Dead fish, missing anemone and nitrate spike

[Gripenfelter]

Just got back from vacation. Was away a week. The guy who was watching my tank said the water looked milky and foggy on the last day.

I'm thinking my baby lionfish died behind the rocks. Never saw the little guy since the day I got him and think he starved. Couldn't get him to eat silver sides or krill or mysis. Think I lost an anemone as well while I was gone.

Anyways, moving forward, I couldn't find my ammonia test kit but when I checked the nitrates and nitrites it was way off the chart. My chart stops at 110 and I could tell by the bright purple colour it was way higher.

I normally do 6% water changes. I did a 12% water change last night and sucked up water from the bottom of the tank where most of the ammonia resides. Nitrate level went down to 50. Dumped in lots of Prime and Cycle bacteria.

Doing another 12% water change today.

I can't do much more than 12% because I have sponges and clams jammed into the rocks near the top of the tank. Can't move them...ugh.

Picking up more Prime, Cycle, and Instant Ocean Nitrate Reducer today. My PH got thrown for a loop as well after the water change. Dipped down to 7.75. Normally it's 8.2.

Any other suggestions?

[Lampshade]

Sorry to hear about the loss, that sounds terrible.

Are you running carbon at all? I know after my anemone died it was toxic soup in my tank, i ran heavy carbon and still lost LPS.

[Gripenfelter]

Yes two carbon bags and chem elite ultra pure. Think I'll go pick up some new carbon today too.

[Gripenfelter]

Woke up this morning to a dead cleaner shrimp. His body parts were all over the tank.

Water is very cloudy and stinks like sewage. Now what?

I think the guy that was watching my tank was over feeding.

[David Newiger]

You need to do a lot more than a 12% water change. I would be doing 200% over 12 hrs.

[Gripenfelter]

Did 25% last night. Doing 25% today.

Nitrates are down to about 40. Water is still cloudy.

Also can't keep the PH up. Dropped to 7.75 last night. Normally sits at 8.2. Using lots of Seachem 8.3 buffer which is also supposed to raise alkinity.

Also noticed the bulb on my UV sterilizer went out. Wonder if that did anything.

[dsaundry]

You need to do a lot more than a 12% water change. I would be doing 200% over 12 hrs.

I wouldn't advise this as it might be too much of a change too quickly for your system. You could actually cause more stress to the system. As far as the cloudiness goes, 2 questions, do you have any anemone's in your tank?? If so are any missing? Do you use activated carbon in your system?? If not I would set up a carbon reactor and this should help clear your water up and remove some of the toxins that may be in it.

[Gripenfelter]

Yes one anenome is missing.

Replaced my activated carbon yesterday with two new bags.

Should I hook up the UV sterilizer again with a new bulb or just keep adding cycle?

Wife just called, tank stinks.

[dsaundry]

Ok, one of your nems got sucked into an intake and is more than likely gone{that is the milky colour}.. Uv sterilizer probably won't make too much difference one way or the other at this point, keep up the carbon going and if you have access to a hang on back filter, like an aquaclear or something similar you can run filter floss and carbon in that as well. Keep up with the partial water changes 10-15% per day over the next week or so{never asked, how big is your tank?}watch and test your water parameters and be patient. Try to see if there are any remains of the anemone kicking around and do your best to get anything that might be dead out of the tank. Change the carbon every two-three days and you should be ok.

[dsaundry]

Oh and if you have any more anemone's in tank I would suggest putting some foam or some sort of filter media over the intakes for your pumps. Nem's are notorious for getting sucked into them....I know Lost a beautiful rbta a few years ago to a nem wandering into a fx5 intake on a previous tank.