Yet another return from vacation disaster

[newreefer03]

I returned last night from a week's vacation in the virgin islands to find my reef tank a stinky cloudy mess. Something had set off the gfci and there was no electricity to the whole system. It must have lasted more than a day (because I had a apc battery backup w/ 1 battery bubbler and 1 powerhead attached and 2 separate bubblers) but less than 4 days as my father in law had checked on it on Weds and added topoff water. All the fish, emerald crabs, and shrimps were dead, several nice acro pieces were dead, most of the xenia were melting away( not a big loss). Surprisingly my crocea and most of the other softies, parts of some montipora, some hermits, and a couple of starfish were alive. I immediately did a 12 gal water change as that was all I could makeup in a reasonable amount of time between 1-2 AM and loaded up a lot of carbon into my power filter. This morning, the water still looks cloudy though not as bad and the room is still stinky. I plan on doing another 15 gal water change later today and tomorrow and change the carbon tomorrow. Is there anything else to do? I have some questions maybe someone could give their opinion on.

1. I took out 4 out of the 8 fish I had in the tank as that was all I can see w/o tearing apart the rockwork. Is it worth it to take apart the rock to get out the missing other 4 ( ocellaris clown, neon goby, hippo tang, royal gramma)?

2. I am planning on adding an extra boost of denitrifying bacteria to speed up the inevitable cycle, anyone have any idea this will help?

3. I am thinking of adding more cleanup crew to cleanup the tank, should I wait for the cycle to finish or do you think I can add it soon?

Thanks all for in advance.

 

[Moe_K]

1) Of course if you can pull the deads, do it. They'll rot away, giving the tank a big dose of ammonia. The bigger the dead body, the more ammonia. But, if ya can't get them...

2) I don't think those Biozyme type products work.

3) Seems like a good idea. Hermits would help eat the dead fish.

 

[Bidadari]

That stinks. I'm sorry to hear that Dennis.
I bet pulling out anything that's dead will be good. I would also skim really wet to speed up cleaning the water.

 

[Scarfish]

maybe buy some more shrimp to help with the missing dead fish

 

[NateHanson]

That's truly a bummer. I'm sorry.

What size tank do you have?

I wouldn't add shrimp, as they'll probably die. Shrimp are pretty sensitive.

Hermit crabs and nassarius will probably be better scavengers.

 

[MarkO]

Sorry to hear about your losses.
I'd pull out anything dead. Also, perform WC's as much as you can and most importantly, get O2 into the tank (run skimmer and all the powerheads/pumps you have).

 

[RichConley]

You might want to throw some macro in there...seems to do a pretty good job being an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate sponge.

 

[dz6t]

You might want to throw some macro in there...seems to do a pretty good job being an ammonia/nitrite/nitrate sponge.

Very good point.

I won't put hermits in the tank because they will also get killed by amonia spike.

 

[newreefer03]

Thanks everyone, I think I'll pull out some of the scraggly looking xenia and search for dead bodies. Yeah I was thinking more hermits and snails as I do have some survivors of that class. I already run a refugium with chaeto. I already have some leftover bacteria booster so I'll probably throw some in after a couple more water changes. The skimmer already is going bonkers from all the crap. Wish me luck.

 

[dz6t]

Good luck

 

[gurumasta]

hey dennis, how is the tanks recovery going?

 

[wrassefan]

That stinks Dennis!! I think that water changes is prob the best solutions at this point. Good luck man!

 

[newreefer03]

Thanks everyone. The tank is recovering nicely. I am currently slowly restocking the fish and corals, though I will probably go with fewer sps and more lps and softies. The only sps that survived were encrusting porites and a form of merulina?. The zoos, anthelia, mushrooms, 1 of 2 leathers, encrusting gorgonia, and a frag of favia survived. Thanks to everyone who either donated frags or offered. This is a great group of people.