Catherine, have you run the typical tests? What are your levels at?

The only thing I can think of is that you're having a mini-cycle (well .. maybe not even all that "mini"). Compounding this is that the die-off from the cycle perpetuates that much more. If that's the case, the fish may likely weather the storm but who knows how bad the corals will do. The key is to get the tank stabilized. I don't know if these things work but everytime I have a tank disruption I dump some Cycle in. Whether it does anything or not I can't say, but if nothing else I get the feeling that I've "done something about it." Maybe some Reef-resh or Probidio or something that infuses and feeds bacterial growth might not hurt. I don't know.

Best of luck. :(

Yup and here they are:

SG: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0.75 <-- I don't know where its coming from, there is nothing dead in the tank.
dKH: 8
Magnesium: 1050ppm
Calcium: 400ppm
Smell: Nasty, like a fish cleaning station.

So my next steps are:
- maybe a water change (I just added 15g of NSW)
- visit a store and look for an ammonia spong.
- toss in my various sponges, nitrate, and phosphate.
- continue to run carbon

I guess my question is where in the city is there a wide varity of dry goods to choose from?

It just gets better and better...

My pump is now leaking from the bearings. I have to go find a 2" threaded cap... so where can I go for such a thing? The Rona in Edmonton didn't have caps.

I hope all this bad luck translates into something fantastic, like say a big lotto win, or having everything that is left in my tank live.

jeez Catherine I'm sorry to hear about this. When the frags I got from you are bigger you can definately have some.

This is horrible and am sorry to hear about it.

May I suggest finding someone to take the remaining SPS off your hands until you get the tank settled down? Then you'll hopefully avoid further losses.

Where in the city are you, Catherine? With the roads the way they are, you certainly don't want to be running around all over the place. Maybe we can direct you to the nearest best place for dry goods and plumbing.

I am in Calgary now. I went to the plumbing place suggested in my Calgary thread and got what I needed. I also sent off an email to Reeflow about my leaking pump, they said they will send out a replacement seal kit, but won't give me an ETA.

Even more SPS have RTNed in the hour I was out. I am fully expecting to loose everything at this point in time. I am putting out a post in the Calgary forum to see if anyone will take my still living SPS and house them for a few weeks until I can get things back to where they should be.

Okay, so I have accepted the disaster, and I am moving on. I'll post up today's parameters later this afternoon.

What I did;
- took out about 1/4 of a 5g bucket of skeletons.
- added Prime to the water to combat the ammonia
- added in new nitrate, and phosphate sponges

What I am going to do:
- water changes at 5g a day to avoid shocking the system any more
- keep feeding the fish a variety of foods to try and keep their immune systems strong.
- add more rock to the system. Even though I only have 4 more gallons of total water volume, my tank looks empty with my existing rock.

So after all is said and done I'm now searching out and making a list of what I would like to re-stock my system with in the future. I'm thinking I probably won't be adding anything until at least the new year so I have some time to plot it all out.

I know I would like to aquire more clams, some dersa, crocea, and squamosa. I also know that I would like to replenish my SPS collection, and possibly add a few softies for contrast.

Provided all my fish survive this unexpected disaster, I won't be adding anything. I will most likely add additional clean up crew members though.

On Friday, or Saturday I will try and post some photos of before, during, and after the disaster.

Today's parameters:

SG: 1.025
pH: 8.1
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Ammonia: 0.75 Still
Smell: Better, but still a bit funky

I'm going to have a water change done on the tank today, I'm hoping for 5-7g.