Recycle and start over

Hi, I have had a reef tank for 2 years now and have never had a problem. About three weeks ago my tank spiked with ammonia, from 0 to off the chart over night, the water became cloudy and my reef started to die, I saved what I could in my spare tank ( just in case of breakdown in big tank ) which was a pistol shrimp, dori, spotted blenny, four blue claw hermits, one cleaner shrimp, and yellow goby, oh and a few snails. All the coral died and that brought tears to me and my wife's eyes. So here I am, Tank recycled and about to add snails, crabs, shrimp, and a few cucumbers, any suggestions for my tank b4 I start my coral regrowth again would be appreciated.

 

Three weeks does not a cycle make add a single fish to keep it running and wait a few week and add another. Then after about 6 weeks the corals maybe will be O.K You load that rascal up to soon and boom Boom out goes the lights again..Seen it happen many many times.

I think something in your old system had something to trigger a spike and the bacteria died off and the white haze you say was it consuming all the free dissolved oxygen. Tow yrs you say ? Just for the heck of it I'll you was it a 3 or 5 inch sand bed in this tank ? thats about when a shallow DSB bites some people.

 

I dont have a DSB, and at the time of the meltdown, I had no bioballs either just using the leive rock in the tank, It's sad to say but we think the inlaws may have cleaned the aquarium with windex or something cause the spike happened the day after they left. I was just going to add scavengers for now, should I not ?

 

Sorry for your loss... :-/

Good luck...!

 

Windex is so over rated LOL I doubt that had anything to do with it at all I have sprayed it into my tanks to see the results and I use it almost daily on them.. Skimmer was running properly ? pumps where up to full speed no heating or chilling issues ? Did the white haze appear few hrs before it went south on ya ? Any odor's like sulfide.. Good surface agitation and good exposure to the air above ? Not sure where you live ? But I have seen a few tanks crash from the boiler or furnace in the house heating systems when they are turned on .

 

I live on Long Island in NY. Furnace was not turned on yet. Skimmer,pump, all was working great. My wife and I actually gave up on what happened and just started from scratch. We would both love to find the killer, but are out of ideas. It started to get cloudy about 12 hours B4 the disaster struck.

 

That look of someone poured a little milk in my tank was the bacteria dieing off Thats what i like about a wet dry.. Leaves you some wiggle room But I'd bring it all back on line really slowly.. I have some old reefer friends in Massapequa park area My wife was raised there also.. Well if you need any live stock or drygoods ? let me know I'll cut you some slack to help you get it back up to speed.. I hate a bare looking tank ):

 

Sorry for your loses.

 

Thanks Tangster. My wife was born iand raised in Massapeua Park. Small world. Thanks again and we are going to go slow, just trying to see a posative side.

 

Man, i wish you luck. Ive got almost no corals and would get emotional if one of them started to even look bad. You must be emotionally strong to see that and not just lose it. Good luck and i hope that you are ten times as sucecessful with the "new" tank.

Bobby K. (Robert Kociuba)