The death of everything.. What happened..

[obelix]

Ok.. I'm pretty new... Here's what I have.. 240g display (8x2x2) 65gal sump 13 gal ref.. I had this as stock...
250+ crabs/snails
3 coral banded shrimp
1 royal blue tang medium
1 oc clown
1 niger trigger
1 yellow tang small
1 small naso
1 diamond goby
1 bullet goby
7 green chromis
1 domino
2 bluefin damsel
1 blue devil damsel (bought all these damsels as a cycle fish but they didn't die)
1 scooter blenny
1 adult 6" red coris wrasse
1 Urchin
600lbs of live rock
3" sand bed
I has just started my attempt a some corals, so I had few sps, and zoe and 4 new 250w MH lights..
Also
1 green BTA
..
So here's what happened.. I went to work on friday, came home friday to the tank clowdy and everything dead (I had stopped at the fish store on the way home and bought a new clown to add).. Power had died at 9 when the MH clicked on, the timer device had shorted.. Verified by ever time I plugged the timer back in it popped the GFIC... So apparently my tank had been offline for about 10 hours..
When I got home, I was floored that everything died so quick and I found the timer issue and remove it, and started everything back up and waited about an hour to pull it together and then took some levels.. I also put the clown fish in about this time ( I know I should have waited but I had no where to put it)
All fish were dead.. The only things to live were all the crabs and snails, the urchin, the green BTA and so far the corals and zoe are ok..

So I took levels at about 6pm the day of the deaths, 9am the next day and about 9pm-10pm tonight..
So I guess my question is what really happened and how can I prevent this from happening again..
Was is O2 deprevation, or something else, as you can see in the attached JPG, you can see the levels spiked very high the day of the problem..
Was it the O2 or did something else happen. How could a power outage cut off in less than 12 hours..
As of now I think a UPS is out as it would only last about 30 minutes with my reeflo barracuda, but I do plan on getting about 4 silent air model B11 battery power air pumps (if there is a better idea please let me know) as they can be set to only turn on when the power cuts off.. And will probably buy a nice generator.. Hopefully the idea being I the air pumps will keep everything alive until I get home and then I can kick on the generator in the event of a bad power outage.. Probably get an aqua controller III so I can get emails to my phone when the power goes out...
I'm floored and pretty new to the hobby so I guess I'm asking for everyone's opinion on what really happened.. I'd like for you all to look at the levels in the jpg image that I have been taking for the past two months and please explain the spike and sudden drop in the levels.. Specifically the rise in DKH, the fall in PH and the spke in No2 and No3.. I guess I'm confused on why those 4 levels changed so drastically..

>http://gallery.ultrafunky.com/240aquarium/page.jpg</a>

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[mike17kb]

Sorry for loss.... I have been there and done that with the tornados came thru Atlanta and I lost power for 2days when I was out of town and lost all fish as well.

I am currently having an electrian looking into adding a inline generator onto the two circuits that handle my tank. I have a 210gallon tank but limited space as I am in a 1 bedroom condo. I will let you know what i find out. He is supposed to be here Tuesday morning.

How long had the tank been up and running?

02 loss is the most likely reason why the fish didn't make it and then the fish passing will also spike in other levels as well. I am not a chemical guy, so I will let someone else explain that.

 

[james s_]

Keep is updated on what the guy installs for your two circuits Mike. I am interested in what he will use. I have thought about buying a whole house generator,but the cost involved even thought I would install it myself, is up there.

 

[ralph atl]

what I use is 3 fold.

1. battery operated air hose that kicks on in power failure
2. Smart ups 750 with just my mag 3 on it. This is to buy me time only
3. small 3000 watt generator for tank, frig, and a few lights.

 

[ralph atl]

oh yeah...

number 4) I have 2 separate circuits with gfi's. This way if one goes, I still have some ph on the other one.

 

[theplatypus]

I would put my money on lack of oxygen. Basically the power went out, the benthic creatures in sandbed used all the oxygen, and then the fish died.

You're battery backup isn't meant to keep everything on the system running. It's just used to keep the bare minimum going until power is restored.

 

[budsreef]

Wow, sorry to hear about all the loss. I have been thinking about getting a natural gas generator tied into my house that would be capable of running at least one furnace/air conditioner, the tankless water heater, the refrigerator and the circuits for the tanks.

