Disturbed sand bed.

stephdagger · Jul 18, 2019

I have a 75 gallon fowlr tank that has been up for about 2 years. I have had nothing but trouble with this tank. Long story short i decided to clean tank yesterday. Toothbrush to rock and vacuum out detritus. I stirred up sand a little with the vacuum but worse the circulation pump must have become dislodged overnight and blew the sand all over. Yesterday i did all the testing i could and sg 1.025 nitrate 40. Nitrite 0. Amm .25 and ph 7.8. Today i did another 5 gallon water change and now nitrates are 80! My coral beauty was dead this morning but my other fish are still ok. 2 pajama cardinals, 2 clowns, 1 4 inch yellow tang. I dosed with prime yesterday and with todays water change. I just dont know what else to do!

Bryson.bobby · Jul 18, 2019

How much ammonia after the wc? The ammonia is likely your problem. 80 ppm nitrates shouldn’t be enough to kill any fish in that amount of time.

stephdagger · Jul 18, 2019

It is .5!

Bryson.bobby · Jul 18, 2019

It sounds like it isn’t cycled. How much live rock?

stephdagger · Jul 18, 2019

Probably close to 75 lbs. Not a new tankthough, 2 years old. If it is cycling again because the sand got disturbed, should i do more water changes or monitor and let cycle finish?

Bryson.bobby · Jul 18, 2019

I’d let the cycle continue. Doing water changes will only take out the beneficial bacteria

brandon429 · Jul 18, 2019

It's actually ok by now even if you did nothing more, ammonia events are fast acting not sustained. Nitrate not lethal, the initial ammonia upwell from the detritus was likely the issue

The specific measure you are watching for is not the .25 or .5 sustained, it's any increase that happens from this point onward such as marked green color change

Any low level sustained, not the concern post pics.

stephdagger · Jul 19, 2019

Well......update. woke up this morning and water cloudy and ALL my fish dead. RIP my wonderful mocha clowns that ive had for 10 years, my super social yellow tang and my 2 cardinals

. I retested ammonia and there was no change. Still .5 The only thing different about this tank from all the other tanks ive had is the fine sand. I think im going to siphon it all out and replace with crushed coral and start all over. Im so upset. I loved those fish.