So, I just made the mistake of leaving my 350, under the supervision of. Those I guess in hind sight should not have been trusted... Short story everything in the tank has died after 3 days.... I'm not one to give up, but as a newbie I'm not sure where to start again.. Obviously pull 100 percent of the water? Pull the substrait clean and replace... Need some help guys I'm devestated, lost my pair of blue ribbond that were eating and getting fat, now all I have left is 3 little clowns that had been living in my sump... Just did a 30 percent water change all params were spot on when I left, we lost power and I have a feeling that they cooked.. Its 38 c outside so they may have been exposed to temps of 40 plus what do I do, where do I start again in order to rebuild
recovering from disaster
- Thread starter Tb86
- Start date
how did the tank temp get to 40c (100+f). u say u lost power, do u have a chiller or a/c in your house to cool the tank? how long was the power out?
i that case when u loose power and u have a chiller or a/c that u rely on to cool your tank, besides having a generator on standby i dont know what else u can do. the only other option my be to keep changing water with cooler water. if thats possible.
i dont think u have to rip the tank down and start over unless u want to.
i that case when u loose power and u have a chiller or a/c that u rely on to cool your tank, besides having a generator on standby i dont know what else u can do. the only other option my be to keep changing water with cooler water. if thats possible.
i dont think u have to rip the tank down and start over unless u want to.
I might let the system sit without fish for about eight weeks.
This way you can know that there is no ich in the tank, and if you QT fish you can hopefully keep it from ever getting into your system.
You might as well take advantage of that now if you can.
In the mean time, you might also want to invest in some back up to run a chiller.
This way you can know that there is no ich in the tank, and if you QT fish you can hopefully keep it from ever getting into your system.
You might as well take advantage of that now if you can.
In the mean time, you might also want to invest in some back up to run a chiller.
So I just arrived home from Rangoon, to find my tank in utter disarray...
Here's the death toll....
1 green bird wrasse
2 fax face lo's
2 blue ribbon eels
3 Niger triggers
1 blue spiny lobster
1 big eye solider fish
1 dogfish orientalis
1 green urchin
1 cuke
8 turban snails
1 mushroom colony about 10 lil guys
1 clown
1 shrimp
.............................................
Here's what's left
1 horseshoe crab
4 blue leg hermits
6 turban snails
3 chocolate chip stars
2 clowns
6 cukes
1 very unhappy humuhumu picasso
10 or so tube worms
1 long spine urchin
.......
Water params went from near perfect To maxed out....
Massive ammonia spike
Nitrates and nitrites through the roof
Best I can tell is that the power went out the day I left, tripped the breakers on the chiller, skimmer, carbon reactor and phosphate reactor and the power heads ...they were on 3 separate breakers, the main pump and lights came back but that was it... The maids had also... The best I can tell or get out of them not bothered to re set the air con, so it stayed off
Here's the death toll....
1 green bird wrasse
2 fax face lo's
2 blue ribbon eels
3 Niger triggers
1 blue spiny lobster
1 big eye solider fish
1 dogfish orientalis
1 green urchin
1 cuke
8 turban snails
1 mushroom colony about 10 lil guys
1 clown
1 shrimp
.............................................
Here's what's left
1 horseshoe crab
4 blue leg hermits
6 turban snails
3 chocolate chip stars
2 clowns
6 cukes
1 very unhappy humuhumu picasso
10 or so tube worms
1 long spine urchin
.......
Water params went from near perfect To maxed out....
Massive ammonia spike
Nitrates and nitrites through the roof
Best I can tell is that the power went out the day I left, tripped the breakers on the chiller, skimmer, carbon reactor and phosphate reactor and the power heads ...they were on 3 separate breakers, the main pump and lights came back but that was it... The maids had also... The best I can tell or get out of them not bothered to re set the air con, so it stayed off
I guess with no air, and a lower than usual flow of water, combined with high temps everything suffocated.... Most of the dead fish were removed but things like the snails and urchin, clownfish, and softies were left in the tank, to rot and poison the water..so where do I start again, I'm in the middle of dropping the temp and 50 percent water change, I restarted all the reactors skimmer and power heads.. I'm trying my best here to save the few lil guys left, I'm afraid to move them to a hospital tank as I'm not sure that they will survive the move at this point in time.... Any advice?
FLESHY;5052143; said:
No ich present, it's for sure not what killed them...
As for generators what are you guys running?
Ay ideas on how to go about dealing with the water as it's way off on all params other than salinity and ph,
I'm thinking a 30-50 percent change now, another change tomorrow, moving all the survivors to the sump, sealing it off to run on aux pumps and skimmer and reactors. While I deep clean the sand bed, and lr,dump most of the water..? and start again.? Keep the few survivors on life support until the params come back in line add them back to the main tank and let it go for a month before looking into starting to re stock the tank.?
What would you guys do?
Tb86;5057519; said:
I would move the survivors. Either into a separate tank or the sump sealed off. Anything to get them into better water quality. Once the tank is empty you can then go to town on getting it back to where it needs to be. Depending on how long the tank had been set up previously, I would think about giving it a good clean to remove all built up detritus and start over. Remember that the tank will be required to cycle again to be ready for inhabitants. Before thinking about restocking a generator will need to be purchased so this doesn't happen again. I do not have any experience with them however so I won't give you advice on what to buy. Once you have everything up and running and cycled again you can add the remaining survivors back into the tank and wait a while for the tank to stabilize. Then slowly begin the restocking process. It will be a long and frustrating process, but be patient and thorough to ensure you don't have any more problems going forward.
I dont have to run a generator, although this morning everything was off...blew a fuse.
Might have to get the electrical guy to come in and give me some more power to make sure that it doesnt happen again haha.
Might have to get the electrical guy to come in and give me some more power to make sure that it doesnt happen again haha.
FLESHY;5061872; said:
Yeah man, just hope it never happens when your out of town
Anyways looked into it and found some reasonable small ones from Honda and Subaru, right around the 500 usd mark, some Chinese ones for about 200 usd..so looks like more toys on the way, as well as a larger main breaker...running the skimmer and reactors with a 50 percent wc and a bit of a light substrate clEaning, has my parameters looking better, nitrates are still a bit high, but a few 30 percent changes should get me back in line... I'm a bit nervous to change too much water too fast, I'm trying to avoid wiping outthe good stuff... But that's where I stand as of now