Post-crash tank care

[NateHanson]

What do I need to do to the tank to get water quality back to a habitable state after a tank crash. About a half-bucket of corals died, as well as a few shrimp and a bunch of snails. I'm sure I didn't get all the corpses out, and I've done three 5 gallon water changes in the last 24 hours. At the begining ammonia was just slightly detectable. I'm mixing water tonight for a 20g water change tomorrow.

The water now smells a bit better, and I've got salinity back up to 1.025 (from 1.009). Water is still a little cloudy, and the tank is pretty cruddy.

What do you suggest doing to get the tank back to SPS quality, and how long should I wait?

 

[~Flighty~]

I bet you need to find all of the bodies first. One big snail can make a big mess if your clean up crew is deceased. Probably need to get a new clean up crew too.

 

[MarkO]

Yeah, I recommend pulling anything dead. Keep an eye on your ammonia.... under 0.5ppm at a max.

 

[NateHanson]

amm doesn't appear to have gone above ~0.1ppm. I got most of the bodies out, but I'm sure I missed a couple. My hermits and nassarius are mostly still around, but will certainly need replenished.

 

[wrassefan]

I'd do a 50% water change and run carbon at this point. Maybe 50% with NSW if you can get it. Good luck.

 

[ScottM]

I have found that doing 3 75% water changes of the course of 2 days. will do the trick.
If the system is large a single 100% change followed a week later with a 50% change will do the trick.
The key is to make sure your "new" water is at the right Ca ALK.

 

[reefnroll]

How much sand do you have in that tank Nate?

b

 

[NateHanson]

Why does ca alk matter if there are no corals in the tank?

There's about 2-3 inches sand in the display. 5-6 inches in the refugium.

Today everything is covered with a film of bright green algae.

 

[reefnroll]

Nate -

The immediate, frequent water changing seems o.k. I guess, but I don't know if it'll help what's going to be happening in that sandbed over the next many weeks. Stuff dies off and gets stuck under there, and just causes all sorts of issues. I would spread the water changes out a little to try and catch some of that and ship it out of your tank as it rises into the water column.

After my power outage a few years ago I had crazy algae issues and all sorts of slime happening what seemed like months after the event. I could only attribute those previously unseen issues to invisible problems in the 4-6" sandbed that I hadn't predicted - even though I had gotten my water measurables back into order pretty quickly over the days following the event.

Now that your parameters are back in check, I would suggest cutting back on some of the immediacy of your water changing and mark out some times on the calendar over the next 3 months to make sure our regimen is flawless for a while... and run carbon 24/7 at least for the next 6 months (I run it all the time and change it at every water change).

Find some M. digitata (I have some if you want) and see how that does in the mean time. It's the best and cheapest SPS to determine whether you're good to go for restocking with acros.

bec