Reef tank ruined

[Tex]

Hi guys, I haven't posted in a while.

4 days ago our new little kitty cat jumped up on the canopy and knocked a full can of flake food into my 100 gal reef. No one was home and it didn't get noticed for hours. By that night ALL the fish were dead. It appears that virtually everything from snails to bristle worms to liverock is dying. The water was orange, cloudy and putrid smelling. The only thing I knew to was a massive 80 gallon water change over the course of 2 days.

The tank has been set for 11 months now and was really starting to look beautiful. I have lost $1000's in livestock.

 

[Hara]

sorry for your losses

 

[Sadielynn]

Dont give up hope .... There is a possibility that with massive water changes and hard agressive skimming that some of the corals will recover.... I know the feeling with the kitty and now keep the food in a drawer .... dont blame yourself as this could have happened to anyone ... give yourself time and you will get it back...I know that the fish loss hurts but ... tehy can be somewhat replaced ...

 

[quixand]

Well...I'm very sorry for your loss.

If it makes you feel any better, it could have been much worse.
My buddy had a 200 gallon tank with auto top off 120 gallon sump.
Power went out, and when he got home, his entire dining room was flooded, through his new wood floor, down into his server room where the water damaged also caused about $20k dollars in computer damages.

His whole house was ruined. Needed a crew of 4 sucking water out of everywhere for about 2 days round the clock. Then, figure the loss of livestock on top of all that. He hasn't been the same since, and gave up on the hobby.

Chin up bro. Don't go down without swinging.

 

[plecoperson]

Oh, Kitty....bad kitty.....

We have 13 cats and disaster is always right around the corner. Oh, the canopies I've fished out of tanks, the cats I've pulled out of the water, the refilling tubes batted out of the tank, the mopping, etc.

It was a freak thing-you must soldier on! Hopefully you can save some of the corals, give it some time to stabilize, and slowly rebuild. I'm so sorry for your losses, and give that kitty a talking-to for us.

 

[lando]

That is terrible! Hopefully, you will be able to salvage the substrate and LR and start over. I am very sorry.

 

[Guest]

tank

Sorry for the loss but do what you can. Corals can come back, you would be surprised.

BTW, that is a terrible story with the flood but just so people do not get scared away a RR tank plumbed correctly into a sump should not have this issue.

 

[roka64]

WOW!! Sorry to hear about that.

 

[hc8719]

wow... all the fish died in a few hours, thats a real bummer. my old cat once jumped into my 20 FW tank when i was doing a pwc, scratched up a few fish, but that really sucks about the food (how big was it)

im just took my 7oz bottle of food off my tank...

 

[melosu58]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Hopefully you`ll be able to salvage some things from your tank.

 

[fishrfreinds]

That happened to me. My younger brother tried to "feed the fish" and dump a full can of fish food. ERRGH! It screwed up my tank so bad! Killed every thing! Of course his response is a half Hearted sorry. The fish suffered a horrible death. And it caused a HUGE ammonia spike of course. But when i started over i found this site, and this site has help me.

So i know how you feel and I'm so sorry that that happened. I hope you don't give up and that you will continue with this great hobby.

 

[Tex]

Well, spent most of yesterday doing another 20 gallon pwc. Ammonia was off the charts (well over 8 ppm) but all other leverls were normal. I essentially have a huge new cycle starting. I tried using Kent Marine ammonia detox at very high dosage and threw on an old canister with a bag of Phoz Sorb (I think). There's so much decaying flesh from snails and worms and whatnot I doubt anything can be salvaged short of "borrowing" 30 gallons or so of aged saltwater from a friend and scrubbing all the rocks and rinsing the livesand.

The good news is I did manage to get the surving corals out and got them into quarantine at our generous LFS. I may end up just donating them to reef club buddies and when the time comes for me they can reciprocate with new frags from their tanks. I'll know more in a few days.

Yeah it sucks but there's always a sadder story out there. I have a buddy who keeps his helicopter on a pad at his lake cabin. A sudden huge windstorm blew in and dumped his chopper into the lake. Insurance covered it but his deductible was $10,000. Ugh.

 

[lando]

At this point I would give up on PWC. Mix up some new SW and rinse all of the substrate and LR in it. Completely empty the tank and...start over. You will likely spend more time and money attempting to "correct" the foul tank conditions then if you started from scratch with a new cycle. Good luck...I feel for ya.

 

[Tex]

The results are in, TOTAL LOSS. Im going to drain tank and set the rocks and sand out in the sunshine for a week or two and start over.

I have sold the surviving critters, 20 lbs of liverock, gorgeous red shrooms, gigantic Xenia colony, hermit crab, encrusting amphillia and a very nice candy cane coral for $50.

Maybe now I can afford to get the kids some much needed gloves and socks for Christmas. Boo hoo hoo hoo.

 

[squawkbert]

Drain, then refill - provide a little NH3, then you don't have to cycle... you can restart w/o killing the bacteria (insert horse riding analogy here).

 

[Devilishturtles]

I'm sorry, Tex. Best of luck with the tank and everything else. That really does suck.

 

[Sadielynn]

Maybe now I can afford to get the kids some much needed gloves and socks for Christmas. Boo hoo hoo hoo.

Maybe they can wear the socks as gloves














Sorry for your loss

 

[clubsuperduty]

That sucks time to take the cat to the SPCA. All joking aside I hope something is salvageable and you can get a good start going again.