How to recover from tank crash?

[matlet]

Hi,

My tank crashed this past weekend and I lost my 4 fish and many corals (nothing fancy - a few hard corals and the majority softies).  I have been unable to find one of the fish or my 2 anemones. Wondering if the death of the anemones is adding toxins to the water.  Not sure what caused the crash, but just want to clean things up and get going again.

So should I create 54 gallons (my container size) of new saltwater and do a massive water change (75 gallon tank) to remove as much toxins from dead things?  Or do I need to put live rock in buckets and totally restart the tank?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

The last crash that I had, I did a complete reboot to be safe.  I put whatever survived and it wasn't much, in a QT/holding tank.  Took everything out of the tank and rinsed it well with RO water then put it back in and began the cycle process.  After about 4 weeks, I started adding things back to the tank starting with the sacrificial damsel.  Once he survived a few days another fish or coral went in and so it went every 4 days until everything was back in the tank.  It's a pain but better safe than sorry.

 

[bhodges82]

I’ve never crashed ybtank, but I would imagine a reboot is the only sure way to go about it, otherwise you’ll be chasing problems for a while. Need to cycle again and build new bacteria. It’d be a good time to service all your equipment and possibly find some amswers. Good luck and sorry to hear about he crash.