Rocks Nuked Tank

[tbasinger]

Hello all, I am new here but have worked with salt water tanks for a good portion of my life(mostly raising jellyfish professionally). I am however am a little new to growing corals). I had a new 40 gallon reef tank with some frags and a couple of fish. I decided to swap out my rock for the black rock from addictive reef keeping. I didn’t wash it and I didn’t let it cycle( I know both are mistakes but I haven’t had difficulty in the past doing either of those things). Well this turned out to be a big mistake because in 12 hours it killed all of my frags and all of my fish and invertebrates. I checked my nitrates and phosphates both were zero. It’s been a week and my water is crystal clear and dead. Nothing is growing in it not even algae. My nitrates and phosphates are zero but whenever I plug in my skimmer even on it’s lowest height it goes crazy producing a super fine, clean foam almost like there is soap in the water. I’m stymied I have no idea what is going on. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Big G]

Man, that's a tough loss. How's the ammonia level in the water?

 

[Tamberav]

When you say you swapped rock, did you swap everything? Like no biological filtration?

 

[Tamberav]

Oofta they want 8 per lb for painted dry rock.

The skimmer going nuts means there is something in the water from the rock. Did you rinse it?

Doesn’t mean it’s toxic.. just that something leftover came off.

It actually happens with other fake painted rocks too. Water changes and maybe run some carbon. You can try and dry skim if you can possibly set the skimmer low enough so it can remove some.

Probably something from all the paint these companies use.

 

[GatorGreg]

Hello all, I am new here but have worked with salt water tanks for a good portion of my life(mostly raising jellyfish professionally). I am however am a little new to growing corals). I had a new 40 gallon reef tank with some frags and a couple of fish. I decided to swap out my rock for the black rock from addictive reef keeping. I didn’t wash it and I didn’t let it cycle( I know both are mistakes but I haven’t had difficulty in the past doing either of those things). Well this turned out to be a big mistake because in 12 hours it killed all of my frags and all of my fish and invertebrates. I checked my nitrates and phosphates both were zero. It’s been a week and my water is crystal clear and dead. Nothing is growing in it not even algae. My nitrates and phosphates are zero but whenever I plug in my skimmer even on it’s lowest height it goes crazy producing a super fine, clean foam almost like there is soap in the water. I’m stymied I have no idea what is going on. Any insight would be appreciated.

I had to look up "black rock" I can't belive were now painting dry rock colors. As if they weren't enough of a problem creator. Meow were adding paint. Geeze.....tamberav is spot on. You removed your biolfilter. It's as simple as that.

 

[Tired]

There's enough bacteria on your glass and in your sandbed to support a small amount of bioload, but, yeah, generally it's a bad idea to remove literally all of your live rock. Ammonia was probably pretty high there.

Honestly, the paint might not even be a problem. The skimmer's reacting to that, but skimmers react to plenty of acceptable things, aquarium epoxies and the like.

 

[Tamberav]

I had to look up "black rock" I can't belive were now painting dry rock colors. As if they weren't enough of a problem creator. Meow were adding paint. Geeze.....tamberav is spot on. You removed your biolfilter. It's as simple as that.

Haha.. ya that was my thought.. what black? It also won’t reflect light back either to the undersides of corals and even the smallest amount of debris or snail poop will stick out like a sore thumb. Black sand has these issues and why it’s not really found in many tanks.

I think charging 8 bucks a lb for that is a scam on newer peoples wallets.

 

[I never finish anythi]

Get a goldfish if you want painted rocks and fake shipwrecks.

 

[tbasinger]

Har Har Har

 

[Spare time]

I've heard bad things about addictive reef keeping but I can't comment about their painted rock. I don't know if an ammonia test will be helpful given that everything died and it may be higher. My main concern is that you have no nitrate (and that it may be something wrong with the rock). Do you have any nitrite?

 

[sde1500]

Get a goldfish if you want painted rocks and fake shipwrecks.

Why respond like this? Why respond at all? So unnecessary to gatekeep how someone wants to experience this hobby, and be unnecessarily rude to someone who just had a tank crash.

OP, does seem like it was a mix of something on the rock causing the problem, compounded by resetting too much of the biological filter.

 

[tbasinger]

I don’t know what the deal was. I checked and even after everything died (I pulled everything before it was totally dead and had them in a clean bucket trying to revive them) and my ammonia and nitrates were still zero. I checked my pH and it was low but not crazy low. I did a 50% water change and two weeks went by and my levels were still zero but my tank was clean, like scary clean, no algae no signs of life at all. I had a clean looking foam in the corner of my tank and every time I tried to turn on my skimmer it went absolutely bonkers like the craziest skimmer you ever saw foaming out the standpipe and stuff. I finally said the hell with it and I took out all the rock and sand pulled everything apart and washed it as best as I could. I reassembled everything and filled back up an empty tank no rock no sand. Everything looked ok and I turned on my skimmer and even at it’s lowest setting it was still overflowing. I added some activated carbon in a bag in my sump and after two days my skimmer finally started acting right. I pulled the carbon and added new sand and added traditional reef rocks. Let it cycle a week and added a damsel I named Sputnik and everything appears to be fine.