Massive Devastation

[Vaughncj]

Have had my system running for about three years. Getting tired of the red slime so I did a huge water change yesterday using a different salt, Oceanic. Looks like almost everything except the fish are dead - snails, coral that I can tell, not good. Salinity is fine. Calcium fine.

Do you think I changed too much water at one time? It was probably 70%. Also the temperature of the water was cooler than they are used to. Probably 70 degrees compared to 80 degrees. Probably not too smart. I did the change Monday night and am just noticing the result now.

Anyone with an explanation??

[weimers75]

Definately too much too fast. What are your other parameters? Alk, pH, Nitrates, Nitrites (before and after). My guess is you had high parameters before then they droppped so suddenly it shocked everything.

[Vaughncj]

That makes sense. Part of the problem is that I don't have test kits for those parameters and have not been testing them. I've been negligent, definitely. I only have calcium and nitrate testing which both are good, but does not tell me anything.

Thanks for the reply.

[jpadams555]

You shocked everything with the cooler water ive done huge changes when ive had problems with no issues it looks like the corals are stressed not exactly dead yet probably same with snails once things moderate they will probably come around just based on personal experience

[Vaughncj]

I hope they come around. It looks like a graveyard in there. I was going to take all the snails and carnage out tonight but will keep them in there a little longer hoping for a miracle. I will either be more responsible or will just make an exit. Don't know which yet. This stinks.

[CUNAReefer]

Hi Vaughncj,

So sorry to hear about your loss. You really want to get the dead animals out of your tank as they will start to decay and release toxic ammonia into your water. A couple dead things can be handled by your tanks nitrifying bacteria, but a massive die off like you are experiencing could cause even more problems.

Sorry

James

[Vaughncj]

Should I take out the corals too? Not sure if the zoas are dead yet. The Acropora is completely white, so I don't think there is any hope there. Snails are upside down. Is there any hope?

[Vaughncj]

I think there is still some hope. When I touch some of my snails, they move a little bit. I think they are still alive even though they are upside down and look pretty bad. Temperature is good and salinity is good. Could it take this long for them to recoup from a Monday night issue or is this just a false hope?

[CUNAReefer]

You can wait, but keep a close watch. If you are sure they are dead, it is best to remove them.

[McPuff]

You should probably start testing all the parameters as well. It's good to know, especially when something like this happens. If you touch the snails and they retract, they are still alive. Maybe put them in one place so you can observe them easily. If they remain in the same place for several days, they may die so keep an eye on them like James said. Good luck. Also, don't do any more large water changes like that. Gotta do small and frequent water changes if you want to get rid of the algae.

[TG_Lansing]

If you have a LFS nearby they will do water testing for you so that you can be sure of your parameters. Sorry about what happened and hope things will recover.

[Vaughncj]

I electrocuted them!!! Just want downstairs and heard what sounded like a vacuum cleaner running upstairs for a second at a time. My wife was outside, so that couldn't be. I looked down in the water and saw short flashes of light like a florescent bulb tuning on, but quickly going out. Only thing is I don't have a bulb there. So I looked closer and one of my heaters was broken right in half!! Oh my word. I could have been dead too! Thank the Lord. (I have one of those GFI switches that I am surprised wasn't switched). Anyway, going to Pruess tonight with a water sample. I do have a ph meter that I wasn't using. Testing at 7.9. A bit low?

Thanks for all the help. Gotta go back to work, so I'll check back tonight.

[mf2055]

Very sorry to read about your rude awakening. It is very unfortunate in this hobby that most of us learn best when we really screw things up. I know some of my best learning experiances have been painful in one way or another. I would guess the temp would be the biggest shocker to the system based on what you wrote. If you have hopes of saving a few things I would suggest setting up a few quarantine areas seperate from everything "alive". Any tank, tub, or tote you can fill with water and give some light and water movement would work. I would keep whatever is 100% alive in the tank, 75% alive in a seperate QT tank, 50% alive in another QT and anything less than that in a seperate. That way if the almost dead stuff starts to rot you can avoid losing too much. Snails are very easy to tell if they are alive with your nose, give them each a sniff and if you want to ream your nose out with vinegar and a toilet brush to get rid of the stench that one is dead. Trust me, a live snail normally smells like your tank and a dead snail just flat out ROTS! For corals, it is really hard to say off the bat what is dead and alive, likely most of them will look horrible even if alive. I have saved some corals that I would have bet money they were dead just by giving them some time to recover. It is rare, but even bleached white skeletons with no flesh on them magically recovered to full flesh and a little color on them every so often. Might take a year to get back to full color if you do save some that look very dead. Others might spawn out babies as the main colony dies off. I have seen that on euphylias, leathers, plate corals, and even a weird arcopora that did polyp bail out and poped up all over a tank one time. Hopefully you can come out with some resemblence of a positive outcome.

Just read about the broken heater.... yeah that is painful if it gets you... done that before.. It should trip the GFI as soon as you ground it though.. should........... still hurts though..
Good luck! Keep us informed if you can.

[Vaughncj]

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I was thinking that the electricity would have a hard time going all the way upstairs (upstream). Its quite a ways. Is there anything inside a broken heater that would contaminate the water? Should I do another smaller water change? How about my copapods, etc? They dead too you think? Do I need to get a little more live rock to start that process again? Quarantine tanks sound like a good idea. Thanks!

[Graffiti Reef]

Sorry to hear about the loss V, while I dont have as much experience as others chiming in, based on my limited knowledge I would say its a combo of both the large water change and the huge flux in temp. Inverts cant handle those changes with huge flux's like that so thats my guess. Fish on the other hand can adapt pretty well, did you notice any strange behavior with the fish (i.e. twitching)? thats an indicator that the water change could have been too great. Do you add anything to your water changes? Another reefer here advised me to use a product called Microbacter which works great as far as outcompeting the red slime for nutrients and readding bacteria to new water. My tank had a slight cyano problem but is now spotless thanks to a combo of using that along with smaller water changes and adjusting feeding.

PS Keep your cuc up to par to control those nutrients.