Help, I don't know what to do - Lost everything

[amk]

Hi everyone. I've been away due to a personal matter. It was a hurried situation that we weren't quite prepared for. I came home to an absolute mess of a tank. I'm not sure if my auto feeder (I had never used it before) malfunctioned. I lost my clowns, chromis, goby, flame angel and anthias. All were dead on the sandbed. My stalks of xenia have vanished entirely from the rock, my bubble anemone is nowhere to be found, my zoa's are mushy black messes on frag plugs, when i touched them it was the consistency of paste, my acans are non responsive, a bleached out tan color when they are usually green and orange, my green palys are not upright by laying directly on the sandbed and it they look slighly like dandelions that have had their heads popped off. My lettuce is upside down dead, my conch is no longer in it's shell, even my turbo's are empty. my harlequins are nowhere to be found, I have found 4 dead blue legged hermits. In my entire 29g I have 1 crab that I've found alive and that's it.

I came home to a temp of 79.9 (not sure if it was like that the entire time)
Light were on when I came home so it seems as though timer is working
Skimmer and filter were both on
salinity showed 1.023
all other levels show normal, no spikes

Are there any tests that can be run to see if something foreign got into the tank? I've been gone about 5 days, auto feeder was empty, I assume it worked. If it hadn't, it would still have food it in. If it overfed, I'd think I'd see ammonia spikes.

I'm not sure that I have the startup and heart to do this all over again but I really would like to figure out what happened, i feel so guilty for losing my fish and costing them their lives and losing over 1000 worth of corals. Any advice on how I can check on this to see what happened? Thx.

 

[stevenp]

Any evidence of a power outage while you were gone (alarm clocks blinking etc)?

 

[amk]

Not that I can tell, no.

I thought of something else.. if I decide to start over... what actions do I have to take? Or start completely over again?

 

[stevenp]

Not that I can tell, no.

I thought of something else.. if I decide to start over... what actions do I have to take? Or start completely over again?

IMO if you still have the desire to stick with the hobby, leave the tank up and do weekly water changes while you monitor the cycle (could take a while, prolly several wks). No reason to tear it down if you're ready to jump back in, however; if it were me I'd try to isolate the problem before adding anymore livestock.

 

[willray]

Fish feeding empty after only 5 days.That doesn't sound good.Next hought...electricity is going thru the tank.

 

[amk]

I'm way out of my league here then, really at a loss on how to proceed. Unplug everything I'd assume then but how to know what could be causing the issue. Replace everything?

I could just cry, everything was perfectly fine before I left.
Unnecessary fish deaths and countless $ gone. Oh good lord.

 

[jackthestrat]

You need to get back on the bike, dude.

Suck in yer gut, check all your cables, take everything apart, drop your pumps in vinegar, drain the tank and do a massive water change, and run carbon.

Let everything cycle again, and don't even look at the tank for a couple weeks while you think about how much you love the hobby. If you decide you want to try again, shoot me a PM, I'll see if I have a couple frags you can have.

 

[jamesdong009]

I would leave everything running. Remove anything that didn't make it otherwise your water would foul up even more. Run alot of carbon and skim wet. Do daily water changes until your levels (ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) are back in order.

You mentioned that there were no spikes, but with all that perished, I would think that ammonia levels would be pretty high. I'm wondering if your test kits are reliable.

 

[FOXYB]

i gotta agree with the last 2 posts
double check everything re-cycle and start over id be more than happy to toss u a frag to get you on your feet

 

[wish]

auto feeder

You should test the auto feeder on the side with paper underneath and see what it did in one day. Test Run.

 

[afboundguy]

How long were you away? I didn't see you mention it. Could it have been starvation?

And I agree leave everything running and remove the dead stuff...

 

[stingythingy45]

How long were you away? I didn't see you mention it. Could it have been starvation?

And I agree leave everything running and remove the dead stuff...

"I've been gone about 5 days, auto feeder was empty, I assume it worked."