Right now I have two Vortechs on my 120G with a battery back up on one of them that is supposed to give me about 30 hours of reduced flow. You might want to consider that as an option. With that many fish it might not be a viable option for you.

 

[dannybradley]

When the power goes out the short term cause of death is always lack of oxygen. It's not just your fish and inverts consuming it. The real culpirt is the incredible amount of bacteria that lives in our tank. Think about how long you can keep a fish alive in a bag as long as you maintain temperature- I've done it for over 10 hours with no damage to the fish.

I've installed a lot of Silent Air Backup Pumps as a just in case. They're cheap and they'll buy you some time to get home and turn on the generator. Change your batteries once a year just to be safe.

Another good option is using the Vortech Pumps with battery backup. As long as you have water flow in your tank you'll continue to oxygenate it and the live rock will act as your filter.

A lot of people like GFCI. I am not a fan of it on aquariums. A proper isntallation should eliminate the need for GFCI. If you feel the need to have it, use mysterybox's solution- '4) I have 2 separate circuits with gfi's. This way if one goes, I still have some ph on the other one.'

Sorry for your loss. We've all been there.

 

[tebriel]

mysterybox;208909 wrote: oh yeah...

number 4) I have 2 separate circuits with gfi's. This way if one goes, I still have some ph on the other one.

The 2 circuits is key, if you have one gfci after another on the same circuit when one cuts out everything after it cuts out as well!

 

[dannybradley]

Looking at your parameters, I'm a little concerned with how you keep your KH in ratio to your calcium. You should try to have 1dKH for every 60ppm of calcium, and every 184ppm of magnesium to be in NSW ratios.

 

[obelix]

Well I guess I'll do things differently this time around.. I like this device

 

[sailfish]

Sorry to hear Obelix.

tebriel;208943 wrote: The 2 circuits is key, if you have one gfci after another on the same circuit when one cuts out everything after it cuts out as well!

If they are installed correctly you can have 5 diff gfi on a circuit that when tripped only shut off power to that outlet.

This only helps if the breaker does not flip. This why you need at least 2 breakers on one tank. You also have to put some pumps on both circuits.

Now that I am writing this post my tank will crash.:unsure:

I am sure 46bfinga can say he did some of the outlets on my system.


Joe

 

[ralph atl]

sailfish;208972 wrote: Sorry to hear Obelix.



If they are installed correctly you can have 5 diff gfi on a circuit that when tripped only shut off power to that outlet.

This only helps if the breaker does not flip. This why you need at least 2 breakers on one tank. You also have to put some pumps on both circuits.

Now that I am writing this post my tank will crash.:unsure:

I am sure 46bfinga can say he did some of the outlets on my system.


Joe

I have 2 completely separate 20 amp circuits which means 2 separate lines running from my service with 2 separate breakers.

 

[acroholic]

I have two circuits on mine as well. The lights/return pump/clacium reactor pump are on one dedicated circuit, and my tunze 6101s/skimmer feed pump/skimmer recirculation pump are on another circuit.

That is the one big weak point of reefkeeping: everything is so electricity dependant. Life on the reefs evolved within such a narrow set of parameters that nothing can survive outside those parameters for very long, whereas freshwater fish and plants are much more used to wide swings in temp, etc.

My 265 gallon planted tank could go for a day with no circulation at least and have no ill effects on the fish or plants.

Dave

 

[saltwater junky]

i feel your pain my 125 crashed last year

 

[stickx911]

Acroholic;208978 wrote:
My 265 gallon planted tank could go for a day with no circulation at least and have no ill effects on the fish or plants.

Dave

The plants also provide a ton of oxygen in FW. If you loaded your tank with marine plants (not sure which ones exist) you may be able to last a little longer without a problem. You're right though, my FW tank can take some abuse while I have to baby the SW setup...I have a hard time leaving for the weekend sometimes as I fear a crash...

 

[dannybradley]

stickx911;209025 wrote: The plants also provide a ton of oxygen in FW.

That's only true when the light is on. When the lights go off the plants start consuming oxygen for growth and producing CO2. A good tip for planted tanks is to run an air stone at night.