HELP!!! Went away, and now tank looks really bad

[scrmom]

My husband and I went out of town on wednesday night and tank looked fine. Everything working properly. My sister was babysitting at our house, and so my son was in charge of turning lights off and on and putting a pinch of food in tank daily. Apparently, there was a noise where sump and protein skimmer are early sunday and then making a really loud noise sunday night so my sister turned everything off because also water was all underneath where sump is. The rock and sand have turned a rusty color (see pics). They couldn't contact me until this morning(mon morning) and so my husband instructed her to unplug protein skimmer and turn everything else back on. Just got home tonight and so far see one dead snail, dead peppermint shrimp and haven't seen one of the emerald crabs. Long story short, my tank is a new setup see my "info". Just got the lights 10-14 days ago? I checked water parameters nh3 0, no2 0, no3 5, ph 8.4, phospate 0, salinty 1.25.

Am I having an algae bloom? What should I do? I don't know when the peppermint shrimp died, could it have been from everything being turned off for 12hours. Where I found it, it almost looks like it got stuck between glass and rock. I tried to remove it and now it is in the back of the tank and I don't know if I can't reach it. Will hurt to leave it in there?

I know this is a lot of questions, but please help. We were planning on getting fish next week but now it looks like it's going to be awhile.

Thanks[/img]
You can click on pics to see them up close.

 

[austinsdad]

12 hours with no power to the tank could be deadly, no oxygen gets into the water. At the very least, powerheads running will keep things alive.

Otherwise, new tank and new lights, I'd think these are diatoms. Something that happens with everybody's new tank. It'll pass.

Watch your ammonia for a bit in case there was also die-off on the rocks or something else unknown.

Also, limit your lighting to about 10 hours a day to help/limit algae issues. But you've probably got diatoms at this early stage.

I see no problem getting fish still. Still got some cleaning crew left? I'd replace them too if I were you.

Good luck.

 

[scrmom]

Only one snail is dead, the peppermint shrimp died but I am not sure why? Hermit crabs are busy eating all the algae. I haven't seen the two emerald crabs, still looking for them. The conch is still alive and with all the algae he probably thinks he is in heaven. Is it ok to leave the peppermint shrimp in there?

 

[austinsdad]

I'd leave him in there. The hermits will use it for food and it won't add to any ammonia IMO. Either way, in or out is fine. The crabs aren't normally seen a lot anyway. Are you feeding anything to the tank? The cleaning crew needs food too IMO. They can't live off of algae alone - so let'm nibbel of the shrimp. It'll likely be gone by the time you get home today.

Watch the ammonia. When is the last time you changed the water. Maybe do that before you add fish too.

Keep us/me posted.

 

[roka64]

I agree with austinsdad. You could have the algae build up due to the new lighting as well. I would leave the shrimp in there, just make sure to watch your ammonia. I wouldn't keep him in there more than two days, if the clean up crew hasn't gotten to him by then. How a timer for the lights. I bought mine from HD for around $10-15, if I remember correctly.

 

[scrmom]

I feed a pinch of tetramarine fish flakes and 1 algae wafer daily. Is this enough for the invertebraes? If not what should I be feeding them?

 

[austinsdad]

As long as something makes it to the bottom or on the rocks, I'm guessing they're fine for now.

 

[melosu58]

I would feed every other day of less for inverts. excessive nutrients could be causing this algea as well as the lights.