Am i recycling?

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Iceman72

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
165
Hello all. After a month or so ago I had a bad tank crash. Anyway I decided to completely do a 100% water change! sift out sand and scrub down my live rocks with a nice medium tooth brush. I did this because I just could not figure out why my tank crashed and why I could not keep literally anything in it after it crashed for more than two days. So now that I have done all this, is my tank going to go through another cycle? Tonight I'm doing my parm check to see what's going on with the usual ammonia nitrites and trates. Since the tank crashing I am using reef crystals now, my BH-2000 protein skimmer and I have a little over 110 pounds of live and base rock. The tank is 55 gallon with 4 t5's and 4 blue LEDs. I'm using some good ATI bulbs. I think two blue, one purple and one hyper blue(I think that's what it's called). I'm also getting a reactor and HOB refugiem for Christmas. Oh yeah right now I have two turbo snails and two hermit crabs. How long should I wait before adding fish? Also this time around I'm only going with 5 fish tops. I'm also thinking about getting a small chiller because when my wife cooks at night the tank hits around 83 some times. Any recommendations?
 
Looks like you are doing a good restart. You are cycling again which is good. Finish your cycle before adding any fish. Also 83 is not a killer. In sw the temps can be 78-82 so 83 is not bad. The number of fish depends on what type fish you have. What are you planning on restocking with? Any ideas why the tank crashed so as to avoid a repeat.
 
It's crazy I have absolutely no idea. It could have been one or a combination of several things. One is I had just added a puffer that I think got ich and infected my fish badly. I thought I treated and it was gone. Because the white spots left. But then I noticed on my tang inside of him it looked kinda bumpy. The puffer always had it. The other fish seemed fine. Another idea could have been the live rock I had put in could have tossed the tank into a second huge cycle. Because my parms went through the roof over night. When I say over the roof I mean the ATI test kit colors was almost the last colors on the bottom for ammonia, nitrites and narrates. I mean it literally put me to tears. My water was always near perfect. What ever it was it came fast and killed faster. In 24 hours I lost everything. Very sad. Then weeks later I could not even keep a damsel with perfect parms. So what ever it was did not show up on test kit. That's why I did a complete tear down.

This Friday I'm going to start with a CUC of some snails and crabs. As far as fish I was thinking a couple clowns, flame angel, the other two not sure. My kids wife and I discuss the fish almost every night. But those three I must have. Although my daughter says I should do just one clown. Since I'm just doing 5 fish.

Any ideas on a nice group of fish with pretty colors for a tank of my size and my equipment?
 
if everything works out with the parameters and the tank has cycled, I would suggest a fairy wrasse, beautiful fish and very docile.

with the reactor, have you looked into a biopellet reactor? I think its one of the best investments ive ever spent. it removes nitrates/phosphates the biological way, so no nasty unnatural chemicals.

if everything went through the roof previously. could it have been a dead fish or something hidden away and rotted? or a big chunk of fish crap building up? or was it just too many fish?

but I think what your doing now and only adding a few fish is a good idea just incase.
 
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