crashing again Arghhh!

[willray]

I am putting a sump below my 55.Last night came close to finishing but was late11:00(tired0 and didn't have enough h2o.Did one small shorting of cpvc that was on one side of squid.turned on the pump after waiting 2hrs for the glue to dry and removed my ramora pro to the sump.I was going to fill it tonight. AND THIS MORNING all fish dead- corals appear o.k. but P.H. was somewhere around 7.8. Doing 15 gal cahnge now coming home in a couple hrs and do another 15..
What went wrong? removing skimmer? glue still had not cured? Ahhh shooot.

 

[etszoo]

That ph should not have killed the fish. What kind of glue? The skimmer does provide
a lot of O2 in your system. Do you have a test for that? Sorry man...that sux! I hate
reading this stuff.
Good luck,
Eric

 

[smcnally]

Bummer. Sorry to hear that man. The glue shouldn't have done it if it was normal PVC glue. I had some go in my tank (a good amount too) and it didn't kill anything. I ended up doing an entire new aquascape last night because, while moving some zoos, I couldn't get the rock they were on to go back where it was. I made it so cloudy and disturbed so much sand that I thought there would be some after effects this morning. Luckily there hasn't been any yet.

 

[willray]

no i don't have a test for that.I'll run an air stone for now. gotto pull rocks,coral out to find the rest of the fish.Damn.P.H.might have been lower was in a frenzy when i tested.Regular cpvc glue and non in the tank just residual inside inside pipe.

 

[willray]

So they suffocated?w/o o2

 

[wrassefan]

Sorry to hear Bill....confused tho....did you have heat and circulation in the tank last night or was the sump in operation last night already??

 

[scavdog]

Oxygen deprivation could be your culprit. How many fish?

 

[willray]

yeh! had heat and all normal circulation except skimmer.many fish yellow tang,hippo,2 firefish,coral banded shrimp,some cling fish i got in my live rock.and several other smaller species.no sump wan't going last night.hoping going to get it going.

 

[NateHanson]

I'd definitely suspect oxygen deprivation. The excess CO2 would also lower the pH of the water, so that could be why it was low. An airstone and vigorous circulation should correct the situation and bring the pH back up to normal fairly quickly.

Was there circulation in the tank that would agitate the surface, to help gas exchange? If not I think you've found your culprit. Sorry to hear about it.

Nate

 

[willray]

have an air stone running for now.had the normal surface agitation less skimmer at the pumps intake ends.which was my micro bubble problem.

 

[NateHanson]

Are you saying you had microbubbles in the tank last night? If so, then I don't think aeration was your problem.

 

[Kevin McG]

Bill if you need a place to store some of those corals feel free to swing them over till you get things under control.

 

[clamm]

ph 7.8 in the short term 1 day or so probably wouldn't kill a fish...it would be stressed...what fish did you have and what was you ph before...maybe if you went from a 8.4 ish to 7.8 in a very short period of time...but Im not convinced that this is the culpret...i agree with nate until you said there were micro bubbles, with them your orp was probably good enough to sustain life...

anything else you can tell us...did you check your water parameters before and after the crash... I know they will be up somewhat cause of the dead stuff, but im not sure a 7.8ph or a tank with microbubbles would kill fish either because of low ph or low O2...

Any unusual characteristics on the dead fish... bloating... anything....

What kind of glue did you use, im assuming pvc cement...if thats the case then i don't think the 2 hrs of waiting is an issue either.

Im stumped...i can also hold stuff...pref no acros though...I don't have a hospital tank for them yet and since I want to keep them in the near future...I dont want to take a chance on acro flatworms.

do you know if your temp was stable all night? alot of people in the area lost power for some time last night...i did for maybe an hr....say 4ish...but 3 other workers from groton were late and complained they lost power a bit longer then I did...could that have something to do with it?

Good luck

 

[etszoo]

I think he said he had shortened the pvc last night probably due to his micro-bubble
problem. So it was a double negative for him. He pulled the skimmer and eliminated
his micro-bubbles.
If he lost power too.....

 

[clamm]

I see.

 

[willray]

The micro bubble prob developed after my first crash(which i think was nuked by a cuke.)thats when the skimmer kicked and thats when it became noticable.It was a little problem that took me a while b4 I realized where/what was causing it.The skimmer (hob)was dumping right where my intakes are for a canister filter and 700 gal p/h on a squid canister filter several times a day would release a hugh cloud micro bubs.Skimmer is now in the sump which is up and running.
No micro's in tank last night 'cause skimmer was off tank..from 8:30 ish.
Thanks Kevin but all corals are fine.Just anything the that swam bit it.Linka is doing great snails hermits all good.? Bonus!Pulled 3 gorilla crabs off corals/rocks they didn't even try to get away...matis foood! Maybe a little hasty in ph test forgot how differnt things can be right after lights for out 10 hrs.
Casey, the fish were not rigor.other than that the glue was cpvc glue and I'm usually the first to loose power.Hence my new generator.Didn't have anything flashin this morning to make me think I lost power that and I am a very light and restless sleeper.
Etszoo I shortened one side an 1.5' so i could fit the overflow(right where my skimmer was hanging).
Now that this sump is running I can move some rocks and find the rest of the dead

 

[etszoo]

Sorry man....careful moving those rocks. No more mishaps tonight .

 

[clamm]

no doubt...sorry to hear that will, if I can help I will be happy to ...please call if you need anything.

 

[willray]

only got half way thru the searching/rearranging.Still a few more missing,2"hippo,manderin and small gobie or 2. will I be able to finish tommorow eve or miss more(yeeowouch$) work and do it first thing in the morning?consequences!.Thanks Casey! Thanks to all !nice to know this crew is always there.

2 more gorilla crabs join the mantis menu.Kinda odd- hermits and such acting normal while the gorilla crabs are very slow moving and in the open.

 

[NateHanson]

If you aren't finding the fish they could already be eaten by your cleanup crew. I had a 3" heniochus butterfly that came in sick and promptly died, and I couldn't get it out from behind my rocks where it was lying dead in the morning. I was amazed that before noon there was absolutely nothing but a skeleton left.