How should I restart?

[ecoreefguy]

Well I've been away on business and trusted a friend to watch over my small tank with detail instructions. They forgot about it. After 4 weeks I came home to a half empty tank. Lots of equipment damaged and all corals are dead. I have a few fish they somehow survive. Should I just refill and restart or drain and restart ?

 

[i_luv_coral]

was salinity so off everything was dead?

Might want to pull rock and sand....leave fish after draining and refilling with new water. Soak lr, and wash sand and start fresh after pulling everything out.


High salinity will effect the lr, and sand...but fish will be fine in new water as long as the salinity swing isn't to high from transfer. Might want to drop the fish with new water in a bucket.


sorry to hear but that is unacceptable and totally messed up.

Def not a friend I would want.


Depending on filtration, I would swap all gfo/chemipure/phosguard/carbon with fresh and even add some new bacteria to tank.

If u need some liverock let me know and I can meet you tomorrow.


Keep your head up!

 

[i_luv_coral]

Drip* not drop

 

[russ-iv]

imho. test parameters and see how far out of whack they are.

new water may kill the rest of the survivors.

 

[ecoreefguy]

Phosphate are high, nitrates high,salinity 1.048, temp 68 ( yea woot something still right). I've been adding fresh water slowly. Maybe only 1-2 gallon at a time. It not high enough to go into overflow yet. I might let it run a week when it's filled and than slowly do maybe a 300% water change over next 2 weeks. All survivors are eating I still don't know how they loved so long without food.

 

[russ-iv]

1.048 and still survived? wow bro.
drop it to 1.038 over the course of 48 hours and then .001 a day after with water changes. phosguard will kill po4 but i suggest small doses of the stuff.
nitrate you are screwed.

imho you will have to remove all substrate and live rock. they will leach for eternity. far longer than dry rock turning live. however you dont want the new stuff to absorb the old. so play chemical magician and dance like a monkey. lol. not trying to be mean but i wanted to get the point across.

if it was me id remove all lr and sand. and control it that way. once u got it under control re-introduce NEW sand and rock

careful with removing substrate that is undisturbed. you could release sulfide in to the system and then like mortal kombat "FINISH HIM" comes to mind. just be careful.

an easier (and far safer) way might be to move old water and inhabitants to a hospital tank. then do the dastardly stuff with your main tank on the side without risking inhabitants. easier to slowly acclimate the hospital tank that way.

 

[i_luv_coral]

Like I said, if you need new LR, let me know....


Drip all fish if you are adding fresh "water" , take it slow.


Goodluck.

 

[skriz]

Do water changes to bring your salinity in line and other parameters in check. Obviously, pull out all the dead stuff, but no need to take it down for a reset.

 

[bcavalli]

Skriz;1041588 wrote: Do water changes to bring your salinity in line and other parameters in check. Obviously, pull out all the dead stuff, but no need to take it down for a reset.

+1 get it out of the critical stage, then you can nurse it back to health.

 

[crew]

Bcavalli;1041598 wrote: +1 get it out of the critical stage, then you can nurse it back to health.

+1

and to reinforce what others have said - bring everything back to normal levels slowly. The only reason anything survived is because it happened over the course of weeks, not days.

 

[camellia]

Crew;1041606 wrote: +1

and to reinforce what others have said - bring everything back to normal levels slowly. The only reason anything survived is because it happened over the course of weeks, not days.

+1 go slow bringing it back, you know it can handle it, it lived through the worse.

So very sad that "your friend" has such little appreciation for life. Wonder how he would like to go without food and water for weeks! Next time ask a trusted reefer from the club at least they appreciate our aminals!

I'd be happy to give you some corals & frags when your ready, LMK.

 

[russ-iv]

if nitrates are stubborn and wont go down with water changes. i would be suspicious of the substrate.