my tank crashed 1 day before it sold

[ms3]

my tank is gone everything in it. i dont know what happened. i left for bugerking i come back all my fish are dead and my lights are turned off some how my tank is covered in slim and there is foam that is about 7 " deep that covered the top of the tank and some on the floor. now i flipped the switch for my lights and it came back on but there is still slim and foam every wear this tank is sold there were coming to get it sat. i was going to be out even for what i put into it. i dont even know what is slimming and what is dead. my shrimp and my clam are alive. my hard coral is alive but my recordia 10 shrooms look dead my frog spawn is dead, zoos dead. i dont understand there is just slim every wear all over the place and the foam i tried my best to get ride of it i cant do a water change its simple to last at night i got to be at work in 3 hrs

 

[saltymarine]

That is horrible! I wonder if you had some kind of short circuit or something that electrocuted the stuff?

 

[sly]

If you only went out for awhile and then returned to find everything covered in foam then its likely that something spilled into your tank. I would make up some clean water asap and put it into some large clean containers (buckets, trash cans). Try to match the salinity and temp of your tank water. Oxygenate the water in the bucket and quarantine everything until you can get your tank clean. I would break down the tank completely this weekend and wipe it out with water and vinegar. Rinse everything off that you can with fresh saltwater or filtered freshwater if it's already dead. Your surviving corals can go without light for a few days while you get things back together. I would use lots of activated carbon on the tank when you get it back together...
Another option is to just sell what living things you have left either to a hobbiest or an lfs and then break down the tank and sell it as is. It's possible that if you sold everything individually then you might get most of your money back.
I'm sorry to hear of this. Let us know if you find anything else out.

 

[ms3]

how in the world can all my fish die instanly i mean there were stuck standing up in the sand my star fish died my hard coral are going but everything ealse lived my shrimp 2 cleaner and 1 coral bandet 2 oliver snails and a max clam and bubble nem are alive and healthy i dont understand. nobody do i talked to my local fish store a guy i know for a long long time he cant explain.
so this is what we came up with the water heater freaked out and shocked the tank killing all the fish releasing amonea witch made the water bad and killed everything
or one of my corals was died and releasing its stuff in the water that killed everything. i just dont get it how some stuff died but the easy to kill stuff lived and the foam and slim

 

[deejeff442]

did you have an anenome?

 

[veni vidi vici]

This really sound like something from outside the tank contaminated your water.

 

[deejeff442]

i would think a chemical would kill everything though?
i had a tank get nuked by an anenome in no time and had white cloudy water and slime on top. no more of those for me.

 

[ms3]

i do have an anenome a bubble. but its still alive and still opens up. there is no way a chemical got into the tank. the tank is the highest point were its at there is no chem. in the room. i tested my water just before i left i dont remember the exact readings but i was a little low in cal and alk. nothing to jump up and down about so i dosed
.05 of cal and alk there is now way you can tell me that that coused that in 2 hrs. now check this the only place that the foam form is were the bioballs come from in the back of the tank the foam still comes up and out of the back area even after a 60% water change. riddle me this i empted that back chamber drained it of all water. scrubbed it of all clean even clean the balls (half ass/ i had called into work (army) saying hey i just lost $1000 bucks of stuff in my tank im trying to save what i can ill be running late) i then did my 60% water change and its still foaming but at a much lower rate now. i dont get it.

 

[reifermadness]

I think the earlier post was closest, something shocked the tank probably. If there is no way chemicals got into the tank then this would be the closest. It could have been a short that ran from your outlet or power strip that shorted and ran back to the tank. That might be why your inverts didn't die... no brain to shut off so to speak.

 

[ms3]

what do you mean no brain to shut off? how do you shut it off and keep your pumps and filters running? you know that bad thing thou if it was a shock to the tank. i was talking to a guy 3 days ago about my tank and he was hooting an hawling about needing to ground my tank. i kinda blew him off couse i knew that today it was getting picked up. and why spend more money if its just about to go out the door. well on the plus side it looks as if all the corals but the birds nest and a toad stool and one frag of zoo's might make it they started to come back around but there really baddly shocked
the only thing that still puzzles me is the foam from the bio balls

 

[makoshrk2]

Sounds like chemicals. JUst to short of a time period. You ever hear of murphy's law.

 

[ms3]

if murphy was here id be force to kick his A#$ oh well i the lady still came and got it but i had to cut the price she made out like a bandit. but hey what can i say. ill be back bigger and better then ever some day soon

 

[sly]

Was there anyone else in the house while you were gone? How about cats or other animals?
If it's foaming then you do have something in the tank... Now whether or not it was something that fell into the tank or something that was released by an anemone or something... it's hard to say.
What I find interesting is that you tested the water just before you left and you dosed a few chemicals. Perhaps something you inadvertently did caused this to happen. Maybe something spilled when you weren't looking or you placed your test kit on a shelf which knocked something else over... My hunch is that this is somehow related to the water test you did before you left. Anytime there is human intervention, there can be human error...