I have been keeping a reef aquarium for over 6 years. I have a 90 gallon reef aquarium. After a cleaning a couple of months ago, an unknown contaminant got into the aquarium, caused massive cloudiness (such that I couldn't see through water), and killed off nearly everything in my aquarium over the course of a few days. I lost 2 Picasso clown fish, 6 blue chromis (1 sole survivor), an urchin, countless corals of all kinds, snails, and the list just goes on. I have had many of these animals for several years and just writing about this is depressing. I have not been able to determine what the contaminate was or how exactly it got introduced. It coincided with a cleaning, so I can only conclude the change water or something I put in the aquarium had something on it. I just don't know because there wasn't anything unusual about that cleaning. Unfortunately, this happened on a Saturday night and I had no access to replacement saltwater until Monday evening.
In order to remove the contaminated water, I implemented a poly-filter in my filter system and performed weekly deep water changes of 20 gallons until I had cycled 60 gallons. Since then I have performed three smaller water changes at 10 gallons. I use RO/DI water I buy from the local fish store.
So what's left? I have a single cleaner shrimp, one blue chromis, and handful of crabs.
The main problem I have at this point is that this incredibly ugly brownish / dark green algae that is growing all over the live rock and what I think is a diatom bloom that won't quit. I have been regularly blowing this stuff of the rock (almost daily) with a turkey baster, siphoning it out on a weekly basis, and it just keeps coming back. My water parameters are normal except ammonia is higher than 0. I have held off re-introducing snails and other cleaning crew members since the ammonia is non-zero.
I also have a gorgonian coral on a rock. Green algae grows on it that I regularly pull off. Its polyps have not come out in since the incident, however the arms are still maintaining decent form. Should I assume it is dead and remove it or is still trying to survive?
The water parameters over the past several weeks have been stable and in line with my most recent reading as of Tuesday:
1. PH is normal is at 8.4
2. Nitrite is 0
3. Nitrate is 0
4. Ammonia at .25
5. Salinity is 1.026
6. Phosphate is slight at .25
So where should I go from here? Part of me just wants to shut the aquarium down completely (finding new homes for the few remaining inhabitants) and let the rock die off completely and then restart the aquarium from scratch. It seems very extreme, but might be the best thing at this point. My instinct is to keep it running as is and re-introduce a clean up crew, but I am not sure that is a good idea with ammonia at .25 and I have no idea how long I will be battling algae. Would be it be close enough? Or should I just wait it out until I can get ammonia down and then re-introduce clean-up crew? Any thing I should consider to clear up this algae mess earlier except constant pruning?
I have not had a disaster like this before and so I'm not really sure where to go from here and I'm open to any ideas.
In order to remove the contaminated water, I implemented a poly-filter in my filter system and performed weekly deep water changes of 20 gallons until I had cycled 60 gallons. Since then I have performed three smaller water changes at 10 gallons. I use RO/DI water I buy from the local fish store.
So what's left? I have a single cleaner shrimp, one blue chromis, and handful of crabs.
The main problem I have at this point is that this incredibly ugly brownish / dark green algae that is growing all over the live rock and what I think is a diatom bloom that won't quit. I have been regularly blowing this stuff of the rock (almost daily) with a turkey baster, siphoning it out on a weekly basis, and it just keeps coming back. My water parameters are normal except ammonia is higher than 0. I have held off re-introducing snails and other cleaning crew members since the ammonia is non-zero.
I also have a gorgonian coral on a rock. Green algae grows on it that I regularly pull off. Its polyps have not come out in since the incident, however the arms are still maintaining decent form. Should I assume it is dead and remove it or is still trying to survive?
The water parameters over the past several weeks have been stable and in line with my most recent reading as of Tuesday:
1. PH is normal is at 8.4
2. Nitrite is 0
3. Nitrate is 0
4. Ammonia at .25
5. Salinity is 1.026
6. Phosphate is slight at .25
So where should I go from here? Part of me just wants to shut the aquarium down completely (finding new homes for the few remaining inhabitants) and let the rock die off completely and then restart the aquarium from scratch. It seems very extreme, but might be the best thing at this point. My instinct is to keep it running as is and re-introduce a clean up crew, but I am not sure that is a good idea with ammonia at .25 and I have no idea how long I will be battling algae. Would be it be close enough? Or should I just wait it out until I can get ammonia down and then re-introduce clean-up crew? Any thing I should consider to clear up this algae mess earlier except constant pruning?
I have not had a disaster like this before and so I'm not really sure where to go from here and I'm open to any ideas.
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