sooz
Member
I had a tragedy this weekend.
On Friday I came home from work as usual, fed the tank, everything looked fine. Got a small shock when I touched the light fixture, but from time to time I get an electrical shock when I am dealing with the tank, and have been told that this is very normal, due to salt-creep and such: if I touch the water and also the metal I can cause a small shock. (Question #1: Please tell me if this is a LIE!!)
Anyhow, I went upstairs, and about an hour later I noticed a smell - like an electrical burning. I immediately tried to find the source of the smell and when I could not find it at first I started getting panicky - thinking I had an electrical wire burning in my walls.
Then I remembered the fish tank. I went over to it, and the smell was stronger. Then I saw dead fish, and it all clicked in my head. I unplugged everything, real fast, but it was too late. 3 of them lived for a few hours, but after being shocked for an hour they could not recover. There was a layer of black char on the surface of the water, which I assume came from any uneaten food or protein in the water.
I skimmed that off, and since some of the fish were still breathing, I waited a while before scooping out the dead fish. I was hoping some of them were just stunned and would come out of it, and in fact my Coral Beauty was not breathing, then she suddenly stirred, took off, swam around the tank really fast a few times, then dove into the LR. My very favorite fish (Diamond Watchman Goby) lived for about 4 hours - I really thought he was going to make it, but he eventually went into the LR too, and when I checked he was gone. :-( The PJ Cardinals lived almost that long, but they succumbed too.
The culprit turned out to be one of my powerheads (a cheap R-- one, and I will never buy one of their products again!) I tested each thing (heater, powerheads) in a bucket of tank water, and the 200 PH gave me a hell of a shock. Apparently it developed some sort of short and was just pumping electricity into the water.
Interestingly, my invertebrates (my starfish, my lobster, the feather dusters, the little crabs and the snails) seem to all be OK. Question #2: Why weren't the invertebrates affected? Is it because their nervous systems are different/more rudimentary, or because they were touching the rock/sand and were therefore grounded? I am glad to not lose them, of course.
Now I have an almost empty tank, and I won't lie, I cried a bucket on Friday and Saturday. I took some water Sat. morning to my LFS (the good one, not the megachains) and she tested my water - said the pH was a little low but all else was ok.
Question #3: How soon should I try to introduce new fish to my tank? I plan to go VERY SLOWLY with this, trust me, but I don't know enough about chemistry and physics to know if my water/bacterial cycle is damaged from this or not. The invertebrates seem perfectly fine and normal, but what about fish?
Question #4: Does anyone know how I can ground my tank so that this will never happen again?
Question #5: I don't do coral, but does anyone know - would coral have been destroyed, like the fish, or spared, like the inverts?
Lost: 1 Diamond Watchman Goby, 1 Coral Beauty, 1 sixline wrasse, 2 BIG Pajama Cardinals, 3 Blue-Green Chromis, 1 Springer's Dottyback, 1 Banggai Cardinal
Anyhow, I went upstairs, and about an hour later I noticed a smell - like an electrical burning. I immediately tried to find the source of the smell and when I could not find it at first I started getting panicky - thinking I had an electrical wire burning in my walls.
Then I remembered the fish tank. I went over to it, and the smell was stronger. Then I saw dead fish, and it all clicked in my head. I unplugged everything, real fast, but it was too late. 3 of them lived for a few hours, but after being shocked for an hour they could not recover. There was a layer of black char on the surface of the water, which I assume came from any uneaten food or protein in the water.
The culprit turned out to be one of my powerheads (a cheap R-- one, and I will never buy one of their products again!) I tested each thing (heater, powerheads) in a bucket of tank water, and the 200 PH gave me a hell of a shock. Apparently it developed some sort of short and was just pumping electricity into the water.
Interestingly, my invertebrates (my starfish, my lobster, the feather dusters, the little crabs and the snails) seem to all be OK. Question #2: Why weren't the invertebrates affected? Is it because their nervous systems are different/more rudimentary, or because they were touching the rock/sand and were therefore grounded? I am glad to not lose them, of course.
Now I have an almost empty tank, and I won't lie, I cried a bucket on Friday and Saturday. I took some water Sat. morning to my LFS (the good one, not the megachains) and she tested my water - said the pH was a little low but all else was ok.
Question #3: How soon should I try to introduce new fish to my tank? I plan to go VERY SLOWLY with this, trust me, but I don't know enough about chemistry and physics to know if my water/bacterial cycle is damaged from this or not. The invertebrates seem perfectly fine and normal, but what about fish?
Question #4: Does anyone know how I can ground my tank so that this will never happen again?
Question #5: I don't do coral, but does anyone know - would coral have been destroyed, like the fish, or spared, like the inverts?
Lost: 1 Diamond Watchman Goby, 1 Coral Beauty, 1 sixline wrasse, 2 BIG Pajama Cardinals, 3 Blue-Green Chromis, 1 Springer's Dottyback, 1 Banggai Cardinal
