Trying to keep going

So recently I have a major tank crash after hooking up the sump for the first time. Since then I turned everything off and before I did the water was cloudy and remained cloudy untill now. I tend to think the water is cloudy due to the sand I added into the refriguim part of my sump. My question is could this have been a factor in what lead to killing all my fish?

I really want to continue as I have come so far and put so much into it it would be dumb to quit now. I just want to try and rule it down to what caused it all to crash.

 

Don't give up yet. Then you'd always wonder what went wrong or what you could've done right. And I'd bet you've $ already invested into it. I'd say some of the better reasons to quit the hobby are; a.) lack of $ b.) new job (ie.time, travel) c.) wifey or husb has a problem with the hobby d.) relocating and a host of other reasons...BUT, keep going and educate yourself more. I've had fish since I was a kid...goldfish, to convict cichlids (are what hooked me), cichlids up until 4 years ago (I'm 41) and even still I'm learning about this hobby. This board has been an awesome resource and is ultimately what caused me to overhaul my entire tank from lighting, to live rock and sump/fuge. This board is also responsible for my greatly increased expenditure into this hobby! AND after doing a DIY sump/fuge project I'm even more "invested".... ANYHOO, don't give up!

ps. I seriously doubt adding sand to your fuge is what caused the 'crash' of your tank. Obviously it prob made it cloudy, but I don't think that'd kill your fish. I'm still a 'noob' compared to a lot of the people on here, but i'm tellin ya...keep at it! If I were you I'd strongly suggest listing out on your post all the aspects of your tank so these guys can better help you out. ie. how old your tank is, size, what livestock you had in it, water params etc etc...

 

Well I am just looking to get a few hardy fish as I have school in 2 weeks and will only be home on the weekends to do water changes and things like that.

Tank is 30g with a 20g sump/refrigium.
Its been going for almost 4 months
I have 40lbs of live rock and a Korilia 3
The fish I had were a bicolor angel, bangaii cardinal, clown and goby.
water params were and still are nitrites 0 natrates <10 ph is around 8

When the tank did crash i put the bangaii in the sump and he made it so i returned him to my lfs. It was almost as tho they weren't getting oxygen because even the goby was swimming at the top portion of the tank, and the other fish were doing the same as well as laying on the bottom. It may have had something to do with the fact I had the skimmer off that day as well as the fact I introduced the angel to my aquarium.

 

Also I mixed the salt water for the sump 24 hours before i used it in the sump. I did switch to a new brand of salt. I was using petco premium salt and switched to instant ocean. But when I switched I used 7 scoops of petco and 3 scoops of instant ocean just to be sure it wouldn't cause total shock even tho after multiple searchs showed switching salts shouldn't be an issue.

 

what's your salinity (specific gravity) at? Did you appropriately mix the right amount of salt/water? I'm not sure how you're going to effectively take care of the tank though being gone 5 days a week. Are your parents going to run it for you (feed them etc.)? I've a hard time believing just having your skimmer off for a day and adding the bicolor did your tank in.

 

What else did you do when you hooked up the sump? Could you spell it out more graphically?

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/help-70153.html

this helps him and you guys its a previous thread where situation is described

jturnbul - good for you sticking with it

Steve

 

I Just added the salt, and primed my overflow then plugged in the return pump. The pump was moving water too fast for the overflow so I turned it down a little using my ball valve. When I started the sump It made the water very cloudy and still is pretty cloudy at this point I really can't seem to get it to go away.

The guy at my LFS said it could have been the return pump electrically charging my water but I don't think that is the case as I got a mag 5 per reviews from this site. It is submerged however.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/new-hobby/reaquascaping-70044.html

sorry about this guys

this is where situation started

Steve

 

I reaquascaped 2 days before it all started and test my levels and they came out fine. It started at the sump.

Just trying to clear this up a little thanks for linking those in tho.