Have been lurking for a long time..... Now need help....

[Carolina]

Ok, sounds good. Now don't do *anything* to the tank for at least a few months. Just let it be until the shrimp are out and about and acting normally. Again, look at how well tooth's "no food" tank has been doing for over 2 years. In a tank like that a crash is simply not going to happen.

Are you talking about tank #1 or 2?
Tank 1 the shrimp are ALL out and about and acting completely normal.... No hiding... All picking, swimming, being shrimpies.
Tank 2 has a long way to go....
And gosh no.... Not planning on doing anything but following your instructions...

[Carolina]

Death chamber. I have a death chamber and I can't figure out why.
I just did a 90% water change on Saturday... I went out for the day today.... Got back to 4 dead shrimpies, one who is dying, and a giant brown cloud smack down the middle of the tank.
I don't know what's in this tank, but it's toxic, and I am watching taking these little ones one by one.
This sucks.

[Carolina]

So... The way I see it, I have three options with this tank:
1- Do nothing and risk losing them all... Which the way things are going it might happen rather quickly.
2- Transfer all the shrimp to tank #1,and risk transferring whatever this beast that's killing them along
3- Do a complete blackout for a few days in case this is some weird algae bloom and try to get rid of it that way.... With it, I will kill all the good algae as well. There is enough biofilm in the tank though.

I couldn't feel anymore in between a rock and a hard place.

[Mustafa]

Hmmm....I would take about a liter or so water from the tank that's doing well, put it in a container and transfer the remaining shrimp in there. You may continue seeing losses in the container as the shrimp are already "damaged" but it should stop at some point. Then you can put the shrimp in with the other shrimp that are doing well. I wouldn't worry about transferring diseases...these shrimp don't really have any diseases.

From the bacterial bloom you're describing I'm suspecting that the fish store maybe have given you saltwater from their running saltwater tanks/system. That's probably loaded with nutrients (as their fish get fed everyday) that can cause bacterial blooms. Why don't you just go get a salt mix and mix up your own brackish water? That way you'll make certain that no nutrients/contaminants/organics get into your tank. Then finally you can leave the tank alone.

[Carolina]

The water doesn't come from their tanks, it's freshly mixed for me. They sell me for very little more than RO water. And it's perfectly mixed for the salinity I ask.... In front of me.

[Mustafa]

In that case it's the residual organics in your tank that are causing the problem. Your tank probably never properly cycled for whatever reason. I'd let it sit there now for a month or two at least. Remove most organic matter that you have access to. For the rest...let the snails take care of it over time. Wait a week or two before putting any more snails in that tank, though. It needs to sit there and "simmer down."

[Carolina]

Ok, I removed all the shrimp I could get a hold of. I think there is still one in there. I turned off the light, put the air pump and the filter running to the max.
I also bought an uv filter.
The shrimp are in a bowl filled with the healthy tank's water. I believe all are doing well, except for two.
I will leave them there overnight before transferring them over.
I am terrified of transferring even a drop of that water to my healthy tank :/

[Carolina]

Should I clean the substrate, now that the tank is empty? I think the only way to remove all the organic matter is to clean the substrate

[Mustafa]

Yes, you can just clean the whole set up and treat it as a new tank if you want. Then just give my advice a try and don't use anything in there...no filter (and especially no UV filter), no water movement...nothing. I think you will be pleasantly surprised once the tank is ready.

[Carolina]

Yes, you can just clean the whole set up and treat it as a new tank if you want. Then just give my advice a try and don't use anything in there...no filter (and especially no UV filter), no water movement...nothing. I think you will be pleasantly surprised once the tank is ready.

OK, here is an update.
All the shrimp are doing great, except for two, which I think will die.... I don't want to transfer them over.
I took a sample of the water to my reef store to have throughly checked. Amonia, phosphate, nitrite, phosphorus, all 0. Nitrate 10ppm. PH 8.2 Calcium 332 Salinity 1.013.
Of course I had done a 90% water change, but the brown cloud was still there.... He had never seen it free floating, only on walls.
I bought a set to clean the substrate just in case and a filter that holds 2 bags: I will put one of purigen, and one of activated carbon. I will use this filter ONLY until the water is clear, hopefully a week or two. After that I am returning it to them.
The lights will be off - bacteria thrive on high light.
I was considering a black out, but I don't want to kill all my algae.
He asked me for a sample of my healthy tank water so he has it as a baseline if something goes wrong in the future.
All my test results are now logged for tank two, my baseline will be for tank one, the healthy tank.
Since I have so much RO water in the house, I bought reef salt and will make my own brackish water tonight to replenish the tank after I clean the gravel.
Let's see how this works out.
Oh, yes, I bought another brine shrimp net to transfer the shrimp to the healthy tank as I don't want to risk transferring over any bacteria with them.

