All my fish are dead, heartbroken.

[Proteus Meep]

I think he said he did earlier in the thread, or he had it grounded. That was not the issue though.

Grounding it creates the problem for the tank inhabitants if there is an electrical leak...it protects us not them

It has not been tested yet but an electrician is being employed to do so, so at this point cannot be blindly ruled out

 

[HuneyBear]

Sorry to hear this. Having suffered through a similar event. I will give one bit of advice. Go through every single piece of equipment you have and inspect and test individually. If you find nothing wrong it rules out electricity.

 

[Plunder]

I'd inspect the wires well, especially the ones in the water.

 

[dwair]

Grounding it creates the problem for the tank inhabitants if there is an electrical leak...it protects us not them

It has not been tested yet but an electrician is being employed to do so, so at this point cannot be blindly ruled out

Yea I have no idea to be honest bud, out of my realm of knowledge, I was just going off what the OP said he had done lol.

 

[windemerejack]

Just an update
Firstly for those who keep calling me 'he', im a 'she' :)
Its been a very tiring day and night and when I got to my office, I couldn't put my corals in my tank as I was scared it might kill my tank inhabitants, so I came home and remembered I had the little tank that came with the reefer as an atu, so I filled it with fresh water and put a light over it and a little powerhead over it and heater, and put the corals in, the corals really didn't look very happy at all so I think im going to lose them as well, there isn't that many but I did want to keep them.
Im going to completely strip tank, throw all the rocks away, throw all the chaeto away, thoroughly clean and steralise all my equipment and tank and start again.
Ive decided to buy the exact same fish as I had in it before as it was perfect to me with what I had in it.

 

[Proteus Meep]

It's really good to hear after the heartbreaking loses that you are not defeated and planning for rebuilding ..quite an inspiring attitude and shows your passion for the hobby, I would love to read a phoenix from the ashes rebuilding thread of your reef, fingers crossed your corals recover from whatever occurred, they can be suprisingly resilient at times.. hope today is a better one for you...stay safe

 

[windemerejack]

Ok I have figured out what happened and by whom.
Ive just emptied the water and started to remove the rocks and I found something that should never be in a reef tank, a bottle of perfume. After doing some ringing around I have found out that my young niece who stayed with me about 2 months ago threw the bottle in the tank apparently to make it smell nice.
I never even noticed the bottle missing as its one I very rarely use and was virtually empty, so I can only assume that something dislodged the lid and the perfume leaked into the water.

 

[dwair]

I'm so sorry to hear that! At least you finally know. I'm sure not knowing was killing you. I know I was racking my brain for awhile for you.

 

[Proteus Meep]

Wow that seriously sucks...at least you have an answer now...hopefully some of your corals can purge themselves of it and make it through

 

[mmarine9]

wow well at least you now know why.

 

[windemerejack]

Never in a million years would I think it could be something that happened 2 months ago.
But it is nice to know what happened as it removes any doubts about stray electric which was really worrying me to be honest.
Corals haven't made it unfortunately, they are all stripping rapidly and some have stripped completely.
So on with the show as they say in Hollywood (I think).
Strip tank, wash and steralise.
Take out all equipment wash and steralise.
Buy some new rock.
Buy the same fish.
Buy some new corals
Start a build thread of tank take 2

 

[Proteus Meep]

.

 

[Jimmyneptune]

So sorry that happened to you.
At least you know what happened and you can start to rebuild.

 

[naterealbig]

Never in a million years would I think it could be something that happened 2 months ago.
But it is nice to know what happened as it removes any doubts about stray electric which was really worrying me to be honest.
Corals haven't made it unfortunately, they are all stripping rapidly and some have stripped completely.
So on with the show as they say in Hollywood (I think).
Strip tank, wash and steralise.
Take out all equipment wash and steralise.
Buy some new rock.
Buy the same fish.
Buy some new corals
Start a build thread of tank take 2

I am so sorry to hear about this, and I am also very happy you found what it was. Despite everything bad, being clear on what caused the problem, and knowing it wasn't something you did incorrectly hopefully can give you some solace. Great plan to start anew, and happy to hear you're jumping back in.

 

[Jstn]

Since perfume is organic carbon (alcohol s and terpenes) based i bet when the bottle finally opened and leaked out promoted some bacteria growth that dropped the oxygen level.

Sorry to hear, glad to see you found your smoking gun and hope to see a
update about the rebuild :thumbsup:

 

[andrewey]

I'm glad you have closure and can restart. I know it won't be easy- it never is. Good on you for restarting and best of luck! We're all rooting for your new tank and stocking it with your old fish!

 

[Reefnman2]

That is a total bummer Jacqueline but at least you know now which has to be a relief.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I am so, so sorry this happened. I have had two fish losses - one unknown cause and one a disease cause. I lost all of them in short order. I know you are devastated.
I am glad you found the cause as you know it was not equipment or an error on your part. Helps to know you did nothing wrong that you do not know about to fix.
Good luck bringing you reef back to life. It will do great under your care.

 

[SDK]

Sorry to hear and good luck with the reboot.

Years back aquarium heaters were hung over the back rims and had the adjustment dial sitting on top. My toddler cousin cranked the dial tight on my 125 and I woke up the next morning to several hundred dollars worth of cooked Discus. The room literally smelled like fish stew.

Its heartbreaking for sure when fish you have had for a long time are suddenly wiped out like that.

 

[OrionN]

If it is perfume, you don't have to throw away all the rocks. Just ditch the sand. Don't have to sterile the tank either. It will uncomplicated your set up a bit, cheaper too.