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Here is my 29g SW tank I set up about two months ago. It has some live rock and live sand in it. There are also two damsels, a turbo snail, and an eliphant nosed snail. :)
OK. I put in a sump last week, and I think that messed with my water chemistry, and all my fish and snails died. :( I went to a frag swap this weekend and got a black and white percula clown, and I also put my GBTA in there with her. Here are the pics! 100_0255.jpg100_0254.jpg100_0253.jpg100_0252.jpg100_0256.jpg
The first fish died on Tuesday, and from there everything, went downhill.
I think that when I put the sump in it raised my nitrites(?), and that killed one of my fish. Being stupid and buring the dead fish, I think the ammonia and nitrites(?) killed the other fish. I took both the fish out, but the ammonia and nitrites(?) were still in the tank. This killed the snails. That's all I could come up with. After a 50% WC, everything was back to normal and ready for new inhabitants. :)
Prior to adding the sump, did you have those thick sandy areas? After installing the sump did you move the rocks around and disrupt the thick sandy areas? You could have released a lot of ammonia and nitrite into the water. Did you take ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings, if so, what were they?
I highly doubt setting up a sump could possibly do anything to kill your tank inhabitants, unless your added water salinity was drastically off or you did not let the silicone for the sump baffles cure completely. Did you happen to take a pH reading?
Post some more details. Lets see if we can find out why this happened, so it does not happen again. Always sucks when something goes wrong.
After I constructed the sump, I let it sit for about a month.
Yeah, the sand was like that and I did disrupt it. :( On the first test after they died, the readings were: PH- 7.8
NitrAtes- 20ppm (I got nitrites and nitrates confused when I was trying to tell what happened).
NitrItes- 0ppm
Ammonia- .25ppm
It could have been the sand bed. Ideally you want to keep a sand bed roughly 1" deep. Once the sand starts sitting undisturbed at depths of 2-3" or more you start building up anaerobic bacteria that converts nitrate to nitrogen gas. After a couple months ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate can build up in the sand bed in significant quantities. If heavily disturbed it can crash the tank.
Your pH is also fairly low, could be a lack of oxygen in the water. Do you have any powerheads disrupting the surface of the tank? That skimmer should help with that as well. Are you monitoring the temps of the tank?
Yeah I would be shocked if adding a sump disrupted your water chemistry. What do you mean you buried your dead fish? You left him in the tank and put him under the sand? If so, may I ask why you did this?
OK. I added some ricordea, toadstools, hammerheads, kenya trees, and a few different types of zoanthids. I should be getting my T5HO light in sometime this week. I'll try to post pics tonight. :)
Yeah I would be shocked if adding a sump disrupted your water chemistry. What do you mean you buried your dead fish? You left him in the tank and put him under the sand? If so, may I ask why you did this?
Sorry, I didn't see this post 'til today. I wasn't sure if my tank was fully cycled, so I just did what the lady at the LFS said to do by buring him in the sand. After doing so, I realized that it was a big mistake. :(
It could have been the sand bed. Ideally you want to keep a sand bed roughly 1" deep. Once the sand starts sitting undisturbed at depths of 2-3" or more you start building up anaerobic bacteria that converts nitrate to nitrogen gas. After a couple months ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate can build up in the sand bed in significant quantities. If heavily disturbed it can crash the tank.
Your pH is also fairly low, could be a lack of oxygen in the water. Do you have any powerheads disrupting the surface of the tank? That skimmer should help with that as well. Are you monitoring the temps of the tank?
I do have a powerhead in the tank, but I don't have it blowing bubbles. I try raising my Ph with Kent marine buffer, but it just drops back down to 8.0. I'll check the temp in a few.
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