All My Fish Just Died Please Help:(

[rayjfish]

Hello, I have an acrylic 90 gallon bow front tank. I've had it running for about a year and a half and today all 7 of my fish just died. I'm really upset with all the care, time, and money I put into this tank/fish and for something like this to happen. I was hoping some people who were more experienced than me can help diagnose what and how this could happen and how to ever prevent this in the future if I ever get fish again. I've been living with my girlfriend out of town for a few months and during that time my parents have been taking care of my tank in their house. I've taught them everything that I know and they are extremely careful with all the feedings and maintenance but their knowledge of salt water fish etc... would still be considered minimal. Anyway they called me a few hours ago to inform me that for some reason the power in the tank cut off and everything had stopped running. They determined that it was not the house electricity because all other appliances that share that circuit breaker were working perfectly. Anyway after determining there were no leaks /water spillage that caused the power to be cut off they tried to reset the surge protector by pushing the button on it and every time they did that the power would flicker on in the tank for a second and then cut off again. Anyway they did this a few times hoping the power would stay on, but when this did not happen they eventually left it alone hoping that I would fix it in a few hours when I got home. Then about an hour later my mom went back downstairs to look at the tank and every single one of my fish were laying dead on the bottom of my tank. Here is where I need help figuring out how and why this happened. My theory is that there was some type of pump failure/shortage that caused the initial surge and caused the surge protector to cut off. At this point I think the fish were fine. Then when they attempted to reset the surge protector a few times and it would go on and off it some how electrocuted all the fish and they died. I have no idea if this is right and if anyone has some better ideas I would love to here first why the power cut off in the first place and two why all the fish died. Also if this or something similar ever happened to anyone before or if you've ever heard of it happening to anyone I'd appreciate your advice. Also what can be done to fix this problem and to prevent it ever happening in the future, if I do decided to get more fish(right now I'm so down about it I can't even think about it). Not that it makes a difference but this is the list of fish (they all got along really well and have been doing extremely well before this) I had that died:
1)Queen Angel
2)Adult Imperator Angel
3)Powder Blue Tang
4)Rainbow Wrasse
5)Heniochus Butterfly
6)Gold stripe Maroon Clown
7)Flame Angel
Thanks so much for any help or theories and sorry for the long post.

 

[grumpygils]

I do not think they were electrocuted. I think the power went off for a while and they died from lack of O2. I had that happen in one of my smaller tanks (29G). Power was off for 4 hours and shrimp, six line, pj and psuedo all croaked. Sorry to hear about it!

Mc
P.S.
No real way to stop it in the future. I try to have my PHs and pumps on separate outlets in case one goes south. The bad surge protector is the culprit.

 

[andy51632]

Man that really sucks, I am so sorry.
I think it was probally oxygen defiency also. That is alot of fish, and large fish at that for a 90gal. They could use up the oxygen in the tank very fast.
Try not stocking so much that way if something goes wrong(power outage) your fish have a little more time before they reach critical levels.
Keep water pumps on separate outlets and surge protectors.
There is also a air pump made by AZOO that has a battery backup. Would be great for short term emergencys.
Again I am really sorry but think you should continue with your hobby and start over.

 

[rbaldino]

I've had power outages that lasted for days without losing fish, so I'm skeptical of the oxygen deficiency thing, though I've never had that many big fish in a tank. Remember, these fish all come to us in plastic bags, going for hours or days without pumps and powerheads and heaters, etc. I'd be more suspicious of stray voltage.
There's another possibility... Not to call your parents liars or anything, but when's the last time you actually saw the tank? I find it a little hard to believe that they all died at the same time...

 

[sepulatian]

If the surge protecter going to the tank was the only thing that went off then it is kind of safe to say that something malfunctioned. What equipment did you have on this tank? Them pushing the button to turn it back on probably sent the current back to the tank. No offence to you parents (they didn't know) but surge protectors kick off for a reason. That is what they are for. I am so terribly sorry that this happened. I hope you can find out what piece of equipment was faulty. That was a freak accident.

 

[jamparty]

I feel awful for you, that is a really beautiful list of fish too
Did you have a grounding rod in your tank btw? Just wondering, because if you did, then it couldn't have been electricity.

 

[mie]

Im not to sure it was oxygen either, we are all very aware of what we do around or tanks and how we handle things, i.e food after useing cleaners or putting lotion on your hands etc... you know there are a bunch of variables ,but i would bet bet money that they were electrocuted, i would problably guess that your heater some how malfunctioned and when the water hit an electrical component it shorted and whenever you guys flipped the breaker it would throw voltage into the tank that is my superfied technical theory

anyways that does suck and hopefully you jump back in