Almost Crash but now Cycle?

[Tank2379]

So about a few weeks ago my Tank lost power for about 8 hours. My tank was up and running for more that 4 years and I lost 2 Fish my Blue Hippo Tang and Egyptian PipeFish. Almost lost my 3 wrasses and clown pair, but they all survived the stress of not having pumps on for 8hrs.

My tank is SPS dominated mostly, since then I am experiencing some browning of my corals and bleaching on a few.

My water parameters are as fallows

CA- 390
Alk- 8.6
Mag 1440
NO3- 2ppm
PO4 .25ppm

I did a water change after taking readings but I don't see too much of the NO3 and PO4 being the issues since my tank has been showing 2ppm and .25 for over 2 years. But I don't have an ammonia kit just wondering if maybe my tank is experiencing some type of cycle?.

 

[brandon429]

only if the decaying organisms are still in the system, if they are removed theres no ammonia it would cause a quick cascade full loss event. These tanks rip ammonia out of the water quickly, upon emission, unless the source is significant. given this much time theres no ammonia Id bet.

The sandbed can be a source of ongoing ammonia issues, id do this trick to assess:

wooden dowel with half inch clear hose taped on the end

shove down in rear area sandbed press down, siphon out mid to lower level sludge sample into a cup

if it smells rotten, that's a potential source. given no sandbed contributions this would be a no ammonia persistent event because there's no place for rot to overcome inherent bac that were never killed in the original stress since they stayed wet.

 

[Tank2379]

Makes sense, deep sand bed never touched.. Would be hard to get a siphon in some areas but I can get some from the front portion of the tank.

 

[brandon429]

It's neat you don't own an ammonia test neither do I, I rank them as unneeded if all fish can be accounted for. predictable compound always in my opinion

We don't need to know ammonia measures to cycle a tank either... Known time frames works fine. every tank I put together was a live rock transfer, among tanks, so that never needed to cycle to oxidize ammonia (not referring to maturation/food webs)

 

[Tank2379]

It's neat you don't own an ammonia test neither do I, I rank them as unneeded if all fish can be accounted for. predictable compound always in my opinion

We don't need to know ammonia measures to cycle a tank either... Known time frames works fine. every tank I put together was a live rock transfer, among tanks, so that never needed to cycle to oxidize ammonia (not referring to maturation/food webs)

I've been in the hobby well over 15 plus years. My 90G is established well over 4 years or so. I've transfered many tanks and never needed to use an Ammonia test as well. lol. With all the Bacteria bottles I normally use that and continue on my corals always looked fine.

First time I am experiencing this type of deal with my SPS corals. Most people start chasing that number making all these adjustment for no reason when mother nature can take her course. I even stop testing because my tank was on autopilot if I tested it was once a month or once every 2 months and made adjustments as needed.