Tank melt down

[ihaveadane]

Just came come to find my tank had a complete meltdown. Only thing alive are the fish. Water parameters look good, temp OK... I am at a loss.


Just did a water change about 2 weeks ago so I do not have any water ready. How long to "mix" the water until it is ready to use?

 

[blind1993]

24hrs is recomended.

if in a hurry see if any lfs near by is open and sells saltwater premade.

srry about your loss.

 

[cdub]

i have mixed and aerated saltwater for an hour in emergency situations before

 

[blind1993]

emergencies you can get away with. the only problem is that you might get a slight hint of ammonia.

 

[cdub]

why would you get ammonia from water that hasn't mixed and aerated long enough?

 

[ihaveadane]

just wish I knew what happened. Looked at it last night and all was well. PH is even good. I hate when I can not discover what happened.

 

[blind1993]

cdub;94504 wrote: why would you get ammonia from water that hasn't mixed and aerated long enough?

just from the salt mix.

 

[cdub]

mmmmmmk

 

[navyreefer]

Good salt will never have ammonia....

 

[cdub]

^^^^what he said

 

[roundman]

Sorry to hear Patti

 

[jessezm]

Oh no! I wonder what happened? Do you have anything that could have mass-spawned, like large anemones or clams?

 

[kevin]

I am currious why this happened too, if you need anything, let us know

 

[sshindell]

Sorry to hear about it. When you are up and running, call for frags and I will give you a bunch.

 

[cameron]

What are your water params right now? Sometimes a big fish or clam death can wipe a tank. Sometimes a power outage on the pumps will do in a tank. Could be any number of reasons, but posting the actual pH, temp, alk, ammonia, nitractes, etc after the crash can be a helpful diagnostic tool.

 

[dakota9]

It wasn't until a year ago that I even knew people let new water age before using it. For future reference, one needs to decide which is worse, new SW, or the old SW that everything has died in.....

I say always go with new SW in these cases..... Seems to be the best of two undesirable choices.

 

[mwitten]

IHAVEADANE;94496 wrote: Just came come to find my tank had a complete meltdown. Only thing alive are the fish. Water parameters look good, temp OK... I am at a loss.


Just did a water change about 2 weeks ago so I do not have any water ready. How long to "mix" the water until it is ready to use?

I have used fast-mixed water many times. As others said, it is probably less of a problem than other options.

Some possibilities to look for on what happened (some repetitive, most you probably know, but...):

-Electrical short. A heater kick in for the first time in a while, by chance? Something else on a timer?

-Ammonia spike

-Dead fish or other animal (really an ammonia spike). One dead animal can lead to a cascade.

-Chemical contamination. Something fall in the tank? (I found a carpet knife in my sump at least 3 months after I must have dropped it in there).

-You indicate your parameters are OK, but not what they are. Alk and Nitrite are of interest in these situations. Also, let us know how you measure them. I have been lulled into complacency by test kits that expired slowly over time, and probes (PH, conductivity) that went drifted out. Also, how big is the tank... etc.

-Sulfate (sulfite?) spike from stirring things up/moving things around?


Low oxygen and electrical short are lower probability with the fish surviving, but this could be a combination of things.

Sorry you had this happen!

-Mike

 

[dough]

I've mixed my water on many occassions in my 12 years in the hobby until well mixed, 30 minutes or so and used it with no adverse effects.

 

[tnyga]

Dane...If you need anything housed for a short time let me know...54 corner here..not huge but may be able to help if so...

 

[melissa]

Hey - sorry to hear about your tank. Glad to hear the fish are ok.