Lost everything

helloo

Member
I am away on work and I got a call from home that my tank was extremely cloudy. Sun night I topped off with fresh RO/DI and all was good. They say everything looks dead inside the tank and the smell is extremely bad. Corals and fish were lost. Any idea what would cause a perfectly good tank to do this. It has been established for over 3+years with no issues. They said the pumps and everything else is still working normally. I will test the water tonight when I get home.
 

bender77

Member
Have them check the temp of the tank. I had that happen when a heater went bad. I was out of town too and no one noticed I guess. Slowly trying to get that tank back into shape. So sorry. I know how much that sucks
 

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
The heater could be one reason... the other is that they are pulling your leg? I had someone do that to me one time... I was upset at em' for a long time.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Maybe a fish went MIA and didn't get cleaned up by the CUC....it really sounds like an ammonia spike.
 

helloo

Member
I got home at everything is lost. The tank is extremely cloudy for some reason and the fish are floating and the corals are brown and dead. The sand bed is green. I have no idea what happened. The tank is at 76 degrees after being under the lights for eight hours. Usually the tank is closer to 79-80 so I will test the temp again in the morning after the lights have been off all night. I just can't believe that it can go south so quickly in so short of time. Why is the water so cloudy?
 

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
I knew a guy one time that loved his fish tank more than his wife. So, she poured bleach in the tank and walked out on him. Unfortunate, but sometimes a tank crash isn't an act of God.
But, here is a list of things to check:
1. Maybe your RO Unit went sour and dumped a bunch of chlorine / chloramines into your tank
2. Maybe your RO Unit could have ran constantly and flooded your tank with fresh water. Check your salinity
3. Use a voltometer to check for stray voltage in the tank. If something is leaking electricity, that could have easily caused it.
4. Someone tampered with it
 

1guydude

Well-Known Member
ya ur temp is down so....
i mean i dont know how well u know or trust ur family or whoevers in ur house but they could have unplugged ur heater...than plugged it back it before u got back!
Cloudyness is from everything dying! Amnonia and such!
 

flower

Well-Known Member
OMG...I am so sorry for your loss, such a beautiful inwall tank too. Have you checked on the things Snake said to?
 
C

coral guy

Guest
that almosted happened to my reef i lost a powder blue tang my clowns my brain half of my acans and all torches and frogspawn
sorry for your loss
 

helloo

Member
The temp again today in the tank was around 75ish with no lights on all day. Would a drop of a few degrees kill everything? I tested for stray voltage and at most 5.5 volts was in the tank, which I researched and is not uncommon. So I do not think that is what caused it, but maybe I don't know. I am about to drain it because the smell is awful.
We had a party for my son the day before everything died. I'm pretty sure no one did anything to the tank. The tank is hard to get to because of the location behind a wall in the basement. Maybe I'll never know which is scary considering I am going to start over.
 

teresaq

Active Member
do you have any macros in there??? I the back of the tank behind closed doors. What else is in the room with your equipment
 

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Voltage of 5.5 is actually the mid range of stray voltage in a tank. Just because there is 5.5 volts running in your water, doesn't mean that there might have been a power surge that shocked the mess out of your tank.
When you set up your new system, I advise a titanium grounding probe at the very least. It not only will save your tank, but yourself, if a power surge happens (again).
My best guess is that it was a power surge that electrocuted your tank. Something, somewhere, busted.
Another guess is if you recently switched salts? Natural to synthetic or vice versa?
 

helloo

Member
There have been no changes to the tank or anything for at least a year. Same salt and all. I just drained the tank. What should I do now? Should I fill it back up with fresh or salt water and drain it again? Should I take everything out and hand clean it? The rocks are still purple but I assume they are all dead rock now? Is this a 100% do-over or can anything be saved? I know it is going to take months to put anything alive back in it. Bummer.
 

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
Put all of your rock in rubbermaid bins with fresh made saltwater. Take out all of your live sand and try your best to rinse it. If you can't, then toss it and buy fresh/new. You don't want old nitrate and phosphate to be leaked into a brand new system. Put new livesand down, fill the tank half way with saltwater, add your old rock and a few pounds of freshly cured rock, then fill up the rest of the tank and get the pumps and everything going again. Have a 50% water change ready in a few days to head off the ammonia spike to try to save some of the microfauna. Eventually your tank will get back to it's former glory, but it will take time.
I suggest you try to find the piece of equipment that is putting so much voltage into your water. Put all of your equipment in a rubbermaid with saltwater to clean and wash everything, then test your water with the voltometer. Start unplugging each piece of equipment until you find the one that is causing the high voltage, then replace it with a new one. A titanium grounding probe will channel stray voltage out of the tank too. Also, before you set up your new tank, install a GFCI unit on all of your power outlets to your tank. If a ground fault happens, it will immediately cut power off to the tank. Someone is bound to notice that the lights aren't on and the water isn't moving. That's better than electrocuting your fish, neh?
 
Top