Tank crashed .. need help!

[shaned]

After feeding my fish late last night I forgot to turn the pumps back on and now most of my fish and corals are DEAD! My RTBA and two clowns are the only survivors so far. I assume it was an Ammonia spike that crashed the tank last night.

Any suggestions on how to recover from this crash? I've already change 40 gal SW this morning but not sure what else to do now.

This is a 75 gal RR tank with lots of soft corals and fish (past tense).

Thanks,
Shane
ARC member

 

[mvm]

Sorry. It was likely from decreased oxygen levels. Change water and take out anything that is dead or dying. Sux. Good luck.

 

[miami dolfan]

I had a similar situation where my pump seized up and had no flow but the fish were still alive. I dropped a bilge pump in creating a hurricane simulation and about 15 mins later most all recovered except for my Cheron of course. It's always the expensive ones you lose first!

 

[hnguyen]

MvM;638321 wrote: Sorry. It was likely from decreased oxygen levels. Change water and take out anything that is dead or dying. Sux. Good luck.

+1, thats all you can really do, make sure to run some carbon to remove any toxin that your coral/fish gave off when they died. Sorry for you lost man.

BTW, I think this is in the wrong thread.

 

[shaned]

After feeding my fish late last night I forgot to turn the pumps back on and now most of my fish and corals are DEAD! My RTBA and two clowns are the only survivors so far. I assume it was an Ammonia spike that crashed the tank last night.

Any suggestions on how to recover from this crash? I've already change 40 gal SW this morning but not sure what else to do now.

This is a 75 gal RR tank with lots of soft corals and fish (past tense).

Thanks,
Shane
ARC member

 

[dawgface]

Sorry hear this! I beat myself up when I lose one fish, I can only imagine what it must feel like loseing a whole tank!

 

[thanh386]

If all you did was not turn the pump back on I have no clue why it would wipe out everything. And I doubt leaving the pump off would have caused ammonia, probabaly tank got deprived of oxygen. Ammonia I was probably from everything dying. Have you remove the clown and rbta? I wouldn't leave them in the decaying water. Sorry to hear this, let me know if I can help in any way.

 

[rbredding]

12 hours is pretty fast for a 75gallon tank to become oxygen deprived..

what else could it have been?

 

[thanh386]

I am surprise at that as well. I mean even with return off there was still powerheads? The only other thing I could think of is that the heaters were in the sump and and the dt got super cold.

 

[ralph atl]

12 hours is more than enough time to deprive O2.....what powerheads are in display? are they breaking the surface?

once the creatures started to die, now you have ammonia....

water changes, carbon, Seachem Stability?

 

[raz0945]

If you have some Prime handy-Use it now. Use at least 3-5x the instructions(only in an emergency), it is fine for saltwater, then do what Mysterybox said. Hope things go well! Holley

 

[shaned]

Powerheads were turned off too overnight .. they will be moved to break the surface today. I'll ck on the Stability product today too. Temp is OK since we have a chiller which works OK.

Looks like a few corals survived along with the nem and clowns .. but most everything else is dead.

Any suggestions on new fish to start over? I'm looking at a few damsels now until I'm sure the tank is stable again.

Thanks again,
Shane
ARC member

 

[insane_reef_keeper]

I had a similar situation happen with a tank I had. My cat unplugged the strip from the wall while I was sleeping, I got up the next morning and everything was dead except for my clowns,their BTA and all my corals. All the other fish were toast. Actually the Clown in my avatar is one of the clowns that survived.

 

[thanh386]

Start a clown tank lol. I really want a pair of wide bands now

 

[insane_reef_keeper]

shaned;638357 wrote: Powerheads were turned off too overnight .. they will be moved to break the surface today. I'll ck on the Stability product today too. Temp is OK since we have a chiller which works OK.

Looks like a few corals survived along with the nem and clowns .. but most everything else is dead.

Any suggestions on new fish to start over? I'm looking at a few damsels now until I'm sure the tank is stable again.

Thanks again,
Shane
ARC member

Do not use Damsels to test your tank with, using their gills as test strips is wrong.

 

[rjrgroup]

I think I'll be installing battery back up air pumps today.

 

[ralph atl]

mysterybox;638350 wrote: 12 hours is more than enough time to deprive O2.....what powerheads are in display? are they breaking the surface?

once the creatures started to die, now you have ammonia....

water changes, carbon, Seachem Stability?

sorry. I meant PRIME!

Edit:

Raz0945;638353 wrote: If you have some Prime handy-Use it now. Use at least 3-5x the instructions(only in an emergency), it is fine for saltwater, then do what Mysterybox said. Hope things go well! Holley

yes, Prime!