Need some advise on a tank disaster

[nymike23]

Hi ALL,
Well last friday I had a disaster of big porportions to my tank. While I was folding clothes by my tank I heard the sound of falling glass and turned around. Lo and behold my wifes new cat knocked over a decanter full of liquid " smelly stuff " and were of all places did it land, but in my fuge/ sump. It seems that my wife in her decorating mood decided the top of the fish tank was a prime spot for this " ocean fresh " crap.
Needless to say my sump/fuge was destroyed . Thats not the bad part but my large pile of cheato and all the fine little critters were nuked. But luckily I was able to turn off the return pump and none of the water reached my display. As of right now my main tank is going great other than the fact I had to rearrange the entire rock scape to accomadate the new equipment.
I added a new pwr head for movement since I lost the pump and added a pwr filter for filtration. The only problem I can see now is my Ph starts to flux at night do to the fact that the fuge no longer is photosynthesising and my ALK has dropped from 12-13 to 6/7dKH.
My question to any one would be are there any long term effects to losing my fuge? I havent noticed any phosphate/nitrate rises and Im moving to a weekly 10% WC schedule.
Any advice would be of a great help and if anyone could recommend a good 2 part calcium/buffer addative. Thanks


P.S the only good thing is now I got the o.k. to switch my 55g over to a reef tank. Maybe there really is a silver lining to every dark cloud. I intend On keeping a photo journal to post for opinions and to help anyone who my be doing the samething.[align=left]

[gman0526]

As long as you don't overfeed, keep doing water changes and a good water movement in the tank you shouldn't see anything change. I use C-balance 2 part.

[Doctor_Reef]

Is there a reason you can't clean out the sump and start over????

[NewInTown]

just clean out the sump and pumps and start over. I would throw out any sand or Lr that you had in the sump. Or at least boil it. you will kill every thing on it but in time it will come back. Like Gman0526 said keep an eye on your feeding and water and feeding and you should be back to normal in a month or two

[kg]

Hope they don't ban me for this, but you should grab her cat, hold it's head under the water, and that should replace all of the beneficial bacteria you lost. Well, on a more serious note: I'd go out and buy a new (10 gallon I presume?) tank and start over. I've read most recently that DSBs are much more effective at removing nitrates than fuges, but of course have no effect on phosphates. Might be something you consider. Just fill it to within 3-4" from the top with sand and within six months you should see a huge drop in nitrates. Good luck!

KG