A hard lesson to learn - 1st timers should read

I learned an important lesson this morning about setting up a saltwater aquarium...

GO SLOW... LET IT GROW​

I started my tank 7/31/10 with some cheesy decorations and 4 basic fish. Over the weeks I lost 2 of them, but the rest seemed fine. My cycle was progressing nicely, and levels were starting to to calm down.

I was able to purchase formerly live rock from someone over the weekend and added 100# yesterday. Everything seemed fine, and as I went to bed I noticed the water was a bit cloudy.

When I woke up this morning, everything was dead... Three Spot Domino Damsel, Spotfin Squirrelfish, and Turbo Snail... all dead. I quickly checked the levels and most if not all had a tremendous spike. I had set my tank up for another cycle without even realizing it.

I'm upset, not only for my stupidity, but also for the loss of these fish, which have grown on me over the past few weeks. RIP buddies.

Just wanted to share.

 

well typically you add your live rock first and it will cycle your tank for you, because of all the die off....

 

This was formerly live rock which I washed off 2x before I added it to the tank. I thought there would be another cycle start, just didn't realize it would be this drastic. Perhaps the rock being used previously made the levels spike even more.

Despite the loss of the fish, this is a great experience for myself and my daughters, who are learning with me.

On a side note, the Turbo Snail was not dead, but in bad shape. I acclimated it and added it to a bin of excess water I removed when I added the rock, so maybe it will survive.

QUESTION: Since my tank has basically enter another cycle, and there are no livestock in it, do I need to keep my filter running, or just turn it off for the time being?

 

Sorry about the losses,but thankfully it happened very early in the game,before you invested in some corals and other livestock.

 

leave the filter running,but if you have a skimmer,turn it off.Wait until ammonia,nitrites read zero and nitrates are at least under 10ppm before adding anything else.And then you should be fine.

 

you definitely want to run your filter, if you turn it off all the bacteria on it will die and you will repeat what just happened.

 

Even with other live rock....you should always add that slowly to your tank. Depending on the size...could be 1-2 lbs per week.

 

I now understand the problems associated with adding large amounts of rock to a tank at once. Thanks for the tip.

Understood 100%.

I only have a canister filter right now and will keep it running. Before I screwed this up, My ammonia was at 0 and the other levels were coming down!!! Uggghhhh

We were at the LFS over the weekend and my daughter wanted more fish, but I told her we needed to wait for the levels to stabilize. Glad I stood my ground, because they had some neat livestock.

 

I am sorry for your experience here... and your daughters. What a bummer.

M

 

Keep it running. Sorry about your losses also. Same thing happened to me approximately a year ago.