# Excuse my rant, starting over



## Jmoquarium (Mar 31, 2012)

So almost a year and a half later with mostly success my 10 gallon saltwater nano reef crashed last night. I went to bed with everything as normal fed my fish woke up to a tank that looked like it had been replace with milk. I see one dead fish lying on the bottom with clouds of white pouring around it, I replace the filter cartridge with no success of cleaning the tank 8 hours later. I empty all the water to find everything except a sliver of my organ pipe coral to be dead. A complete shock everything was alive and well the previous day, I had been doing a 10 percent change every month and a half and had been meaning to do more more often but I was too late. I emptied everything and it smells like raw seafood. I think for a beginner I had a great run for a year and a half with a lot of neigh Sayers, and let me say I loved it, it hasn't been my main hobby but I took pride in the beautiful tank I had that amazed my family and friends. So I'm not done but I am going to take an intermission to figure out my new plans. I now have a job and I want to avoid the mysterious plague that suddenly took my beloved nano ecosystem from me. I'm starting over wiping my head or new facts for the very soon future I am considering reviving my 10 gallon with a whole new game plan, sand, and live stock or considering keeping just the equipment and rocks and bumping up to the 15 or 20 gallon max saltwater. In short I'm wondering if anyone knows what the cloudiness was that caused nitrates and nitrites to literally fly off the charts in a night and wipe out my tank. And I'm looking for a new plan as I continue the saltwater hobby but start over information wise. Throw any information or me to process about anything saltwater you suggest and I will try to digest it and hopefully rebuild with this very sad yet motivating opportunity. Thanks guys for all the help with my last one I think it was an amazing run and I hope to come back stronger this time!


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

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## Jmoquarium (Mar 31, 2012)

I used a cheap test strip kit and it only read that both nitrate and nitrite were over 200 ppm and it didn't show any ammonia which baffled me. But last night I dumped all the water which smelled like raw seafood. Nasty stuff, don't know where to go from here on starting over or what
Tank size that is large enough but not so large to break my wallet. I'm thinking 15-20 if not my 10


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

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## Jmoquarium (Mar 31, 2012)

So with a 20 what kind of fish, corals, and inverts am I looking at. I've seen some with yellow tangs. I know I need a new filter to take on the new size but what about power head and heater. Do I need to worry about the live rock leeching whatever caused the cloudiness? Or if I don't is there any chance of anything surviving after it's already been outside in cold temps. Last does anybody know cheapish but good 20 gallon lighting


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I would keep your rocks and sand wet and warm.They didn't go bad,you just never changed enough water to let them function properly.They may very well still have good bacteria that would speed up a new set up.
A 100% water change in the existing tank may have yielded good result for water parameters even though everything died.
200ppm nitrates!40 ppm is be safe ,even 100ppm,but for how long?You got to test weekly and do waterchanges more frequently if the levels are elavated.
And a BIG NO to any tang in anything under 4' long and this is cramping them even.


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## tike (Nov 10, 2008)

Water changes were definately an issue. With that small of a tank parameters can get out of wrack quite quickly, as you experienced. I am going to assume that either leftover food or a death in the tank (fish,snail,hermit crab) triggered a cycle to happen. bascially there wasn't enough established bacteria to handle the increase in waste produced. On my nana (24 gallon) I do a 1 gallon per week water change. With a 10 gallon I would do a 1 quart a week. This will keep waste manageable for your waste low enough so the nitrifying bacteria can handle the rest. Ditto on the Tang!


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