[mike31154]

Some info gaps with respect to your water change regimen? Are you using tap water to make up your water changes or do you have a RODI system? I started the hobby using tap water treated to bind the chlorine, but it's not something I would recommend. One of the best investments I've made is getting a RODI system for purified water.

I do fairly large water changes, about 25 to 30%, all at once. If I understand your water change procedure, it does not sound very efficient, seems like a lot of extra work and you may be well advised to make some changes there. Not sure this is the cause of your crash, but it should help keep things stable in the future. By ?taking out 2 pails and adding 3 buckets over the course of several hours? are you not removing some of the freshly added water you added previously? Perhaps I misunderstand your procedure, but I think it's best to remove all the water you intend to in one shot, then add all the fresh in one shot. This may not be feasible the way you're currently set up, but I'd suggest, as mentioned already by another member, you get a larger container to mix and heat your fresh salt water. Invest in an extra powerhead and small heater to get the new water to the right temp etc. Allow the water to mix at least a day before your water change. Floating pails of freshly mixed new water in the tank to get them up to tank temp seems like a lot of extra effort in order to do a water change. Hope things work out a bit better for you in the future, best of luck.