A depressing event

[jawfish101]

Yesterday my AC in the house quit working. My 72 bow spiked to 97 degrees and all of my coral was melting and clouding the water. So I bagged everything and took it to my 24 gallon tank which was downstairs and still a normal functioning temp. By late last night that water was opaque and all of my fish were dead. I did a water change that helped only very remotely.
The AC guy showed up and we are now capable of moving without breaking into a sweat, but almost everything is dead. I lost about seven different tubastrea colonies the size of my fist and larger, a few branching colonies about half the height of my arm, several large dendros, every single mushroom and zoo, all sps including two large monti caps and a birdsnest, a large x-mas tree rock, a lot of snails. And I lost all four fish in the 24gl: an engineer goby, barnacle blenny, starry blenny, and firefish...and a Midas blenny, red scooter blenny, and pygmy angel from the 72gl. Oddly enough, the ever-so-delicate CBB is alive and seemingly thriving. He's eating and swiming around as usual. Of course, I did have an aiptasia problem-which seem to be one of the very few things that didn't die.

Now, what should I do with the little tank? We've saved the few corals we could and have moved them. But should we just completely take apart the 24 and start afresh? We're taking out unsalvagable rock and corals as I speak, and the water is so gross looking that it's kind of creepy sticking your arm into it. Any other ideas, opinions, or anything???
I'm about ready to bawl from all the seemingly pointless amounts of money and time/effort that i've put into these tanks....all for it to croak because of the 52% humidity and 100 degree temperature outside!

 

[miaheatlvr]

Originally Posted by Jawfish101
Yesterday my AC in the house quit working. My 72 bow spiked to 97 degrees and all of my coral was melting and clouding the water. So I bagged everything and took it to my 24 gallon tank which was downstairs and still a normal functioning temp. By late last night that water was opaque and all of my fish were dead. I did a water change that helped only very remotely.
The AC guy showed up and we are now capable of moving without breaking into a sweat, but almost everything is dead. I lost about seven different tubastrea colonies the size of my fist and larger, a few branching colonies about half the height of my arm, several large dendros, every single mushroom and zoo, all sps including two large monti caps and a birdsnest, a large x-mas tree rock, a lot of snails. And I lost all four fish in the 24gl: an engineer goby, barnacle blenny, starry blenny, and firefish...and a Midas blenny, red scooter blenny, and pygmy angel from the 72gl. Oddly enough, the ever-so-delicate CBB is alive and seemingly thriving. He's eating and swiming around as usual. Of course, I did have an aiptasia problem-which seem to be one of the very few things that didn't die.

Now, what should I do with the little tank? We've saved the few corals we could and have moved them. But should we just completely take apart the 24 and start afresh? We're taking out unsalvagable rock and corals as I speak, and the water is so gross looking that it's kind of creepy sticking your arm into it. Any other ideas, opinions, or anything???
I'm about ready to bawl from all the seemingly pointless amounts of money and time/effort that i've put into these tanks....all for it to croak because of the 52% humidity and 100 degree temperature outside!

Sorry for you losses,, I would break everything down and start anew, And even go through the cycle process again unfortunately. DAMM I wish you had a genrerator, but hindsight is 20/20

 

[jawfish101]

That's what I thought...i'm just still floundering and trying to come up with any reason for not re-doing everything.
I can gaurantee you that as soon as I can save the money I will be purchasing a generator ASAP. We've also had some wicked thunderstorms lately, and I refuse to allow them to kill off the few things i've saved by cutting the power.
This is the first time I have ever truly understood the meaning of this smiley:

. I would really like to run head first into a brickwall and let someone else deal with this...but I'm almost certain that won't help anything.

 

[jawfish101]

Another thing, should I just siphon all of the 24gl water out and completely scrub the tank? The water is disgusting. We took out most of the LR, but a few pieces are still in there. What about the sand?

 

[ghettotang]

Yeah sorry for your loss. That must have been hard that seeing all your fish that your have for a long time over sudden there dead.

