Nailpolish Remover

[distrut]

I don't know if this is the right section to post this at, but I'm not sure where to post it at. Something has happened to my 75 gal saltwater tank. The tank started getting cloudy when I restarted my sump earlier yesterday morning. I had removed the pump in the sump to give it a cleaning and then I added some water into the tank. It was running low on water. I only added a few gallons into the sump, turned on the pump, and left it alone. Now all the fish are dead, the corals are in distress, and the water is so cloudy that you can't even see through it. I think one of my kids might have put fingernail polish remover in the tank itself or in the sump water which is now in my tank. I can't be sure of that though, but the bottle is almost empty and was found near the tank. What kind of reaction will this have on the corals, live rock, and live sand? Some of the snails, hermit crabs, and clean-up crew critters are still alive and have been removed from the tank into a refugium tank type thing. I have removed some of the live rock and all of the coral that I think is alive. Is there anything that can be saved or will it all die? Thanks!

 

[moonracer0]

Oh no!! I am so sorry about your fish. I'm not a saltwater fish prof yet, but I would think you would have to start all over again? Not sure, but it sounds like something my boys would have done. I've had my tank for over a year and I have found pennys and foam peanuts in my tank. Sorry I couldn't be of much help. Good luck.

 

[reefforbrains]

It is incredibly toxic and will kill everything.
Hopefully it was dilluted enough that it delayed a total tank death. If you have already pulled most of your livestock then lots of waterchanges are about all you can do at this point. It will gass off and come out of the tank with no after effects but the entire situations sevarity depends on how much was introduced to the tank. Hopefully it did not/does not kill the sandbed.
I would think better to deal with an off balanced tank by doing HUGE waterchanges rather than trying to do small ones over time and thus leaving more concentration for longer period. I would do a 75% change right away.
Any chance of a confession? This can rule out where the bottle came from and prevent jumping to conclusions.
Someones not getting an alowance for a LOOOOOONG time...
Oh and a new lock on the sump door.

 

[distrut]

Well, my daughter is 3 almost 4 and she blames everything on my son. He swears up and down he didn't do it, but my lil girl says she didn't either lol I was worried about if there was some kind of toxic reaction that could harm us as well as the tank. I have noticed that some kind of strange looking worms have come out of the sand bed. Not sure to the revalance of that or not. SOme of the corals look really bad. I don'tknow if they are sick or just mad as heck. After this, the sump woll be locked up tight!!! I just want to be able to save what little I have left.

 

[beth]

Has one of your kids owned up to dumping nail polish remover in the tank? How likely is this??
Start doing massive water changes.

 

[distrut]

No, neither kid has admitted to it. I just kind of thought that was what happened because of the bottle. I could be wrong though. The tank was fine when I added the water. All the corals was open and the fish was fine.

 

[distrut]

Thanks for everyones help. I'm going to go and start changing the water in this tank and see what else I can do. Thanks again to all that helped!!!

 

[beth]

And the problem started when you started up the pump again? How does the water smell? What is your ammonia and nitrite readings?