HELP! NastayNatron's tank

[pirate]

Do you know how big the tank is? ( even a quess in feet overall ) How cloudy is it? Pea soup or bathroom mirror after a hot shower? Are you adding anything to the tank while your looking after it? How full was the skimmer cup? Is it flowing all over the outside? Or staying inthe cup?
Do you know what kind of fish and or corals are inthe tank? Was the tank all cloudy when you came home or after you tried to get the dead fish out? Have the other fish started to show up yet.

[lo_yyc]

OK, first - thank you SOOOOO much!

I found activated carbon and a filter sock - will that work if I just fill up the filter sock and place that in the sump?

For dosing, there's calcium and alkalinity that both work on a dosing pump, but I'm not totally sure how that's set up. The display thing says that the pH is 8.6, but I don't know what it's supposed to be.

I think he has some salt water mixed, but I'm not 100% sure. I didn't know how else to test it so I tasted it and it tasted different than the RO water (I think, anyways) - but I'm not sure how salty it should be.

I think it's 125 gallons, but it's about 6 ft by 3 ft by 2 ft or so.

It was definitely cloudy like a bathroom mirror after a hot shower when I got home (before I took out the fish). I'm not adding anything to it except food.

Yesterday when I emptied the skimmer cup, the rest of the water in the sump was clean - I was just emptying it to be safe, so it shouldn't have overflowed into the tank. I just re-emptied it now to make sure as well.

So far I haven't seen the missing fish, but there's no way to see if they're behind the rocks.

As far as the fish I can name, the ones I can still see are:

-female square-spotted anthia
-copper banded butterfly
-tang - like Dory on Finding Nemo
-orange clownfish
-3 cardinals
-leopard wrasse (still alive)
-another tang, I don't know what kind, but it's black and yellow/white striped and has like flowy fins (sorry for the poor description)
-a third tang, it's the kind that either comes in blond or dark or whatever and has lipsticky looking lips
-flame angel fish
-coral beauty
-diamond goby
-black clown fish (can't find)
-male square spotted anthia (can't find)
-2 other, smaller anthias (can't find)

Hope that helps a little, I'm sorry I'm so clueless.

Thanks again

[Cal_stir]

ph 8.6 is high, sounds like too much alk, does he have a alk test kit?

[lo_yyc]

He does have an alk test kit - I just did it and it says the pH is 8.3, but I've never done the test before so I'm not 100% confident that I know how to do it.

[Cal_stir]

you mean 8.3 dkh? what kind of test kit is it, just follow the instructions, 8.3 dkh is not bad, maybe try the test again

[lo_yyc]

No, that's right - it's 8.3 dkH.

But..... now that I took out the dead fish it's actually looking like it's started to clear up a bit, I'm not sure if that's possible, but it sure is what it looks like.

And the fish are looking a little more active than when I first came home, so that's probably a good sign, right?

[Cal_stir]

yes, good sign.
make sure the return pump is running and all powerheads are on, do a water change if you can.
the high ph is a worry, what is it now?

[lo_yyc]

OK, so I tried some vinegar and so far nothing has happened, so I think I might just need to do a water change. the only problem there is that I don't really know how. I've seen Nathan do it a million times, but I don't know what I need to turn off and stuff before I do it. I'm also not sure if there's salt in the water downstairs, so I guess I might just need to mix it.

Would powerheads need to be turned off in order to do a water change?