Jay

 

[farslayer]

Man, so sorry about that I wouldn't scrub the tank honestly, but what I would do is run a LOT of activated carbon when you start it back up to help clean any remnants that show up in the new water. Activated carbon is wonderful at removing that type of stuff, I run it 24/7 by way of a canister on my tank.
You may also want to consider purchasing a chiller. I had a problem where my tank went up to like 90 or 92 and I almost had a crash, lost only a single purple striped mushroom fortunately. I bought a chiller and have it set on 80 degrees coupled with a heater in the tank set for 78 degrees. This way the tank doesn't get any warmer than about 81 and no cooler than about 78. I have a computer UPS hooked up for some of my equipment to give them about 30 minutes of life if the power dies, but I too am considering a generator.
Man, I'm really sorry about your losses, it seriously sucks.

 

[jawfish101]

Activated carbon...I'll look into that.
I can't afford a chiller right now is the thing. They're all so expensive.
Okay, another question. Now that I have almost all of the coral out of the bow (there is only a couple things salvageable, and they are floating in bags in the water), should I take out the LR and attempt getting the considerable amount of aiptasia off, or just get the remaining coral in there quickly?
Thanks guys, I appreciate the condolences. I'm devastated about losing so much, but the loss of all that sun coral has pretty much left me reeling. They were like my babies fed every other day, so that they can die.

 

[sjimmyh]

Just so you know. Studies on things like this have shown evidence that temperatures aren't actually what kills the livestock in most cases of power loss, etc. Its the lack of Oxygen that happens with high temps. Water cannot dissolve as much oxygen as temperature goes up. What most likely occurred is you reached a temp level that the amount of water in the tank actually couldn't hold enough oxygen for the bio-load you have.
Not sure if it would really help, since I haven't done any experiements or anything to back it up, but it seems to me, if it happens to any of us in the future the use of a few battery operated air bubblers to try to maximize more oxygen entering the tank may allow you to make it through a power outtage or air conditioning malfunction.
Since I really don't know what the oxygen absorbing capabilities vs. temperature values are... 97 degrees may have just been too much for you to combat. Anyway, I am sorry to hear of your loss.

 

[farslayer]

What is the O2 consumption for corals? That can likely aid in determining the cause, but I would still lean to the temperature being the major culprit. If the temperature was so high and the coral effectively cooked, it may be irrelevant as to the O2 content, since death by temperature would have been sooner than death by gas deprivation.
Either way it completely sucks. I would recommend a chiller going on a credit card. I know they're expensive, but consider the cost of the loss of livestock compared to the chiller. I had my scare and bought a chiller like ASAP and have not regretted it. Our AC frequently goes out because it's a crappy Janitrol system.

 

[sjimmyh]

Originally Posted by Farslayer
What is the O2 consumption for corals? That can likely aid in determining the cause, but I would still lean to the temperature being the major culprit. If the temperature was so high and the coral effectively cooked, it may be irrelevant as to the O2 content, since death by temperature would have been sooner than death by gas deprivation.
Either way it completely sucks. I would recommend a chiller going on a credit card. I know they're expensive, but consider the cost of the loss of livestock compared to the chiller. I had my scare and bought a chiller like ASAP and have not regretted it. Our AC frequently goes out because it's a crappy Janitrol system.
You very well may be right. And I do not have an answer on your question. 97 degrees is pretty warm. In the Navy we have to monitor temps of our seawater systems. If it gets too hot, we actually do cook life in the water and it can cake our small tubing we usually use in heat exchangers. We don't like this fouling effect as it stops efficient heat transfer. The temperature that this effect starts to occur is around 140 degrees (not surprisingly, this temperature is usually associated with people to "scalding").
I know that 97 degrees sounds very high for an aquarium, and certainly would want to be avoided, but I don't think it would cook anything. Again, just my opinion. I do have a book written by Tolluck, I believe, that describes oxygen depletion with regard to temps better than I can. Unfortunately, it doesn't give values either.

 

[farslayer]

I guess the long story short is that 97 degrees is too high, regardless of the specifics

Reading a story like this make me so happy I bought that chiller, I lucked out when I had my heat problem and only lost a single shroom of which I had many more.

 

[sjimmyh]

Originally Posted by Farslayer
I guess the long story short is that 97 degrees is too high, regardless of the specifics

Reading a story like this make me so happy I bought that chiller, I lucked out when I had my heat problem and only lost a single shroom of which I had many more.
Yep!
I think I would test the theory out though since a few battery operated air pumps and stones would cost a ton less than loosing everything. Get them at Walmart... that way, if it doesn't work, you can just take it back and tell them that they didn't do what you wanted.