I just had to vent.
I lost my tang, trigger, and dwarf fuzzy today out of my 90g (I actually cried over the lionfish, I'd gotten really attached to him and he handfed and everything
)
I went into the room about 11 a.m to turn the lights on like I do every morning. I didn't even look in the tank yet, but went switched the switches into the on position and nothing happened. I was confused, and as I went to check the plug I glanced in the tank and noticed my big yellow tang laying on the bottom. I thought "oh crap, the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates SOMETHING spiked in the middle of the night and killed him" (already had had problems with nitrates a few weeks ago but thought I got it under control).
Well that didn't end up being it, because as I looked in the tank I noticed the trigger was also laying dead on the rocks. As most of you know triggers are really tough and it would have had to been a HUGE ammonia spike or something to kill him that quick. At that point it hit me....the lights weren't working because the whole strip had gotten turned off somehow, probably by one of my cats or the dogs
, I should closed the door to that room better, I always check to make sure it's shut good! I even yell at everyone else for leaving that door open!
That strip had 2 of the powerheads plugged into it, so there would have only been one powerhead running. Yeah, there wasn't....the other powerhead was still plugged in but not running....wtf? How could that happen at the same time? After I was done turning the strip with the other 2 powerheads back on and netting the dead fish out (I'd found the lionfish under the rocks dead also), I took it apart looked at the impeller, cleaned it off put it back together, still nothing, so I"m not even sure how it failed, it's still not running.
So yeah, basically for however long that strip was turned off the only thing running was one rena xp3...Apparently not enough oxygen for most of them. The only 2 fish alive still are my grouper and moray, and they were still breathing really hard so I hope they'll be ok.
'til I get a couple more powerheads I stuck a bubble wand in there temporarily, the 2 powerheads that ARE running don't have a little hole on 'em for airline tubing, and the only thing running right now is the xp3 and those 2 powerheads.
I'm just sickened by this. I dunno if there's anything I could have done that would have prevented it, I guess it was just a freak accident, but I feel like if I'd happened to go in there earlier and looked at the tank I could have noticed and saved everyone. Or if I'd shut the door it never would have happened anyway.
I almost feel like quitting SW altogether, we've had several problems learning how to do SW in general 'cause we haven't been at it that long (nitrates, incorrect stocking, stuff like that), it's kind of frustrating that the problem that ended up killing fish was one that had nothing to do with being inexperienced with SW. It's just a huge blow because I spent all that time getting the parameters under control and making sure all the fish survived while the denitrifying bacteria was building up, doing a bunch of water changes and stuff, and I was so happy that I finally got it under control then this.
I lost my tang, trigger, and dwarf fuzzy today out of my 90g (I actually cried over the lionfish, I'd gotten really attached to him and he handfed and everything
)I went into the room about 11 a.m to turn the lights on like I do every morning. I didn't even look in the tank yet, but went switched the switches into the on position and nothing happened. I was confused, and as I went to check the plug I glanced in the tank and noticed my big yellow tang laying on the bottom. I thought "oh crap, the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates SOMETHING spiked in the middle of the night and killed him" (already had had problems with nitrates a few weeks ago but thought I got it under control).
Well that didn't end up being it, because as I looked in the tank I noticed the trigger was also laying dead on the rocks. As most of you know triggers are really tough and it would have had to been a HUGE ammonia spike or something to kill him that quick. At that point it hit me....the lights weren't working because the whole strip had gotten turned off somehow, probably by one of my cats or the dogs
, I should closed the door to that room better, I always check to make sure it's shut good! I even yell at everyone else for leaving that door open!That strip had 2 of the powerheads plugged into it, so there would have only been one powerhead running. Yeah, there wasn't....the other powerhead was still plugged in but not running....wtf? How could that happen at the same time? After I was done turning the strip with the other 2 powerheads back on and netting the dead fish out (I'd found the lionfish under the rocks dead also
), I took it apart looked at the impeller, cleaned it off put it back together, still nothing, so I"m not even sure how it failed, it's still not running.So yeah, basically for however long that strip was turned off the only thing running was one rena xp3...Apparently not enough oxygen for most of them. The only 2 fish alive still are my grouper and moray, and they were still breathing really hard so I hope they'll be ok.
'til I get a couple more powerheads I stuck a bubble wand in there temporarily, the 2 powerheads that ARE running don't have a little hole on 'em for airline tubing, and the only thing running right now is the xp3 and those 2 powerheads.
I'm just sickened by this. I dunno if there's anything I could have done that would have prevented it, I guess it was just a freak accident, but I feel like if I'd happened to go in there earlier and looked at the tank I could have noticed and saved everyone. Or if I'd shut the door it never would have happened anyway.
I almost feel like quitting SW altogether, we've had several problems learning how to do SW in general 'cause we haven't been at it that long (nitrates, incorrect stocking, stuff like that), it's kind of frustrating that the problem that ended up killing fish was one that had nothing to do with being inexperienced with SW. It's just a huge blow because I spent all that time getting the parameters under control and making sure all the fish survived while the denitrifying bacteria was building up, doing a bunch of water changes and stuff, and I was so happy that I finally got it under control then this.
