Electrical nightmare and sps death

[Sweet13]

Came home this evening with my sump fan in the water. All sps are bleached and zoas, etc are shriveled. Needles to say I am thoroughly depressed. Any chance they come back? Why would all sps die and fish be fine? This just really sux to loose all of my colonies that I have grown over the past 2 years!

[somdinwong]

i have done it several times, usually come back after a few days to a few weeks

[ura]

It happened to me few mounts ago, when my fan fall in side my tank and only my 2 clowns made it.

[NONNA58]

I am not sure but how does the fan fall in your sump?

[cymbiline]

I found my skimmer off the other night, turned out the circuit breaker popped, I flipped back on smelled electrical burn found one of my heaters broken in the sump. Lucky for me no loss.

Bob

[Sweet13]

It was on a plastic clamp over the sump. Clip failed and fan fell in.

[NONNA58]

did the fan actually come off of the clamp (attached to fan ?) or was the water level high in the sump so that when the fan fell down from the clamp it hit the water.

[Gimplar]

i would say be on your highest guard for the next few days. Best thing you can do is change out carbon and any other filtration media, make sure skimmer is working good, and do a water change (maybe even twice this week)

i had a 125gal that completely bombed when i was on vacation. the tank was full of corals and i lost my achilles/powder blue tang hybrid as well as my acan piece that had about 80+ heads

good luck and dont give up hope

[jbax]

i would think to prevent this in the future put egg crate infront of the fan.

[mrferrit]

So what would cause this? electricity in the tank? would a grounding probe prevent this? or heat form not having the fan on?

[Mick213]

fish actually have a protective film on there body to buffer the electric shock.That is why you don't see billions of dead fish in the ocean after a good lightning storm.

[Mick213]

Even More there not grounded.

[Mick213]

Ok I'll shut-up now.

[Sweet13]

Why do you suggest changing carbon? It looks as if all corals are still bleached but my pink lemonade colony and a few others are showing some polyp extension. Pretty strange.

[USF Nealio]

I believe it was suggested that you change carbon to combat the release of chemicals into the water from the dead corals.

[TampaSnooker]

+1 on carbon - lots. And skim like mad - wet as you can within reason.

I didn't see anyone mention this but the problem may not be electricity. I've had many glass heaters fail and I didn't have a clue until I put my hand in the sump. Corals were fine in all cases. Copper and other metals may have burned or leached into the water. I lost my tank 3.5 years ago to a heater that stuck on and burned in my sump. All the copper wiring burned into the water. Poly Filters saved me. I highly suggest trying at least one just floating in the sump or overflow. It will turn blue in the presence of copper and reacts with different colors depending on the contamination. I was able to sponge out all the copper from 4" of wire and the thermostat/control portion that burned up with a dozen poly filters. You probably have much less in the water unless you can see where metal is missing. If so, just replace them when they sink due to the absorbed metal. Without metals in the water, they float forever.