Help with crash -- want to save remaining LPS

[csig]

I'd appreciate any advice people might have. I just had a major crash on my 120g and need to know what to do in order to save my remaining micros and acans.

I came in to my office yesterday (Monday) to find a circuit breaker had flipped off sometime over the weekend. No flow. Temp appeared to be around 64ish. Whitish cloudy water. All my fish were dead, except one clownfish. All shrimp dead. etc etc. Many of my SPS were dieing. I immediately did a 25gal water change and started filtering the water to get the "chunks" out.

Called my LFS. The came out and did a 40gal water change. Been doing mechanical filtering (with carbon), along with protein skimming. When I left my office last night, I was hopeful that some of my SPS would survive. My LPS actually looked great -- almost like they were benefiting from all the "food."

Came in this morning. The water looked clearer, but all SPS were dead, except some monti's. My chalice's, including a tyree's watermelon, have tissue recession and are gaping. Most of my micros, acans, and acan (sub)echin's still look fine -- polyps wide open and "fluffy." Dendros, balan, and duncans are okay, but closed. Mushrooms, zoas, and palys look okay -- some more stressed than others. Aside from the chalice's, the only other LPS that is clearly stressed/receding is a small micro frag that wasn't terribly robust before (but was doing okay).

Changed my carbon this morning. Checked some water params: Salinity: 1.024. Ammonia 1ppm. Nitrate 25ppm. Phosphates 1ppm.

So, my question is: What should I do at this point in order to try and save my micros, acans, etc?

1. Just do lots more water changes and carbon filter?

2. Transfer LPS to LFS to hold until my tank water stabilizes?

3. Quickly set up new tank with "cured" water from LFS tanks, some live rock from my tank, along with new salt water?

I'm not sure whether (1) the current ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and phosphates in my tank will kill the remaining LPS before I can bring them down in my tank, even with water changes; (2) that massive water changes will just shock everything even more, doing more harm than good; or, (3) that transferring the LPS either to the LFS or to a new tank will shock them.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Curt

[Sk8r]

I've used Amquel in a tank with sps and had a better result than the alternative--4 of 6 sps survived, all lps survived and thrived. Best of all if you could get your lfs to take them until you can stabilize the tank.

[avp]

I'd go with water changes daily (15 gallons) and switch from carbon to Polyfilter. I'd even think about cutting back a little on the light period is any of the survivors are bleaching.

I'd also look at getting the maintence dept. to put those outlets your tank uses on its own circuit. it many not be easy, but it would probably help prevent this from happening again.

-avp

[csig]

thanks guys. I've added another cannister filter running carbon and phosguard. and I've added seachem prime to help with the ammonia.

The separate circuit is a great idea. I had thought of that in the past, but it was always something to do in the future. For that matter, a controller with an email or phone notifier was also something I've always thought of doing, but it always seemed just a little more expensive than I wanted to shell out. Lesson learned. It's nowhere near as expensive as going through a crash.

I'm kicking myself even more because I just realized today that I inherently had a notification system: I have one powerhead on a UPS backup battery, which is right next to my computer, which is also on another UPS. I put the powerhead on the UPS to give myself some time, should a power outage ever occur. My computer is on a separate UPS, so it doesn't suck juice from the powerhead UPS. Unfortunately, I never thought of installing the software on my computer and connecting the UPS via USB, which it has the capability to do. If' I'd done that, I could have had the computer email me and then shut itself down, leaving the powerhead running on the other UPS.

Ouch. (I was shouting a different term much of yesterday...)

Curt

[navipro1]

wow, 2 days and bamm!!!, crash, scary thought, I don't think I want to put a tank in my office.