[Yankee I Am]

A new found friend not too far from me found me on the boards. He said his 150 in wall tank seems dead and dirty.

I went over a couple days ago to find his heater malfunctioned and was pushing 102 degrees.

2 clowns a yellow and regal tang seem to live through this ordeal. The corals were history except some decent size aptasia (go figure).

It looked real bad, Nitrates were well past 100. Im no expert so here's what we've done so far.

Like I said its a 150 in wall NOT reef ready...Nice HOB Berlin skimmer, Eheim canister that we cleaned out and now has live rock and a charcoal bag in it...he had the ceramic pieces in it prior.

70% water change and cleaned a bit..tons of salt crept all over
All rock removed and cleaned in fresh water
TONS of snails and crab shells removed.
Understand the sand bed was disturbed quite a bit so a decent cycle Ill assume is going to happen.

So.....What could we have done different? Nitrates have dropped but still high, will do another 60 gallon water change this weel, amonia is not eveident, temp at 79 now.

[scubadude]

Hey Russ

Good save on the fish!

I would be worried about all the die off on the rocks, unless you can scrub in the tiny crevices and holes you may have more than you think!? Which goes back to the main natural filtration of the LR......If it where me I would put a big bad mamma jamma skimmer on the tank....I would be willing to bet that skimmer is underrpowered for that tank, especially right now....maybe he could borrow another skimmer until he gets everything under control....But I would personally bite the bullet and get another one thats bigger and better.

What are the nitrates @ now? You said the amonia is 0, how about the nitrites or phosphates. I might even look into getting some new LR to get things seeded again

[Yankee I Am]

That was my thoughts on the live rock (possibly needing more)...we scrubbed some and rinsed a WHOLE lot (all)...heavily crusted coraline algae also..found one snail and one crab made the ride too...

No sump on this baby (yet) I can see if anyone in our local club has a HOB one we can use for now...Its definatley skimming in overtime at the moment but another may not be an option unfortunately...

Nitrates last night (about 3 hours and still real cloudy) was about 80. I wasnt sure if thats because of all the moving of rock and substrate or what...He's getting another 60 gallons of RO for wednesday or Friday. To be honest with everything that happened I didnt think all the other levels mattered all that much since we just tore everything apart...Was going to test everything Wednesday when I saw him again...His test kit did not have a nitrite...I told him to get one...salinity (for what its worth) is .026-.027

What will the die off ultimately do? Do you think the rock will reseed or should I have him get 20 pounds or so? Also, the substrate...what damage would have been done to that??

[scubadude]

Originally Posted by Yankee I Am

What will the die off ultimately do? Do you think the rock will reseed or should I have him get 20 pounds or so? Also, the substrate...what damage would have been done to that??

Die off can polute your tank quick if you dont get ahead of it, I would opt for the 20lbs or so to seed it after you see your nitrates under control though. Look for black on the rock or sand thats usually a sure sign of die off...can be other colors too...moldy texture is another sign....unfortunately your gonna have to get it out of there, wether it involves moving the rock or siphoning it out. Messy situation....i feel for ya!

[Yankee I Am]

At least ts not my tank but doesnt make the job any easier