Tank Crash. Lost all my corals :(

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by OCDP

Yeah.. as I said I am going to do more water changes once I'm home from work. I only had time for 2 yesterday, I just got back from camping and had a lot of things to get done last night. Is it just me , and it probably is but doesn't it seem wrong to change out 2g, replace it, then take another 2g out and replace it? Wouldn't the "correct" way of doing this be to just change out the whole amount (whatever that may be, probably another 8g in my case) and replace it all? Seems like this would be more effective?

I have nothing in there that it can further harm really (coral wise) . I don't have any carbon unfortunately.. I'll turn on my AC500 and stick the foam insert in for a bit though . I'll try to get some carbon today .

I also will turkey baste all the rocks and sand... hell, I may even remove my sand bed ... it's just full of crap and it's not doing my tank any good these days.

Yeah, doing 2 gallon water changes won't really get you far. Imagine having pitcher full of koolaid, take out a glassful and add a glassful of water, its still got tons of koolaid in it right (and tastes like it too )? Larger water changes are really warranted here. As well you have some (albeit small) mixing of water that is infused into your rock and sandbed, so you'd want to still maintain the larger water changes to get that out as well.

I don't really know what the foam insert will do for your tank unless there are large particulates you need to get out of the water, besides it will just trap gunk which will break down even further causing more problems for your tank. Definitely try to get some carbon in there to help break down and remove some of the water impurities.

I agree with Bev and Muck, definitely a good time to be cooking that rock. You don't want that crap leaching out later causing you all sort of problems down the line.