Urgent Help!!

[Ernie]

Dear all reefers,

i started cycling my 1 and 1/2 feet tank 4 days ago,

1st day: mix saltwater, wait 1 day for clearup

2nd day: Added in 1 dead shrimp

3rd day: added in 2 kg of live rocks

4th day: tank clouded, very smelly, ammonia spiked, noticed most organisms on the liverocks including the crabs dying

Forced to do a 50% water change, to reduce the stench.....

Did i do anything wrong? Should i continue to cycle or restart the whole setup.....very demoralized

[spade]

Ernie,

don't panic, the cloudy water is due to bacteria bloom, indicating the start of the nitrogen cycle

Quoted from About.com

Often cloudy water doesn't appear the instant an aquarium is set up. Instead it appears days, weeks, or even months later. In these cases the cause is usually due to bacterial bloom. As the new aquarium goes through the initial break in cycle, it is not unusual for the water to become cloudy, or at least a little hazy. It will take several weeks to several months to establish bacterial colonies that are able to clear wastes from the water. Over time that cloudiness will resolve itself.

Decaying plants or excess food that remains uneaten, can also cause the milky water seen in bacterial bloom. Regardless of the cause, don't panic over bacterial blooms. Keeping the aquarium very clean by removing debris such as decaying plants and uneaten food, vacuuming the gravel regularly, and performing partial water changes, will quickly resolve most cases of bacterial bloom. Cut back feeding to every second or third day, which will cut down on excess food decay. If there are particles of debris in the water that you are unable to remove via water changes and vacuuming, a flocculent may be used to clear them away. Flocculents cause particles of debris to clump together so they can easily be removed by the filter (be sure to clean your filter so it's working at peak efficiency). Flocculents are generally marketed as water clarifiers, and may be found at your fish shop.

[Tanzy]

How's the water circulation in there? The bacteria bloom might have consumed all the oxygen in the water and the tank has gone anaerobic.

[Ernie]

water circulation provided by 1 Eheim 2213 with a spray bar,

spray bar is mounted slightly below the water surface,

tried mounting above, create alot of bubbles/ foam....

so should i mount it above the water level and install a plexi-glass to prevent the splashing?

now after 50% water change, tank still smell like "long gao" water

and removed 5 centipede like worms and 4 small crabs which are all dead,

live rocks now have a slimy whitish coating...is it okay to continue?

[Tanzy]

Don't change any more water. Let the tank cycle. Might help to remove the crabs and bristleworms(centipede-like worm).

[Explorer]

Yeah. Let it circulate and cycle. Don't panic lah...

[Ernie]

Dear Tanzy/ Spad,

thanks for clarifying my doubts,

i will let it cycle, though the stench now fill the entire living room,

how long will it take for the smell to go away?

[spade]

Ernie,

to get rid of the smell, try running the water thru some carbon. recommend Seachem SeaGel, cos it come with phosguard (save money, economy bad )

[bawater]

put your spray bar below the surface but point it towards surface, this improves surface agitation.

r u running a skimmer? pretty important since u cycling with live rock, there will be organic die off. oh ! & u should take the dead prawn out oredi-and anything else dead,u only needed it as a source of ammonia to start cycle.

[Ernie]

Hi Bawater,

the dead shrimp had totally disintegrated, no remains left,

now into the fifth day

can't really see the inside of the tank clearly, too cloudy, so can;t remove what is left inside, coz cannot see anything....jialat

heavy foaming on surface after shifting spray bar position as advised for improve circulation

no protein skimmer, can a small tank fit?

anyway, everybody is staying clear of the tank, my sis even say i siao liao,

trying to poison everyone

[derf]

sounds like wat happened to me b4. take out ur LR n smell them. if it stinks, it means sumthing in ur LR is dying.

any exoerts care to clarify??

[divinesloth]

I have a question, LR is supposed to be live so as to breakdown unwanted elements like nitrite right? In this case the LR is almost dead so what good does LR do?

[bawater]

well, honestly i never cycled with prawns before in small tanks(only 2ft & beyond)-small tanks only used LR

(tried it once & removed the prawn the next day,stinko)

how big is small? that an airpowered skimmer can't fit?the foaming is protein.

can u remove your lights first to fit in skimmer? how much LR did u put into your tank.

Have u tested any water parameters yet-test everything that u have test kits for,even salinity?

i have only come across smells like that when i decomission tanks or LR. once the bristleworms die,something seriously wrong with water(although the rock will survive).

A Cycling process shouldn't smell like that. Now u can cheat a little since its a small tank, buy 50% filtered seawater from the LFS & change(a bag of water is $2=abt 2-3gal per bag).won't get rid of the smell immediately but will lower the stench by a lot. If its a really small tank(e.g 1ft) then might as well go for 100% change(but only with used water & not new). Maybe u put in too big a piece of prawn & the dying crabs and worms didn't help things.

[divinesloth]

I cycled my 2ft tank with 3 dead prawns, decompose till disappear but did not have the kind of smell that you described. Either its my nose or its your LR I think <_

[Tanzy]

divinesloth,

The rock is never alive. It's the bacteria living on it that makes it 'live'. I'm quite sure the rocks are far from 'dead'.

