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View Full Version : Not a good day :(


firedogg2
01/18/2008, 12:20 PM
So heres the story. Yesterday my girlfriend got some new corals and a seahorse for her setup. She put them in and everybody was dong great. Everyone seem happy. Later in the day we saw some water on the floor near one of the power strips. It ended up popping the gfi. So we let the system sit and let the power strip dry out. About an hour or so later she went to turn the system back on. When doing so she did not check to make sure the over flow still had a siphon. It did not. The tank over flowed, pouring water onto the gfi and the power strip. We cleaned up the mess and I said I would take care of the tank in the morning. So I wake up this morning, she's at work, I look at the tank and all the fish are dead ecept for 2! Holy crap!! The only thing I can think of is that some current went through the tank killing them. The weird thing is all the corals still look good. Does anyone else have any other ideas? The hardest part is going to be convincing her not to give up of the tank all together.

discocarp
01/18/2008, 12:24 PM
If everything was off there are 2 other possibilities. How cold did it get? And more likely, was there any flow at all? Oxygen can deplete quickly in a tank with no water flow. Fish would be the first affected in that situation I think.

firedogg2
01/18/2008, 12:38 PM
72 degrees and everything was, but the tank went off late last night and I found it this morning. Is that really long enough. I live in florida and I've had the power out for over a day and my tank managed fine.

Slphappy
01/18/2008, 12:40 PM
I'd have to agree with Discocarp... I'm inclined to think it was lack of oxygen in the tank that did your fish in. Since the GFCI tripped, I have my doubts that there were any stay voltages in the tank.

Learn from the experience, don't let her give up. ;) Good Luck and let us know how things turn out...

discocarp
01/18/2008, 12:49 PM
72 degrees is fine. I'd rule out cold as a cause.

Overnight would have potentially been long enough for low O2, although it wasn't long enough to get you every time. How was the 20g stocked? A sandbed is also a huge oxygen consumer in a power outage. DSBs are the worst in that regard.

Oh, also, another lesson here is to avoid HOB overflows when possible!

If you still have corals alive, do some biiiiggg water changes over the next couple weeks. You'll possibly get a new cycle from the die off. Priority one right now should be to keep everything that made it through the night alive for the long haul.

firedogg2
01/18/2008, 12:58 PM
Sounds good. This is not a 20gal. That is my tank. My girlfriend tank is a 29 gal. She has about 40lbs of LS and 50lbs of LR. There was a Domino damsel, Flame angel, cleaner shrimp, two small globes, a bleny, and a variety of lps corals.

discocarp
01/18/2008, 01:03 PM
That's fairly heavy stocking for a 29. I'd put my money on O2 depletion. Consider picking up one of these:

https://diyreef.authsecure.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=83&products_id=250&osCsid=b6a99dbb588e664314a4d51cdbe96ba5

Sorry for you losses. :( Its been a bad tank week. I spent tuesday night at my buddy's house after his 92 corner bow busted its seams and drained onto his floor. I've had plenty of my own disasters as well. Its just life. Do what you can to prevent disasters, live, and learn. Its all any of us can do.

firedogg2
01/18/2008, 01:06 PM
Thats a great divice. I will deff. have to get one for each tank. Wow sorry to hear about your friends tank. That can't be much fun.

discocarp
01/18/2008, 01:09 PM
Definitely not fun! For him or you! Good luck, and I hope your gf sticks with it.

sk8rreefgeek
01/18/2008, 01:47 PM
sorry about your loss. that sounds like a LOT of sand/rock. obviously, the more rock/sand you have, the less water you have, leaving less and less room for error. My girlfriend's power went out a few weeks ago, I just took all her corals and her fish to an established tank until everything was back to normal. something to consider. good luck

firedogg2
01/18/2008, 01:50 PM
Well I have to agree with everyone. I don't have as many fish in my tank and thats maby why mine was able to go for so long w/o power. So here's the plan. I'm throwing that f'n HOB overflow in the trash, I'm drilling the back of the tank and I'm getting that air pump. Thanks to all for your help. Another lesson learned. Crapy way to learn it, but it was learned.

thor32766
01/18/2008, 02:49 PM
sorry about the loss. learn from it what you can

xlayedoutx
01/18/2008, 03:12 PM
Sorry about your loss. I have no idea what could have killed them.

About your flooding though one thing you may want to do is check your water level. If you have the correct water level tanks and sumps should not overflow. Most people have different types of sumps but on the tanks I've ran HOB and RR I've made sure that nothing would ever overflow. If the return pump ever stopped my sump would fill up but not overflow and if the siphon ever broke my tank would fill up to the brim but never overflow. If your siphon broke and your return pump pumped your sump water back into your tank making it overflow you might want to install a divider in your sump for the pump so that it would only pump the amount of water thats in the compartment to the tank. Thats just me though I am a little paranoid. :eek2:

DamnPepShrimp
01/18/2008, 03:23 PM
https://diyreef.authsecure.com/shop...4a4d51cdbe96ba5

That is a good idea, but I wonder how effective it will work on larger tanks? I have a 6ft tank, and don't know how well that would work? Is there a bigger model or something better then that out? What about heat as well? I just had the power go out yesterday, luckily for only 2 hours so everything was fine. I have marks on my sump telling me the water can't go below or above those lines. That way my sump doesn't overflow when the power goes out, because it happened before!

firedogg2
01/18/2008, 03:59 PM
The sump is set up so it will not over flow but I never thought about using a divider in the sump for that reason. I have a divider in the sump of my tank but I did it for the protein skimmer. That's a good thought to remember for future set ups. I've already ordered an internal overflow box for her tank. I'm done messing around trying to work the bugs out. Thanks for the advice.

discocarp
01/19/2008, 09:00 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11632079#post11632079 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DamnPepShrimp
https://diyreef.authsecure.com/shop...4a4d51cdbe96ba5

That is a good idea, but I wonder how effective it will work on larger tanks? I have a 6ft tank, and don't know how well that would work? Is there a bigger model or something better then that out? What about heat as well? I just had the power go out yesterday, luckily for only 2 hours so everything was fine. I have marks on my sump telling me the water can't go below or above those lines. That way my sump doesn't overflow when the power goes out, because it happened before!

I used one on each end of my 125. For heat, etc., you are pretty much screwed short of a generator. If you every lose power and don't have one, and heat is a concern, cover all sides of the tank with as much styrofoam as possible. This will at least insulate it much better.