[Mustafa]

I wouldn't turn off the light (keep it on at its normal schedule). Bacteria don't care about light...and both surface algae and macroalgae will help with sucking up nutrients.

[Carolina]

Goodness gracious, WHAT WAS THAT?
I am starting to believe the problem was in the substrate - let me tell you.... a LOT, a LOT of junk came out of there. 5 Gallons of brown, almost black water kept coming out, and I am not sure If I was done when I stopped!
Luckily I found two little and healthy shrimpies which I rescued before I started.
I removed all the rocks, the coral, and the chaetamorpha as I wanted to keep the algae and the biofilm intact - also I didn't want to kill the macro-algae.
I cleaned and cleaned the substrate..... then cleaned some more.
Removed all the shells (Hermie's, who is currently in the healthy tank), and I am boiling them before transferring them over (they had been previously boiled, of course).

I will keep the bigger shells on this tank, but will put a few in the healthy tank so he doesn't kill any snails.
Re-scaped the tank, and I am waiting for the dust to settle. The filter is running, and like I said, I will run both filters Until the water is crystal clear (before adding any shrimp).
Let's see what happens with this tank.... there is not much I can do with it..... I feel I have done it all. It's such a mystery when the water tests so well.
I can't wait to release the other shrimpies tomorrow in the healthy tank - I feel bad for them overthere. But such is life.

[Carolina]

Well..... After observing them all day I decided to transfer the healthy ones to the healthy tank - they all transferred well and didn't show signs of distress.
I still have one on quarantine on the little tank - I will see if he survives or not. He is swimming sideways and can't swim straight - none of the previous ones doing this survived. we will see.
Put three shells for hermie, and the others went back on tank 2.
The filter is completely covered in dust, so I will have to clean it tomorrow, the chaetamorha was too - I shook it off the best I could.

Hopefully dust will be the only problem with this tank........ and hopefully I didn't transfer any bacteria to the other tank. That would be a complete disaster.

[Carolina]

All transferred shrimpies are doing well, but one, who was already iffy, but I wanted to give him a chance - watching him closely. The one on quarantine is still alive, but still not swimming well. We will see.
You will be happy to know I turned the filter off on tank 1 - closed the water output with a fluval sponge, and left it in there to harbor good bacteria. No water movement, no food. Turned off the heater also.
As for tank number 2, I wish I could dust it I don't know, but the walls are already brown - not sure about the water yet - it's still pretty cloudy from the substrate. There is a good amount of green algae on the glass, which is good.
As per your advice, the lights are on a 12 hr schedule.

Received your shipment today - all the snails went on tank one, as well as the chaetamorpha and the ittybitty moss ball - it's sooooooo tiny! Definitely not the same species as the Marimo moss balls - you put them side by side and you can see that right-away. They the strands are different, the coloration.... Pretty neat - Can't wait for tank #2 to recover so I can place this little one in there.

[Carolina]

Ok. I want to post some pictures so you can see how bizarre this thing with tank # 2 is:

Day 0 - the day I installed Purigen in the filter - I could barely see the back of the tank, even though I have pretty powerful lights.


One day after running Puringen - a little better, but the deaths keep happening.


Two days after running Purigen - I scrapped the front glass and did a 90% water change - this is the after picture.


One day after the 90% water change, I went out to work on a trade show.... Was out for 8 hours and this is what I found when I came back - free-floating brown cloud smack down the middle of the tank




Went to the reef store- thoroughly tested the water - perfect parameters.
Cleaned the gravel, which resulted in a 50% water change. That was last night. Scraped the front glass.
Here is the tank less than 24 hrs later:



Top view of the water - it also smells kind of..... sweet?


Anyways...... That's the nightmare I am dealing with, if anyone has any ideas!

On a good note, here is my good and healthy tank - everyone is doing awesome:




And last but not least, here is your moss ball against a Marimo Moss Ball, Mustafa!


Edit: the time it took for me to load the pictures into my site and write this post was enough for the tank to get considerably worse.
The front wall is brown brown brown. The water smells much sweeter. There is stuff growing or hanging... I don't know... On the filter. The entire thing is a brown mess. It's a tank right out of your worst nightmare. Rosemary's tank, let's call it. There's something evil inside these glass walls!