a question…

if I have live rock, do I still add Bio-Spira?

I have a question, too: What caused it?

 

[brmreefer]

As long as the rock never fully dried out, then Bio-spira would not be necessary.

 

[ZoWhat]

......

 

[BarSnackz]

Absolutely If you want Acros and Tangs by Oct 1st

Why do you have to troll every thread? it's getting old.

 

[ZoWhat]

.....

 

[BarSnackz]

Use the Ignore button

done

 

[thatone08]

Depends.
What was the cause of the crash?

If toxins, I personally wouldn’t use the same rock. No point in risking leeching any of that back in.

did you keep the rock wet? If not expect quite a bit of die off, and having to add biospira or something similar to cycle.

 

[FindingCoral]

We don't know... what was your predicament and was your rock drying outside your tank prior to starting over?

No I actually had fake rock in my tank before. (That wasn’t what killed my fish) I over fed them and they died overnight from ammonia and nitrate spike.

 

[FindingCoral]

Depends.
What was the cause of the crash?

If toxins, I personally wouldn’t use the same rock. No point in risking leeching any of that back in.

did you keep the rock wet? If not expect quite a bit of die off, and having to add biospira or something similar to cycle.

This would be my first time using live rock.

 

[FindingCoral]

I have a question, too: What caused it?

I overfed my fish wayyy too much food and the ammonia and nitrate spike killed them

 

[ariellemermaid]

No I actually had fake rock in my tank before. (That wasn’t what killed my fish) I over fed them and they died overnight from ammonia and nitrate spike.

Just have to say- embarrassing though it might be, put the cause in the first post. Every failure is a chance for someone else to learn from your mistakes. Don’t leave us hanging

When you say fake rock, what do you mean? Like artificial reef rock, mined dry rock, something else etc.? Just want to get the facts here before all the chime in’s. If you have good quality porous rocks then I would contend your rocks should be in a better state after a die off than before (unless you let them dry out). In other words, more ammonia and more nitrite should induce nitrifying bacteria to reproduce and scale up to deal with it, improving your bio filter overall.

Also just curious for some more details. How old was the tank? Sand? Clean up crew? Assuming you tested, what numbers did you get for ammonia and nitrates?

Just asking because with a well established tank with a good bio filter it’s slightly unusual to hear about a huge tank destroying ammonia spike, and fish can tolerate pretty high nitrates without suddenly killing over. Did you like accidentally drop a whole bottle of flakes in a nano tank, or is this maybe a young tank?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If you force fed chocolate to a dog, it would die and no one would recommend that you run to a pet store and get yourself another dog. So I would not recommend that you replace your fish without researching how to keep your fish alive. I'm not meaning to be rude or insulting, but from what you have written, you seem to be missing a lot of knowledge.

 

[ariellemermaid]

If you force fed chocolate to a dog, it would die and no one would recommend that you run to a pet store and get yourself another dog. So I would not recommend that you replace your fish without researching how to keep your fish alive. I'm not meaning to be rude or insulting, but from what you have written, you seem to be missing a lot of knowledge.

That is a little harsh quite frankly. Who in this hobby hasn’t killed something because of a lack of knowledge (cycling, not testing or doing enough water changes, not recognizing disease early enough to intervene, buying something you shouldn’t have etc.)? The whole hobby is learning as you go, connecting with more experienced people online or in person and gaining from the experience or others. He didn’t even say what was in the tank or what he means by starting over. Maybe he just had one clown and snails, and by starting over means cycling for a while.

Important thing is he thinks he recognized his mistake and is on here looking for advice. I’m trying to be helpful by getting to the bottom of the story because I think there might be more to it. Just saying get out of the hobby until you learn more in a nebulous way isn’t welcoming or helpful. Learn more about what? If the entire problem was extreme over feeding he learned that lesson. Over feeding generally is a very common mistake.

 

[FindingCoral]

Just have to say- embarrassing though it might be, put the cause in the first post. Every failure is a chance for someone else to learn from your mistakes. Don’t leave us hanging

When you say fake rock, what do you mean? Like artificial reef rock, mined dry rock, something else etc.? Just want to get the facts here before all the chime in’s. If you have good quality porous rocks then I would contend your rocks should be in a better state after a die off than before (unless you let them dry out). In other words, more ammonia and more nitrite should induce nitrifying bacteria to reproduce and scale up to deal with it, improving your bio filter overall.

Also just curious for some more details. How old was the tank? Sand? Clean up crew? Assuming you tested, what numbers did you get for ammonia and nitrates?

Just asking because with a well established tank with a good bio filter it’s slightly unusual to hear about a huge tank destroying ammonia spike, and fish can tolerate pretty high nitrates without suddenly killing over. Did you like accidentally drop a whole bottle of flakes in a nano tank, or is this maybe a young tank?

