Seriously need HELP!!! burn out

[dmatta82]

So this morning at 4am I wake up to the faint smell of smoke and my circuit breaker off. Come to find out that the smell is coming from my fish tank, one of the return pumps burnt out. Luckily it did not cause a flood, but it left a film on my the top of my tank and sadly I watched my fish spiral down to their deaths. It smelled like someone started a motor in my tank. I really dont know what to do now. I need serious help. What are my options. I feel like there was an oil spill and my tank will be feeling the effects for the next 100 years.

Should I get rid of the sand? The rocks? All filters? What should I be testing for? What is a time frame to get my tank back to normal?

Luckily I had no corals yet.

Im so upset.... Im just trying to find an upside. Thank God I did not buy the black snowflake clowns that I had my eye on.

 

[Nandez13]

Sorry to hear that man, that's terrible. I had a similar situation with a heater recently but fortunately caught it soon enough that I didn't lose any livestock. Did any of your fish/corals survive?

If they didnt, you might as well switch out all the water and add new carbon.

If you still have something in there try to remove as much of that film as you can manually and do as large as a water change as you can


Good luck

 

[cryptics]

Sorry to hear this. Run carbon. Rock and that should be fine. My guess since your breaker tripped is that stray electric got into the tank and that is what killed your fish. Do a 30% water change and add carbon. A few days later do another water change and change the carbon again. Do this for a few weeks then you should be ok

 

[dmatta82]

I don't know if it was the electrical current, I think it was something else maybe toxic. The water smelled burnt. It also looked like a little film of sut(like ash) on the top layer of water. But if it was the current that smell can't be good.

 

[dmatta82]

Has this happened to anybody?

 

[duke62]

What return pump?

 

[dmatta82]

The power head that's in the back of the tank that returns the water back into the tank.

 

[duke62]

What brand

 

[Arati]

do the biggest water change you can and use a poly pad or two. get back to us with the above answers and tell us what color the pad turns. if the pad stays white .. the water is ok.

you can add a pura pad to help with any non toxic clean up. to help the tank rebound from the interuption

 

[Mattl22]

The same exact thing happened to me my return pump burnt out same exact black stuff in tank all my coral died forget weather fish died sorry frustrating.....
I think a lg water change and fresh carbon is a good idea

What kind of pump was it?

 

[strgazr27]

Return pump or power head? Either way sorry to hear. What mostly likely happened is the pump jammed and the locked status is what tripped the breaker. The film is likely from the motor getting hot and melting the material used to cover the windings in the motor case. Did you inspect the pump/PH? And signs of melting or leakage? Follow the advice given and you should be ok.

 

[dmatta82]

It was an Accela power head. I'm going to check it out to see if it was melted. That sounds like a good guess. I did a water change to the whole entire tank. Then did 3 water changes to the back compartment. I'm going to get a poly pad and probably to another 50%water change this weekend. Thanks for the suggestions and willing to listen to more advice.