I'm thinking more like overfeed/ammonia situation.
Something could have died and added to the spike.
Maybe even an anemone in a powerhead.

 

[wrassefan]

my guess from the info above is that there was a heat spike and lack of oxygen when the house is locked up and the feeder dumped. Something dies....chain reaction...

If you are restarting, I would pull out all the rock and scrub in salt water...remove dead matter from sand....do a 99% water change...clean out skimmer and other equipment. Restart and watch for mini cycle.

 

[ReeferMedic]

I'd put my money on the auto feeder since you never used it before this. Hind sight is 20/20, but in the future, never add or adjust any piece of equipment just before you leave for an extended period. The auto feeder could have dumped the food on the first shot, causing an ammonia spike, killing a fish or 2, elevating the ammonia level further, then the corals begin to die, adding to the mess, etc, etc, etc...

To be sure, you can test the feeder as stated above. Also, I would remove anything that is decaying and let it cycle doing water changes often, again what was stated above.

 

[RayD]

+1 on what Don said.

I've learned not to add anything or change anything unless I plan on being in the room for a few hours. I went to bed one night after an ajustment to my skimmer and woke up to a nice little flood.

Murphy's Law.

 

[afboundguy]

How long were you away? I didn't see you mention it. Could it have been starvation?

And I agree leave everything running and remove the dead stuff...

"I've been gone about 5 days, auto feeder was empty, I assume it worked."

I'm thinking more like overfeed/ammonia situation.
Something could have died and added to the spike.
Maybe even an anemone in a powerhead.

Opps don't I feel sheepish Sorry I got back on percocets last night for pain and I'm a little loopy... Guess a side effect is not being able to read

 

[Qwank]

i would guess the auto feeder dumped food in also. the thing is, if you fed the tank before you left, 5 days isnt a long time to go with out food. the fish will pick at the rocks to stay fed.

 

[amk]

I don't think it was long enough for them to starve. I didn't over-do it on the auto feeder, course if it dispersed and they ate it all at once...Not sure. Went out yesterday and got new test kits just to be sure and ammonia level was still 0. I've unplugged everything and drained the tank, cleaned the equipment etc, tested individually in water and everything seems okay though I think I will just buy new equipment. After just coming home to this, I think I'd feel safer with new stuff. I bought 40lbs of bagged live sand today and rinsed it and threw out my old sand. Because I don't know that the issue was, but I don't want to take my chances. So I had multiple fish, invert and coral funerals yesterday. My qt is seperate and still running so as I see any good deals on here I can hold them until I'm re-cycled. I never knew the smell of dead coral could be that bad!

The mention of electricity in the water really nervewracks me. I'm going to be very anxious to add my first fish again down the line.

 

[Codeman]

I don't think it was long enough for them to starve. I didn't over-do it on the auto feeder, course if it dispersed and they ate it all at once...Not sure. Went out yesterday and got new test kits just to be sure and ammonia level was still 0. I've unplugged everything and drained the tank, cleaned the equipment etc, tested individually in water and everything seems okay though I think I will just buy new equipment. After just coming home to this, I think I'd feel safer with new stuff. I bought 40lbs of bagged live sand today and rinsed it and threw out my old sand. Because I don't know that the issue was, but I don't want to take my chances. So I had multiple fish, invert and coral funerals yesterday. My qt is seperate and still running so as I see any good deals on here I can hold them until I'm re-cycled. I never knew the smell of dead coral could be that bad!

The mention of electricity in the water really nervewracks me. I'm going to be very anxious to add my first fish again down the line.

Sorry for your losses, when you restart, PM me I can give you a couple frags.

If you're really worried about electricity in the water, invest in a grounding probe.

Best of luck!

 

[amk]

Thanks, thats really thoughtful.
I do have to say that I think it could have been worse, I've seen people on here that have sprung leaks in their tanks and that looks like more of a hassle.