Saddest it gets

L

lotcyclops

Reefing newb
We had a storm in my area which knocked out the power for two days. Never thought it would go that long. But house was getting colder. Despite a valiant attempt to save my 60 gallon tank, the lovely D'Jarden's Sailfin Tang - seven inches, and two clowns plus a lot of corals by dumping water heated on an outdoor grill, and my brother getting a generator over to me, yet alas, it was too late. Every single living thing in my tank is gone. Saddest case of all, but will never happen again with that powerful generator. Freak storm. Sad day.

So I had emptied about half my tank (in order to heat quicker with the warm water), then pulled everything out of the tank and filled with new saltwater. Its 60 gallons. Temp was down to 56 degrees when I did this, hoping to re-set the chemistry, but not sure if the bacteria survive that temp? Left this run with pump, skimmer, water jet near bottom for a few days. Water looked pretty good, ran lighting system. But then measured ammonia and is very high, about 5 or 6 ppm. (Temp was back up to 79 before all this)

So its like I'm starting over. Haven't newly cycled a tank in five years. Chemistry in this tank was perfect, like all the time. So when I read about cycling, its always about getting ammonia in there - live rock preferred method. But I already have a lot of ammonia!!

So, what do I do now? Will letting it run like this eventually produce bacteria? Or do I need to add something? And at what point would it be good to add live rock - in preparation for later crabs snails, corals, finally new fish?

In other words, how do I get the BACTERIA going? Not the ammonia, which is plentiful probably due to the massive die off? Was any bacteria alive at 56 degrees? Really need advice here guys! Sad day, but hopefully a new beginning. Thanks, -Robert
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles, after this past year a lot of us have been through this. Do you have live rock in the tank now, or are you just trying to add more rock to it? The ammonia is the first step in cycling your tank, and in getting your bacteria population. Let your tank run like this and you'll see your nitrites go up and your ammonia will start going down. Then the nitrites will go down and your nitrates will go up. Once your ammonia and nitrites are 0 your tank will be cycled and ready to go.
 
Thank you for such a rapid response, BL1. Right now, all I have in the tank is my three biggest old rocks. Old meaning they were there in the cold, then out to dry for a day so its basically just ocean rock. My idea is to give more places for the bacteria to collect - the jet is gently flowing water over them, plus I have the main canister pump running.

Should I keep the lights on it and the skimmer? (Two 10K's and two actinic blues) I read somewhere that raising the temp helps the process so set therms to about 83. Ph is somehow still good at 8.2. Water is now clear but very smoky for a few days after adding water. Top of water is crystal clear.

So the bacteria will eventually develop by itself? Taking in the ammonia already present?
I understand the cycle, but not sure where the ammonia-eating bacteria come from.

At what point do you think I should add some new live rock? My guess is maybe when the ammonia is fairly low because by then I will need a new source of ammonia.

Thanks again! -Robert
 
Bummer, cyclops :( +1 everyone...lots of peeps here have gone through that, with all the freaky weather the past year all over the place. Patience!
 
Tragic feel sorry for you if it was me I would put together an estimate for replacement from the LFS and turn it in to the power company as well as the insurance company someone should pay!!!!!!! And don’t buy the act of God line they knew this was coming we got people in NJ that have been without power all week…
 
I was without power for 4 days and I am getting this isnt covered that isnt covered routine now.. like fast said throw all the rock in and let it go.. sorry to hear about losing everything.. also welcome to the site..
 
Am I reading this thread right?
I am surprised that no one mention that by heating the water on the grill, you lowered the oxygen level of it. Also I assume you used a metal container. Even if you raised that temperature to 75 degrees overall, the water on the bottom while heating would be much warmer then that. As the cool water drops to the bottom of the container, its exposed to the hotter temperatures.
I believe if you used a strong air pump while heating the water and then letting the air pump agitate the water for at least an hour after heating, you may have had a chance to save your tank inhabitants. They were already stressed enough by the cold temperatures.
Do a search on oxygen levels and temperatures of water and you will see the risk of using heated water or any tank water thats allows the temperature to get too high.
 