So the fake rock I had was actual fake plastic rock intended for freshwater. The color stayed and everything, fish loved it. I know it’s not supposed to be in there but it worked and lasted. Over time I didn’t end up loving it so taking it out for the 2.0 tank.

I had snails, hermits and emeralds at the bottom and had 10 fish altogether. What happened was, I had an auto feeder on and it fed way too many food pellets into the tank and the water started getting cloudy immediately. I figured it would go away because the fish would eat the food….well the next day, they all died. I had tested the water the day before and everything was perfect except for the nitrates which were at 40ppm. Before the food dropped, they were at 10ppm.

 

[ariellemermaid]

So the fake rock I had was actual fake plastic rock intended for freshwater. The color stayed and everything, fish loved it. I know it’s not supposed to be in there but it worked and lasted. Over time I didn’t end up loving it so taking it out for the 2.0 tank.

I had snails, hermits and emeralds at the bottom and had 10 fish altogether. What happened was, I had an auto feeder on and it fed way too many food pellets into the tank and the water started getting cloudy immediately. I figured it would go away because the fish would eat the food….well the next day, they all died. I had tested the water the day before and everything was perfect except for the nitrates which were at 40ppm. Before the food dropped, they were at 10ppm.

What size tank? 10 fish is a lot for saltwater; I don’t even have 10 fish in my 40 gallon.

Fish can easily survive nitrates of 40. Some people run their successful reefs at 50. The problem is…..

The rock! That’s what I was worried about when you said fake rock. The rock in the tank is the life support of the tank. It’s where all the bacteria live (ok, sand too) that process food, waste, and dead material then convert very toxic ammonia to nitrites and nitrates which are far less toxic in saltwater tanks. You probably did have an ammonia spike because fake rock just isn’t porous enough to provide enough living spaces for these bacteria. If you had had a well-cycled tank with lots of porous live rock I think your livestock would have survived the overfeeding most likely. It would have fouled the tank in other ways, but probably not killed everything overnight with ammonia.

Throw away the fake rock. Check out BRS or saltwateraquarium.com and look for either $$$ Saver Rock or Marco Rocks. Those I’ve found to be the cheapest options. If you have more money to spend there’s reef saver rock and rocks that have been seeded with dormant bacteria. In any case, cycle the tank really well, add fish really slowly weeks apart, and you’ll have much more success with this rock. I personally like cycling with Dr. Tim’s ammonia because you follow a recipe, test ammonia daily, and you can directly track the progress of your bio filter until it gets to zero before adding any livestock. One cycled, your bio filter will be much more bulletproof than fake rock.

 

[FindingCoral]

What size tank? 10 fish is a lot for saltwater; I don’t even have 10 fish in my 40 gallon.

Fish can easily survive nitrates of 40. Some people run their successful reefs at 50. The problem is…..

The rock! That’s what I was worried about when you said fake rock. The rock in the tank is the life support of the tank. It’s where all the bacteria live (ok, sand too) that process food, waste, and dead material then convert very toxic ammonia to nitrites and nitrates which are far less toxic in saltwater tanks. You probably did have an ammonia spike because fake rock just isn’t porous enough to provide enough living spaces for these bacteria. If you had had a well-cycled tank with lots of porous live rock I think your livestock would have survived the overfeeding most likely. It would have fouled the tank in other ways, but probably not killed everything overnight with ammonia.

Throw away the fake rock. Check out BRS or saltwateraquarium.com and look for either $$$ Saver Rock or Marco Rocks. Those I’ve found to be the cheapest options. If you have more money to spend there’s reef saver rock and rocks that have been seeded with dormant bacteria. In any case, cycle the tank really well, add fish really slowly weeks apart, and you’ll have much more success with this rock. I personally like cycling with Dr. Tim’s ammonia because you follow a recipe, test ammonia daily, and you can directly track the progress of your bio filter until it gets to zero before adding any livestock. One cycled, your bio filter will be much more bulletproof than fake rock.

Yeah I am starting a team completely over the way that it really should be. I am getting live sand, I am getting live rock. I’m gonna let cycle for a while before I had anything in there. I really appreciate your insight and support. I’ll be sure to show a photo of it once it’s all set up and ready

 

[Uzidaisies]

So my tank took a nose dive last week and EVERYTHING DIED. I know what it was so that’s behind me now. Anyway…
Im starting anew and have a question…

if I have live rock, do I still add Bio-Spira?

I started with live sand and live rock and added a bottle of Bio-Spira for good measure. There’s some potential there to increase diversity in bacteria strains, or species. I also believe that adding bacteria in such a way is a faster way to populate all the other surfaces, and filter media, than starting with live rock and waiting for those bacteria to multiply. The bacteria are going to grow, even if you start with dry rock, and no sand. The important part is having enough surface area to support a large enough population of nitrifying bacteria for a given bio load, and monitoring the nitrogen cycle to confirm that the bacteria are established well enough to convert the ammonia and nitrites into nitrates. I hope you have better luck next time!