Please help--snail died and then I made things even worse...

[Rippin]

Hmm....I'd say the best advice so far is from whosinpower.

Your main display tank is shot right now. With the absence of any live rock there is new source of nitrifying bacteria for biological filtration, hence the high ammonia levels and sickly livestock.

The main tank has to go through the cycling process again, which means that NO livestock should be in there, only rock, substrate and water. Your corals and fish need to be placed somewhere else - either QT, friend's, fellow reefer's or the LFS.

[tang daddy]

how about adding carbon to dissapate the chemicals.

[sharuq1]

Thanks for the good advice all. Slickfork has been kind enough to take my corals off my hands until my tank is stable again. (tytyty!)

In the meantime I will continue with water changes as needed based on how the tests turn out, run a bag of chemipure and 2 of purigen in the back and will add the LR back to the tank in the next several days. I guess I will see what happens. Wish me luck.

[Slick Fork]

I would let the live rock "cook" for a while (4-5 weeks) in a tub with current, heat, but no light. It will take care of the algae problem that you had and give you the opportunity for a true fresh start. You will also find that the die off from the liverock will cause more ammonia problems for you with the fish in the tank if you stick it back in in a few days.

The second consideration, your corals have just gone through an extremely stressful time, don't rush to stick them back in. I don't mind holding them for as long as it takes. Get the rock cured properly, put it back into the tank in a month and a half and let everything settle down.

Rushing the recovery will just set you up for another crash down the road. I guarantee it will be worth the wait

[sharuq1]

Ah I had not thought of that but you are right. I will let the rock "cook" for a bit then. Sucks for the coralline but at least it will get rid of the pest algae.