Tank crash

[Doglips56]

Suggest you put in some Polyfilter asap! That will pull out ammonia and other things that may be an issue.

Poly filter? Is that filter floss? We just took out the old and replaced it with fresh and added a mesh bag of ROX carbon (reactor is leaking) THANK YOU for replying!

 

[sixty_reefer]

Someone mentioned cloudy water. That was just from stirring up the sandbed during water change.

It was me, although all signs point to dinoflagellates

 

[Doglips56]

You may be experiencing the beginning of dinoflagellates, increasing phosphates now may avoid a full bloom

I’ve had Dino’s in a new tank can you get them in an established one? This tank has been up and running for over a year? Thank you!

 

[Aspect]

Def sounds like ammonia spike.. since you say it's a new powerhead, I wonder if it disturbed the sand bed overnight and contributed to it. Experts, please double check me on this, but could a full dose of Seachem Prime hold off the chain reaction until OP can do a big enough water change/manage the die off?

Seachem Amguard is twice as strong and lasts twice as long, should bind all ammonia in tank in 15 minutes.

 

[Doglips56]

How much GHA did you have, Rapid die off without removing the decaying algae would cause a spike. If it was too fast snails and inverts would go first and then the fish as is happening now.

Sorry I just saw this. It wasn’t an overwhelming amount but we hadn’t been able to get it under control with manual removal so LFS recommended the flux. I’m never treating a tank again. Every time we’ve done a system treatment for anything it’s been a disaster regardless of how much to the letter we’ve followed instructions. I’m going to install an algae scrubber and wish I’d known all the benefits of them before we had doses the FluxRX

 

[Doglips56]

Seachem Amguard is twice as strong and lasts twice as long, should bind all ammonia in tank in 15 minutes.

I wonder if anyplace around here sells it

 

[sixty_reefer]

I’ve had Dino’s in a new tank can you get them in an established one? This tank has been up and running for over a year? Thank you!

Dinoflagellates can happen at any stage of maturity of the tank, the sign are the brown patches starting on the sand bed and glass and phosphates at zero or near zero, Hanna has a inconsistent of 0.02 meaning your phosphates could be at zero now and that wouldn’t surprise me as there was a large amount of algae that was killed in the tank and as algae dies will release carbohydrates that will feed bacteria, bacteria will use plenty of phosphates as they grow meaning in 2 to 3 days you could see a full bloom of dinoflagellates unless the phosphates are raised now to avoid the bloom.
Other signs is the coral showing signs of distress they do this wend there isn’t enough nutrients in the water column.

 

[Aspect]

Do you have a grounding probe or 2? Jebao equipment are known to leak voltage from time to time, and in a 40g it wouldn't take much to cause a profound effect.

 

[Aspect]

I wonder if anyplace around here sells it

Not sure where you're at, but Petco carries it.

 

[piranhaman00]

People putting tangs in 40s now JC,

agreed ammonia poisoning,

 

[Doglips56]

Not sure where you're at, but Petco carries it.

Georgia. Yes there’s a Petco nearby, I’ll check with them. Thank you.

 

[brmc1985]

Check for stray voltage in the tank. New pump may be leaking into the tank since it happened this quickly

 

[Aspect]

Yeah, I would have at least 2 grounding probes on any tank. A lot of peace of mind for $30

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Poly filter? Is that filter floss? We just took out the old and replaced it with fresh and added a mesh bag of ROX carbon (reactor is leaking) THANK YOU for replying!

No, it's not filter floss. See below. You can get fewer than 3 packs other places. Note it does more than bind, it removes ammonia and other listed toxic things.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I’ve had Dino’s in a new tank can you get them in an established one? This tank has been up and running for over a year? Thank you!

Can vary in stages/time, just like cycling, would not consider this as established, can happen anytime

 

[piranhaman00]

People mentioning grounding probes, so I am required to mention you cannot plug grounding probe into a non GFI outlet.

 

[Doglips56]

Check for stray voltage in the tank. New pump may be leaking into the tank since it happened this quickly

Thank you. I removed it for now.

 

[Doglips56]

Can vary in stages/time, just like cycling, would not consider this as established, can happen anytime

Ok what would you consider an established tank? Just curious. We took the rock the anemones are on out of a tank we’d had for 2 years so it wasn’t started with dry rock a year ago. How old does a tank need to be to be considered established? I can do the test for Dino’s that I did a few years ago when I started a 125 with all new dry rock, that was hell!! I did lose one fish to that outbreak due to lack of oxygen I think but, though I don’t have an ORP probe I can’t fathom oxygen would be the problem because I have really good surface agitation and air stones in both the main tank and down in the sump. Thanks for your help!

 

[Doglips56]

Dinoflagellates can happen at any stage of maturity of the tank, the sign are the brown patches starting on the sand bed and glass and phosphates at zero or near zero, Hanna has a inconsistent of 0.02 meaning your phosphates could be at zero now and that wouldn’t surprise me as there was a large amount of algae that was killed in the tank and as algae dies will release carbohydrates that will feed bacteria, bacteria will use plenty of phosphates as they grow meaning in 2 to 3 days you could see a full bloom of dinoflagellates unless the phosphates are raised now to avoid the bloom.
Other signs is the coral showing signs of distress they do this wend there isn’t enough nutrients in the water column.

How do I increase the phosphates? - never mind I see you answered this in another thread. NeoPhos

 

[brmc1985]

How do I increase the phosphates?

You can dose them or increase feeding. I would suggest dosing so you can control the amount until your tank is “established”. Established is a relative term. I would say your tank is established when you can leave it for a week or so and the parameters are still stable.