major 125 gal tank crash

[php1775]

just a few days ago my tank was gorgeous ,the fish were super healthy as were the corals that filled almost every area of the tank.first i noticed my efflo colonies were developing white areas,did all my testing and all my parameters were perfect,i did not even think about an ammonia test,never really had any ammonia in my tanks so i stopped testing for it.turns out that when i put the tank together about 8 years ago a lot of people were putting plenums in their tanks.i talked to one of the older more knowledgeable members than i ,i cant think of his name.any way i told him i didnt want a plenum in my tank for the obvious reason and he suggested i put one in my sump,which worked out great for all these years nitrates always low and phosphates very managable.turns out that i disturbed the plenum by removing the top tray for a good cleaning,which i used to evenly disperse the drainage of water going into the plenum.all of a sudden i would find fish after fish dead and watched my favorite corals start to lose color and die.at this point i shut down all the valves that i installed in case of such an emergency and stopped all flow into the sump.then i drained the sump,threw out the substrate over the plenum,luckilly i also built in a drainage tube so that i could suck out evey thing in the plenum.i then used a hose to drain the water from the tank before each water change and used it over and over again (before each water change)to flush out the plenum.then when i drained the water out of the sump it started coming out nice and clear,then i used some ro water with some amquel+ and let about 8 inches of it to sit over night.drained the sump in the morning,and did another water change in the tank above.anyway i got a reading of 1.0 even after 4 water changes of at least 35 gallons.i had a little amquel left so i put a little in the tank with aeration and got a reading of 0.25.i was surprised that my elegance didnt die but is actually doing fantastic and fully open.does any one have any idea how to get rid of the remaining ammonia i dont know if i should continue to use the amquel but plan to keep doing my water changes every other day,sometimes 2 days in a row.i want to get this thing back up and running but want to wait till the tank is at 0 ammonia--thanks

 

[dz6t]

I think the plenum may release some toxin into the water and amonia is from dying corals. Can you do a larger water change (>50%) instead of several small ones? Also, I would consider taking any dying coral out to stop the amonia build up. I am not sure Amquel is reef safe but I will like to know if it is. Good luck.

 

[STiTCH87]

Oh no! That's absolutely horrible dude. I am greatly sorry to hear of your loss. I hope all is atleast stable now and that the damage done is done. This hobby can most certainly be a b*t*h sometimes for sure.
Just take a deep breath, take things slow, and grieve a bit. We all most definitely go through some form of tank failure whether big or small. But we learn from our errors (and also from freak things) and it's the ones who pick up themselves and carry on that continue to enjoy the rewards that also come with the hobby. If you were closer by i'd of donated a frag of nepthea to you. That's all i;d of been able to offer. =\

 

[Turbosnail]

The plenum traps anaerobic bacteria and you released them and they eat all the oxygen in the water. Then stuff starts to die and causes the ammonia spike. You should not disturb it again. Sorry for your losses I have been on the receiving end of this before so I feel your pain.

 

[php1775]

thanks for your support,i plan to keep on reefing in spite of this setback

 

[php1775]

elegance flourishing after tank crash

thanks for your support,i plan to keep on reefing in spite of this setback

the amazing thing about the crash is that it killed a lot of fish and large colonies of red and green cap, a huge reddish pink birdsnest that i started from a frag two very nice size colonies of efflo,all my softies and red serpent stars to name a few,but my elegance did not only survive ,but is flourishing ,

 

[Docstach]

The plenum traps anaerobic bacteria and you released them and they eat all the oxygen in the water.

Can you explain this? Not questioning, but my understainding of the metabolism of anaerobic bacteria is different (of coarse I am basing this on "land based" bacteria). Just trying to educate myself.