HELP- not sure what the problem is

I came home today from a trip to the desert. I had been having my roommate feed my fish. The first thing i notice when i walked in my room was alot of bubbles coming out of the return; my skimmer was foaming and producing a ton of microbubbles, so i turned down the air, which seemed to help. I then proceded to change a filter sock and top off with some rodi. However, after coming back to check up about 20 minutes later, the foam my skimmer was producing was overflowing my sump, and my fish all lay on the bottom of my tank, breathing rapidly, and my corals are all closed tightly. Oddly, my cleaner shrimp seems to be unaffected. Does anyone know what the problem could be? Im running tests and ill post the results shortly. Unfortunately its too late here to run to a lfs and i dont have any water to do a change. Thanks

 

So far:
changed my carbon.
Ammonia: < 0.25
pH: 8.1
KH: 10.0 dkh
Ca: 400 ppm

 

The skimmer and bubbles in the return both indicate the low water level in the sump that you corrected with the RODI top off.

The presence of ammonia would indicate a presence of nitrites and nitrates, probably caused by overfeeding. Its also odd that they are on the bottom instead of at the surface. Probably means you have lost the fish. Nitrates are EXTREMELY toxic to corals but don't affect fish as much. It could also be the microbubbles from the return causing issues. Or a combination of both. About all you can do right now is water change, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

 

Well my first thought for the cause of the microbubbles was a low water level in the sump, but even after topping off, the problem became much worse.

Yeah i guess I will just have to wait til morning. Thanks for your input.

 

Sounds like it might be salinity, temp, or pH shock, low O2, or a combination of all of them. What's the total volume of your system, where did you add the RO/DI, how much, and how quickly? Did you aerate it first? Did you thoroughly rinse the new carbon?

Posting your Nitrite, Nitrate, and Phosphate levels might also be helpful.

 

Kinda sounds like you skimmer is having problems and not skimming correctly resulting in higher than normal ammonia no2 and no3. At least that's my guess. Do you have test results for salinity and nitrates and nitrites?

 

It sounds like low oxygen. I hope the op was able to figure it out. I would aerate the water if it's not too late....

 

when you got back, did your skimmer cup overflow into the sump again possibly causing the ammonia spike.....and if you say that the water level was low, the salinity probably got too high and maybe you topped off the tank back to normal too quickly? microbubbles really don't affect fish that much that I know off....i know every now and then my skimmer starts flippin out and pours bubbles in my tank for a day or two until I get back home. I would look into parameters, that ammonia level is a bit scary meaning that NITRITES are higher and that poisons fish, nitrates aren't harmful and ammonia burns their gills.