Tank CRASHED can someone tell my why...

[reefobsessed]

Thats the strangest thing about it. My star is losing pieces and parts everywhere.. But my Amenome crabs x 2, hermits x 5, emeralds x 2 and snails are fine... It appears that it wont be a total lose. I think its to early to tell but I should come out about 1/2 lost 1/2 ok. I think if I knew what happened I could cop but I still have no clue as to what caused this. I am leaning to the new glass top.. How could I tell if it was electrical?

 

[reefobsessed]

I have changed 15 gallons out. 10 by dropping the water and filling, the other 5 by waiting 1 hour and dropping it 5 and refilling. I have 10 more ready to go. How long should I wait to do another change??

 

[captivereefs]

I would wait at least 6 hours.

 

[brotherd]

I'm no expert but if you had a voltmeter and you set it to say 200 volts a/c and you put the red(positive) probe into the tank and put the negative(black) probe into the ground point of a wall outlet,that should give you a reading of any stray voltage(potential diference).I am unsure of the Ac/dc setting but you could try both.If you get any reading over 10 volts either way I would say there is a problem.So far as I can see you have a mystery as to why this happened.Keep us posted.

 

[brotherd]

By the way,I am going to try this myself too!I am curious as to what I will find in my own tanks.I have heard that a titanium ground probe will elliminate any stray voltage.

 

[brotherd]

By the way,I am going to try this myself too!I am curious as to what I will find in my own tanks.I have heard that a titanium ground probe will elliminate any stray voltage.

 

[brotherd]

Oops!sorry about the double post!

 

[ReefLady]

Wow, I really wish I could help -- that is the worst.

I'd suggest having all your test verified by the LFS, but at this point, you readings may be off just because of the cycle of events that were triggered. In other words, something dieing may now show as ammonia in the tank, but the ammonia may not have been the initial cause of the problem.

Did you look at your pH when this first happened? Adding kalk (not via drip) can drive pH down considerably, which could have cause the fish deaths. I'd really look to pH more than a contaminant, as a contaminant would have likely killed inverts/corals first. Then the fish dying could have triggered a cycle which effected the corals, etc.

That's my best guess.

I plan on doing water changes 5 gallons at a time 5 or 10 times today to try & get whatever is in there out..

Less frequent, larger water changes will have more impact on the water quality. In other words, one 20% water change is much better than 4 x 5% water changes. I would strongly suggest changing about 25% of the water today, again tomorrow if things don't look better, then again Friday.

I'd also run some GAC asap.

Good luck, keep us posted!