Ernie,

If you find the smell really offensive than change out all the water as bawater recommended. I suspect that your tank has gone anaerobic and the cycling has stopped or slowed down. Normal cycling smells like the sea, quite pleasant. The bacteria that is multiplying in your tank may not be the bacteria that you want. If left over some time, the cycle will complete itself. The reason the tank has gone anaerobic might be poor circulation, see if you can throw in a powerhead to stir things up a bit.

[divinesloth]

Hah, ok. I just realise the foolishness of my last question

[Ernie]

Hi Bawater,

salinity at 1.022,

Nitrate using seachem colour test, from 1st day (yellow) to now 5th day (purple) which is toxic...

yet to test the pH, do it tonite using sera kit

so will the tank at the present state able to complete the cycling successfully? if okay, i will wait

if not going to be okay, better stop, sibei smelly man.....

PS: 2kg liverocks in half inch crush coral substrate, tank is 33L(1 and 1/2 feet), lighting is mounted so have space for skimming....

[derf]

does it smell like rotten eggs??

[bawater]

i think more like rotting fish or essence of dead rat with a dash of silent fart & a sprinkle of dead pigeon?.

wah!purple.did u test ammonia?

since there is no livestock at risk now u want to tahan also can,as Tanzy mentioned u can let it cycle on its own-will take a few weeks or so, but u can always opt for buying water to change.If u change your mind a 1.5ft not much volume to change. maybe u can try 2 bags of water,if got transport 3 bags better(i think will be almost 100%).

[newdamsel]

I suggest you better change 70% of the water.... guess your prawn is of lobster size~!!! A 2 footer is a small tank and for that size u cant even see thru, it seems that its horrendous. Guess the tank has gone anaerobic... i suggest the change, throw in another powerhead and wait for the tank to cycle again. You should have more than enough ammonia already so just wait and keep testing for ammonia and NITRITE.. too early to test for NITRATE... also get your fans running...

by the way whats the the output of your current powerhead? 200l/h???

[Ernie]

Dear bawater/ tanzy,

thanks for the prompt replies,

1 typo earlier, the seachem test kit is for ammonia, so now it is showing toxic!!....latest toll....1 more tiny star fish dead

anyway i think will go for 100% water change, nearly impossible to go near the tank, much less to change filter media or shift any of the setup...the smell is simply awesome

Questions:

1) Can i rinse and scrub the LR under fresh water?

2) Rinse the substrate?

3) Wash the filter media (1 carbon layer, 2 layers of biohome, 1 layer of eheim "rings")?

[Achilles Tang]

Ok... I should have stepped in earlier...

Your cycling has taken a turn for the worst... your efforts to introduce ammonia into the system has been too effective, and it has killed your LR and all its inhabitants... I suspect the stench is from the massive die-off.

The bacteria needed to process ammonia to nitrites is not growing fast enough. Basically, your tank is dead.

I recommend an immediate water change at least 80%. If the rock stinks to high heaven.... well... either you can try using it to continue cycling the tank... or dispose of it... maybe bleach it... and wash clean and dry under the sun and reuse it as base rock when it's fully clean. Dun worry, life will populate the rock again. Now... it's dead and rotting.

After the water change... the advice to have powerheads going is a good one...

Use carbon to absorb as much of the remaining organics and change it out often. Try lowering toxic ammonia with Seachem Prime.

If there are low traces of ammonia, that's fine... it should be enough to kickstart the next cycle... you could use bottled bacteria to help re-colonise your tank.

Sorry to hear about this mess... it just took a very very bad turn somewhere... dun lose heart!

[Tanzy]

Please stop using those bottled bacteria. They aren't even the right kind of bacteria for marine tank. They just go in to add to the dead bioload.

[lona]

Hi all,

I've been following this thread, and ernie, my sincere sympathies..I'm going to start my setup for my own tank and have been doing some homework and have some questions of my own. A nightmare for me even before I read this thread would be to go the way ernie's tank did.

Is there some sort of 'inch of prawn per gal/liter of water' guideline to use?

and if only a little ammonia is needed to get the cycle going, if say I plan to age my tank a little longer, would I need to periodically add little pieces of prawn so that the little guys dun starve? or will the live rock inhabitants secrete ammonia for the little guys to colonise? Because I don't think it's mentioned anywhere what kind of time window I have after the ammonia and nitrates have gone down..

[Morgan]

Hi all,

Is there some sort of 'inch of prawn per gal/liter of water' guideline to use?

and if only a little ammonia is needed to get the cycle going, if say I plan to age my tank a little longer, would I need to periodically add little pieces of prawn so that the little guys dun starve? or will the live rock inhabitants secrete ammonia for the little guys to colonise? Because I don't think it's mentioned anywhere what kind of time window I have after the ammonia and nitrates have gone down..

Hi lona

There is no such rule as 'inch of prawn per gal/liter of water' . All you need to do is add a small piece, very small if you are setting up a 2' tank. It is just to kick start the nitrification process.

After that all you have to do is just wait and monitor.

Once the nitrite (NO2) has drop to 0, stocking can begin. Nitrate NO3 will go up over time. Regular water change will remedy this.

Sad to sad Ernie overdosed his tank.