Tank crash, advice

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Sigh... My tank crashed. It appears it's My fault and not some random act of violence by my dogs! Lol... So here's what happened. I have a bad micro bubble problem in my sump. So between 2 baffles I slid in filter floss. It worked. Stopped bubbles. Unbeknownst to me, when I pulled it out to clean it in r.o. water, it spilled all kinds of crap back into water. I just polluted and killed 3 fish by doing this. Last 3 days . I've done 5 gallon water changes last 3 days. 20 gallons worth. Thought I could save them. Lost 3. Still have shrimp and 2 clowns. I will keep up water changes thru weekend. My question is... I know how to prevent the bad water spilled,... Don't use floss in between baffles. But please, someone help me stop the microbubbles !!!! Aghhhhhhh. Please post advice. Thank u

brandon429 · Apr 24, 2018

hey I hope we can help arrest before more losses

can you post a full tank shot real quick

a complete water change + sandbed cleaning is indicated based on some detritus storage details you mentioned, pics w verify. if you are dealing with upwelled nutrients (it takes quite a lot to be potent killer) then there's likely more in the sandbed in the main tank to consider as future sources of headaches if disturbed.

if you have a smaller tank, the more water you change, not the less, is safer as long as you are removing actual waste stores by cleaning down to the bottom, thoroughly. if the tank is too large for a fuller change, then there are ammonia adsorbing media available for filters that work well as arrestors.

Gareth elliott · Apr 24, 2018

Besides the above advice, if you cant do this right away run something that will absorb the excess organics till you can.
Purigen
Polyfilter
If its ammonia that spiked dosing prime. These are bandaids and wont cure the problem but might buy some time till can rectify.

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Hiya! Filtration wasn't the problem. Me putting the filter floss in between baffles in sump, and having it mass dump into sump and then tank caused Spike. So I won't be doing that again . I know the other floss u speak of. I could try that. But, what is a way to get rid of microbubbles! They are evil!!!!!

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Gareth elliott said:
Besides the above advice, if you cant do this right away run something that will absorb the excess organics till you can.
Purigen
Polyfilter
If its ammonia that spiked dosing prime. These are bandaids and wont cure the problem but might buy some time till can rectify.

I Primed it as well. [emoji16] ,the gray dark water that seeped from the floss as I pulled it out of sump to clean it,was nasty, and I couldn't get to shut off valve in time. It went rt into main tank. And 24 hrs later,. Death bell.....

brandon429 · Apr 24, 2018

Nice

That tank is clean enough no part cleaning needed, sounds like a bump in road but no apparent threat / sandbed cross section looks clean. Do a full water change when you can if possible, they are refreshing and only the select sps systems are harmed by them. Any other mixed reef is invigorated by occasional big volume water changes bc you can spot feed each coral nicely then export the wastewater via timing as a cheat for such a feed.

Alexcus simon · Apr 24, 2018

ckgriffin2000 said:
Hiya! Filtration wasn't the problem. Me putting the filter floss in between baffles in sump, and having it mass dump into sump and then tank caused Spike. So I won't be doing that again . I know the other floss u speak of. I could try that. But, what is a way to get rid of microbubbles! They are evil!!!!!

I highly doubt thats what caused the crash sounds like more to me. I use floss on all my tanks and never experienced this

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Alexcus simon said:
I highly doubt thats what caused the crash sounds like more to me. I use floss on all my tanks and never experienced this

It's the only thing recent that was a drastic change to tank environment. I know it sounds crazy... But .....nothing else I know of had happened... Sux....

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Well, an older page had a solution on micro bubbles, turn down exit line water volumne , turn skimmer 90 degrees left so bubbles exit towards nylon mesh exit line bag, place thick sponge near skimmer body, this seems to have stopped 50% of bubbles. Next is a nylon mesh bag maybe over edge of return pump to also block the dam evil bubbles... And... Water tests have ammonia at almost 0.0,. So water changes have flush that option away... I have no clue what else it could have been.... What a hobby.... Lol. Thnx

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Turned 90 degrees

Alexcus simon · Apr 24, 2018

ckgriffin2000 said:
It's the only thing recent that was a drastic change to tank environment. I know it sounds crazy... But .....nothing else I know of had happened... Sux....

How old is the tank?

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 24, 2018

Alexcus simon said:
How old is the tank?

Hmmmmm. 5 months ,cycled 4weeks, Dr Tim's , ammonia chloride, live sand, live rock from old tank, and dry rock. Tested during cycle process.. saw process happen over 4 weeks.. and.. livestock from other tank.. it's crazy... Never had a crash in other tank , 3 years..

Alexcus simon · Apr 24, 2018

ckgriffin2000 said:
Hmmmmm. 5 months ,cycled 4weeks, Dr Tim's , ammonia chloride, live sand, live rock from old tank, and dry rock. Tested during cycle process.. saw process happen over 4 weeks.. and.. livestock from other tank.. it's crazy... Never had a crash in other tank , 3 years..

And I'm assuming the fish that died were in there for a while?. Did you check temp and salinity when they died?

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 25, 2018

Yeah, same salinity and temp as always, 1.020, and 79 degrees. Sherlock can not solve this one...although we are suspicious of the dogs!!! They look guilty!!!! Lol

-XENOMORPH- · Apr 25, 2018

Bengai cardinal over 1 yr old, valentini puffer almost 2 yrs , And and a small breed angel,. Again, we're slowly added over weeks... From old tank, it was completely out of the blue... Sux..