Tank crash!?!?

[loweryphil]

My dad added about 10kg of dead rock to his tank that had been soaking in saltwater for 5 days with a bottle of colony. He added the rock on tuesday and since then the water has been getting more cloudy by the day. Woke up this morning and all his fish are dead!! The only survivors are a few hermit crabs a starfish and zoanthids. How does he recover this? I dont want him to give up.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Aww crud.......
check ammoina. most likely a bacteria bloom from the ammonia. Get oxygen into the water.

 

[loweryphil]

Oxygen help clarify? Im guessing he will have to wait a while until the ammonia drops. Would clear water be a signal of this before testing?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Oxygen help clarify? Im guessing he will have to wait a while until the ammonia drops. Would clear water be a signal of this before testing?

Surface agitation, air pump, rejigger overflow inlet etc.

Yea the cleared water should be a partial indicator. Test the ammoina now and see what you get. its likley there was a lot of rot and ammoina, so the it fed the bacteria. The fish may have dies from the Ammoina OR the lack of oxygen in the wayer from the bloom. But Id bet it was ammoina, if not other nasty suff from the rock.

 

[Reefrookie220]

Add a bubble stone, point a power head up to the surface, or both. Gotta make sure everything can breathe.

If it only sat for a week, and nothing was added to feed the bottle of bacteria, you pretty much added dead rock, which would need to cure a little longer.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

you pretty much added dead rock, which would need to cure a little longer.

+1, but not dead part, the organics had prob just started to rot. yea, longer cooking time.

 

[loweryphil]

Surface agitation, air pump, rejigger overflow inlet etc.

Yea the cleared water should be a partial indicator. Test the ammoina now and see what you get. its likley there was a lot of rot and ammoina, so the it fed the bacteria. The fish may have dies from the Ammoina OR the lack of oxygen in the wayer from the bloom. But Id bet it was ammoina, if not other nasty suff from the rock.

0.25 ammonia pointed the power head to the surface for him. Hes taken the crash very well tbh. Git back from his holiday today. My mother on the other hand "THATS IT NO MORE FISH"

Ill let it sit for a week just running then test it again.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

0.25 ammonia pointed the power head to the surface for him. Hes taken the crash very well tbh. Git back from his holiday today. My mother on the other hand "THATS IT NO MORE FISH"

Ill let it sit for a week just running then test it again.

uh oh. Moms mad....

yea cant help with that.

 

[loweryphil]

Cool. Ill just let it run its course and tell him to treat it like a new tank cycle