Help - rotten tank?!

[Richardiv87]

Help! Is my tank dead, or at least dying? My son and his friend (ok, so its difficult to blame them as they are only 4) managed to put in approximately a months worth of food into my tank just before I left the tank for a week (due to work). I came back to a black tank, with a think green film on the top (PS it also broke the filter!!!). I have since changed the water, have a new filter, and have the power-head on, but the water is still pretty dark, and the rotting smell is starting to return. Granted, its only been a day, but Im worried that its an irreversable syndrome. Fortunately, there was no livestock or inverts in the tank at the time, but there is about 80 lbs of live rock, and a 4" sand bed. The tank is a 55 gallon, with a penguin 350 bio-wheel filter, and had been set up for about 10 months.

 

[Navarre]

As in the famous words of The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy.

"DONT PANIC"

Ok, the tank is now running high in nutrients and probably is cycling. We will need some readings so if you can give us the water perameters it will help us a great deal.

Dont change anything, dont feed the tank, allow th e bacteria in the tank to catch up with the nutrients and waste matter that is in the tank.

its not irriverable, it might just take some TLC to get back into shape again.

Take a good look in the tank and remove any dead stock you have. check your cleanup crew and see if any of them are dead or dying. If so then remove them also.

 

[Richardiv87]

Update: Well, I changed the water (there was no livestock, or a clean-up crew), but I had to remove the mould from the tank. Although I dont have readings, I do have an almost clear tank (readings to follow). I do have a black sludge (almost like an oil slick) on the sand. Should this be removed, or should I add some sort of clean-up crew to remove it (or just leave it be for now)?

 

[Navarre]

The black sludge sounds like a particuarly bad case of Cyanobacter. Its actually a bacteria and not an algae. I would remove this if possible and inscrease the flow in the tank if possible. Cyano likes low flow areas and a good way to battle this is increaseing the flow. It also likes high nutrients which is why its appeared after the overdose of food.

 

[Richardiv87]

Thank you...a further update...the water is completely clear, and that sludge is turning into a white think spider-web type thing (didnt get a chance to take out the black yet, as I only just read the response). Do I still take it out, or just let it take its course?

 

[Navarre]

Remove it, its only going to rot back and add nutrients back intohte tank again. You have to break the circle and doing this is a small step in the right direction.