what to do after crash

[beach]

hello. i have an office tank that has been up and running for 7 yrs. it is a 55 gal drilled with sump, hang on ref., hang on prot skm., 2 mh (forget the watt. but just put new bulbs in). clients use to come in to look at the tank. it was a great reef with lps,sps,softies and fish. a pwrhd ate a sea apple 2yrs ago, owner stupidity, everything died. even tho i have broke the tank down TWICE and put in new rock twice(once with beautiful lr from a clients tank), i cannot get this tank going. i bet i have done 5 complete water changes, that is completely changed the water all at once. i have removed all substrate. i even dosed with erythromycin, changed the water and rock, then added carbon for a month, and i still have a dead rock tank that seems to have to much N because of the algae that likes to gro even tho my parameters all test with in the ranges. i even have been changing my ro/di filters prior to massive water changes. my 90reef at home uses the same water etc. but has pc for lighting and is ok. so , i would appreciate any advice or suggestion for another tank size for easy care, that is more than a 55 but less than a 120. the footprint cannot be much more than four feet because of seating around it. hi or lo. lighting. etc. it is an office tank so i cannot baby sit it like a home tank. i have to assume something has been absorbed in the silicone or plastic because i don't think it should be this hard. sorry about the long post and rambling but i am puzzled and this tank is either fixed or gone. thanks in advance. beach.

[sc9854]

what kind of water are you useing to fill it?

[travis32]

If it crashed you probably have a lot of dead / rotting detritous releasing phosphates, the rock absorbs the phosphates, then releases them over time. You could start over with new rock and if you're reusing the sand, probably scrap the sand.

I reused rock that went through a 8 ppm Ammonia crash and reused a 4 year old sand bed... Two huge mistakes. It has taken 3 months of careful phosphate management and extraction and about $150.00 later n GFO, GFO reactor, to get the nutrients from the crash manageable. The hair algae and algae in general grew in covering the entire tank in just a matter of days.

Post your phosphates (detectable phosphates anyways), nitrates, mg levels, and go from there.

[USAF427]

I had this happen 5 years ago, I agree with the previous post, tear it down and start anew. drain the tank, remove all sand and rock and try to clean the glass (realizing its a pain in such a large tank once empty) and start fresh. you wont want the smell from having it crash again espicially if its in an office

[d2mini]

Just start over. Completely.
Get The Package from Tampa Bay Saltwater and you will have in instant reef again! :dance:

[DeepSeaBeauti]

++++1^^
Ive been battling the same problems. I blame mine entirly on inexperience. Now that i have a more educated understanding on the how and why ceritain compounds do what in a tank ive finaly begun to lower my Po4 and get my hair algae undercontrol, even show some realy nice coral growth.

That being said, you really need to look into the use of a good GFO, carbon, and freqent water changes. It will take some time, a long time but you will get the tank back. It has takeing me almost 6 months.

Do you have pictures? And maybe a list of your most recent water test?

[beach]

thanks for the responses. for some reason i never ck p. used to but it was always undectable. i use well water and run it thru an ro/di. i replaced the rock with old rock then with beautiful live rock. the substrate has been gone for awhile. what is the best way toclean up p and what test is recommended. thanks in advance.