I think everyone across the country has had the no power issue sometime in the lst 6 months. I know we did out here. I was lucky to loose nothing but the power was only off for about 12 hours.
 
Yea, the time of year will make a difference too. I lost power for 5 days in the spring/summer so it kept my tank somewhat warm.
 
I can't thank you all enough for these rapid responses and condolences. Good idea to put in the rest of my rock! I will definitely do this today.

About the heated water and oxygen. Thanks for the tip, but at the time I still had no power to run anything. What happened was that the night before the fish were still fine, and the temp was down to 72 - a little low, but the fish were fine.

I know from experience that it takes awhile for the whole tank to cool, so I figured it would be fine until the morning, and I felt by then the power would be on again, and if not, I would start slowly adding warm water, figuring the temp might not be much lower than it was.

What I had over-looked is that the house itself was cooler, and I didn't expect it to get so extra cold over-night. When I got up in the morning I saw my Tang in the corner apparently dead, and the temp was down to 65. Then I noticed his one fin was moving and he suddenly leaped to the other side of the tank, then continued to lay in that half-tilted position. The clowns and corals were already gone. Saw one of the clowns dead in another corner.

So I leaped into action wanting to save mostly the tang - only thing alive yet. Indeed, when I came in with the first bucket of warm water, he had indeed moved again. Unfortunately it was somewhere behind the rock. But I started adding the water anyway knowing that getting the temp up was the most important thing.

About an hour or so of this (as it took the grill a few minutes to heat each pot) - my brother arrived with the generator. Before that, as I was adding the water, I did hear the "plop" sound of the tang probably jumping - twice - but didn't see him behind the rock.

Temp was ok at about 76 when we got everything running with the generator. I think it was likely a combination of low temperature and ammonia going up that got the tang, because I now believe he died earlier even as I was starting to add the water.

Well, never again. I urge you all to get generators. They are rather inexpensive and quite powerful. The 1,000 watt one I got is more than twice the power needed to run my tank and they go for about 250 bucks! Even a big tank could be run with a relatively inexpensive generator.

I will definitely add the rest of my old rock, but I'm just wondering when I should purchase and put in some new, actual live rock? Should I let the ammonia drop to low, or zero? Once I have the new live rock in there in addition to my old rock - at the right time, I can take it from there. Thanks again, -Robert

P.S. What about the skimmer and lights? Should I keep them going? Will the skimmer muff the bacterial build-up process? At this stage, do I need the lights?
 
Your old rock will re-seed itself as the tank recycles. Whether adding additional live rock will speed up the process, then I'll let others chime in on that as I never had the experience of losing my entire tank. Wait for the ammonia and nitrites to reach zero. Leaves your lights off and run your skimmer. the skimmer will only remove decay.
Once the tank re-cycles, you have to take it slowly when adding fish one at a time at about two week periods. The tank must adjust to each additional fish to build up more bacteria to handle the ammonia released by the fish waste. I believe there is rule of thumb on the size of fish and the waiting period between adding the next fish. Purchase a low cost fish for your first introduction and then watch its behavior for stress.
 
I'm happy to report that the first spark of life has appeared in my new "artificial ocean".
The tank has cycled! Sure enough, the ammonia went down to almost nothing and the nitrites went sky-high! Then indeed the nitrite went way down, and the nitrates are about middle. (Forgot the number - but almost exactly half way measuring with both the strips as well as the tube test.)

I'm considering around now maybe getting some new, actual live rock to add to my old rock in the tank. Water is crystal clear, ph around 8.1.

Plenty of flow with the spray filter output head, and two powerheads - one making a nice current behind all the rock, the other over the top.

Would it be okay to add a cleaner crew, or should I do the live rock first and wait a bit more? I'm thinking maybe 7-10 small pieces strategically placed all around my existing rock.
Thanks, -Robert
 
Do the rock first including any new pieces. The ammonia and nitrite tests should be zero before you add any marine life. Once they are both zero, you can add one fish. A cleanup crew may be premature if your rock is clean and has no algae on it including the glass. You did not say what your nitrate level is. The lower to zero that you can get them, the better for you because once the lights are turned on, algae will appear.
 

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