Disaster Question

[e.muehlbauer]

Last Sunday, I discovered that the heater on my 30 gal. tank had died. I don't know when. The tank was fine Friday night when I fed them. I was busy on Sat and didn't check the tank. Sunday night I went to feed the fish, and saw them heavily stressed, and the mushrooms all shriveled. I immediately set up a water change, and discovered the problem- the water felt ice cold. It's in a cold room, which drops into the 50's at night. The water temperature couldn't have been above 60, was probably lower. It probably was like that for 2 days. I borrowed a heater from my son's FW tank and ordered a new one. It had been a very healthy tank, with lots of mushrooms, montipora, 3 small yellowtail damsels, and 3 ocellaris clowns which constantly spawned. No skimmer, but the tank was always as healthy as my big tank which has a skimmer. Every day I've done water changes, changed the filter carbon, but things declined. I put in a powerhead to oxygenate the water, which relieved a lot of the fishes stress. It looked like things were improving.But in the last 24 hours, things got really bad. The water had been cloudy, but starting to clear. Today it was super cloudy and it stinks. I could see only 1 surviving clownfish, so I transferred it to my top tank. Only 1 or 2 mushrooms left alive. Did another big water change. So....my question is: Should I break the tank down, sterilize it? Or, just let the tank cycle again. I'd prefer the 2nd solution. If I do that, what should I do? Lights on or off? Stay with the regular water changes? It must be like curing live rock...but I've never done that. Any ideas? If the tank can recycle, I'll restock it when its safe. If I have to break the tank down, that's it. I won't set it up again....its not worth the expense and hassle. Any ideas?

 

[peteyboyny]

If it were me, I'd let the tank recycle. Give it a shot, it couldn't hurt. I would at least run some carbon and GFO help the cleanup process along.

 

[B.BASH]

Tough call first remove all dead fish and corals do a 100% water change (siphon the sand as well) let it run for a couple of weeks use fresh carbon and maybe change it out keep testing to see if it cycles and take it slow from there good luck

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Here's an update: After my water change, the clarity improved just enough to see that my other clownfish were alive, and quite a few more mushrooms than I thought, although they looked pathetic. The clowns were transferred to my top tank. There is nothing visibly dead to remove...the montiporas look bleached, but I've had what appear to be totally dead montiporas suddenly revive months later. So, I'll just keep up with the water changes. I'm amazed at how hardy these clownfish are. Then again, they are quite a few years old. I'll have to get some test kits. My tanks are so old and stable that I haven't tested for anything beyond calcium and alkalinity in maybe 15 years.

 

[jackson6745]

If it were me, I'd let the tank recycle. Give it a shot, it couldn't hurt. I would at least run some carbon and GFO help the cleanup process along.

+1


More importantly I would fix this situation so it can't happen again. Look for a used ranco temp controller. I've seen them going for $40-$50 used.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Oh well. I took down the tank tonight. The stench was just unbearable, and was driving my whole family crazy. Couldn't escape the smell anywhere in the house. No amount of massive water changes helped. By the next morning, the stink would be back, even worse. There was no way we could put up with a new cycle in that tank. On the other hand, only 1 reef tank to maintain now.....

 

[guarda]

That stinks (no pun intended). Have you ever considered a controller? I'm not ocd with my tank but it's really nice to get an alert when a low temp threshold is broken.

 

[guarda]

Oh I'm sorry, didn't read the post above mine.

 

[andylee]

If you don't want to get a controller, using two smaller heaters makes this less likely. Also prevents overheating should one get stuck. Sorry to hear about your problems.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Well, I now have a new heater. I'll look into those temp controllers. Of course, it would help if I paid more attention to the tank...Since this tank was near the floor on the bottom shelf, it got less attention than my top tank.