Really frustrated.

[Nonfamous]

Lost a fish to ich. Lost a shrimp to? Had cyano and fixed he underlying issue but the cyano came back. Did a black out. Cyano came back. Running a GFO. Cyano didn't retreat. Broke down and went the chemclean route. Tank looks great. Followed directions to the "T". Just completed the 20% WC as called for. Always use RODI and filters are in great shape. Typically do a 10% WC per week.

Salinity 1.025 via refractometer.
PH 8.2 (little lower than normal today)
Ammonia 0.0 (Bright yellow via API)
Nitrite 0.0 (Bright blue via API)
Nitrate 0.0 (Bright yellow via API)
Phosphate .25 (Light green tint via API)
Calcium 380 (Blue at 19 drops via API)
Water temp is 79.8*F

Water:
In 420 TDS (tap)
RO 4 TDS (After RO filter only)
DI 0 TDS (What I mix with)

Salt is Instant Ocean purple lid. Mix is matured for 24 hours minimum.

Flow is 24x per hour and there is no stray voltage.

Lighting is t5, 2 10,000k daylights, 2 actinics, 1 48" white/actinic stunner strip, 1 actinic 12" strip, 1 actinic/maroon 12" strip. Lights are on for 8 hours a day. No moon light. No direct sunlight. T5 Bulbs are 2 and 3 months old.

Why is my tank becoming the tank of death? My Zoas, while they look healthy, have all changed to a brown/dark red. No longer green. My Mushrooms still look green but are trending towards red. My Yellow star polyps, while still yellow, are far from a vibrant colour. My other corals are gone.

What is going on here? Do I have a water issue? I'm really beginning to distrust these water tests but don't know how else to test them. I added carbon in a bag in a high flow area. Not sure this will do much else but remove the chemclean. My skimmer has gone nuts for no reason so its not running right now. Actually since the chemclean says don't run it, its been off for 3 days now. Not sure what I'm going to do about that either. :frustrat:

 

[Zissou]

If your skimmer has a dump nipple on the skimmer cup, hook up some tubing and put it into a jug, and just have your skimmer run. Then you won't overflow your cup and make a mess. Keep some freshly made saltwater handy because you may go through some of it.

Your skimmer is going nuts because there's still some chemiclean in your system. It might take a few more water changes and skimming to completely remove it. Carbon will help also.

I nuked all of my cyano the same way, and now I'm just dealing with the dead left overs. Been blowing off rocks, siphoning, etc. It's a pain in the butt but you'll get through it. What bothers me about this hobby is that the more you play with your tank, the worse everything seems to get. :mrgreen:

What kind and how much are you feeding your fish?

And how old are your bulbs?

 

[little_fish]

When did you use the chemiclean stuff? That stuff can crash a tank or cause serious problems, which is why I never recommend its use. Especially because there is no common cause between using it successfully and when it will cause a disaster.

 

[Nonfamous]

Little over 48 hours ago. I know the concerns about crashing tanks. I have followed the directions to the letter and am hoping for the best. How long would it be to show signs of a crash?

 

[Zissou]

So you did chemiclean, then the 20% water change after, and your skimmer is still off? Turn your skimmer back on and do what I told you, it'll eventually remove the rest of it and come back down to normal levels in a few hours or a couple of days. For me it was nuts for a few hours and now it's fine.

I think the only common cause is people using too much and not putting an air stone for oxygen in the tank while it's under treatment.

 

[Nonfamous]

I don't have a dump on my skimmer cup. Even at its lowest setting and lifted as high as possible the cup fills with water in seconds. Not 30 seconds, more like 3 seconds. Its starting to piss me off! At this point I about ready to spend $500 on a new one.

 

[Zissou]

Stand by with some fresh saltwater, and a WET VAC. Then turn on the vac and skimmer, and suck out the water from the skimmer cup as it fills up. :mrgreen:

It should eventually stop; depending on how much water is removed you might just end up doing a water change with the skimmer as the siphon.

 

[Nonfamous]

Okay, so with some creative engineering, I have been able to suspend my skimmer. Right now it is in barely enough water to keep the pump covered. Turned all the way down it is reacting in a manner that I can deal with. If my water level drops too low I'm going to uncover the pump though. I have adjusted the ATO to a very tight tolerance so hopefully it will stay submerged.

As far as using too much chemiclean, i felt it was better to err on the side of safety. With a total capacity of right at 104 gallons I only used the recommended amount for 90 gallons. I did this since my DT is a 90 gallon tank. Everything I read said to keep the sump volume in the equation. I didn't.

I did end up doing a nearly 5 gallon water change via the skimmer cup. Sitting on the floor is no good for my bad back I'll tell ya! Recon the fish know how much I'm worrying about them?

 

[chichimom79]

How much sand and rock do you have? It sounds like perhaps you didn't account for water displacement.

 

[SJojo3377]

What about your T5 bulbs? When did you last replace them? I've noticed that when bulbs go bad, the algae wants to come out and play!