Help my tank got completely wiped out :(

[ZombieEngineer]

Also how long does it take for live rock to “dry out” I was only going to soak a few and give them a bleach bath the rest could i put in rodi water and salt at 1.025 salinity and keep it alive?? does it need to be certain temp? any flow?

It takes like 30 minutes for live rock to become dead rock. Anything that didn't stay wet since the crash will need to be bleached.

 

[Kolby’s Reef]

10-20% bleach with tap water in a brute trashcan or other large container. I leave mine for 2-3 days with a powerhead.

After that I dump, spray down with a hose and let air dry on my patio from morning to evening. Back in the container with 100ml of tap water conditioner overnight. Check chlorine test strip in the morning. If zero, dump and dry. If measurable, repeat the tap water conditioner.

Also do i need to have a powerhead in it cuz i don’t have one

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Also do i need to have a powerhead in it cuz i don’t have one

You don't have to. It speeds up the process though. At 10% bleach and no powerhead it needs 5-7 days. At 20% bleach with a powerhead it takes like 2-3 days.

 

[damsels are not mean]

It takes like 30 minutes for live rock to become dead rock.

wrong

 

[damsels are not mean]

Then the rock would be covered with dead coral like for example i have a rock covered in purple that was my green star polyps. Wouldn’t it hurt the water to put dead coral plus eventually i won’t be able to put other coral over top of it would I?

That's fine, it'll break down and create a very strong biofilter for you. No need to waste all those nutrients and bacteria. Unless the rock has been dry already for a while,?

 

[Kolby’s Reef]

You don't have to. It speeds up the process though. At 10% bleach and no powerhead it needs 5-7 days. At 20% bleach with a powerhead it takes like 2-3 days.

This is for anyone and everyone so I am debating about starting up my aquarium again however i’m 22 and still living at home. When I move out in a few years I was wondering if anyone had any idea how to transfer all my rock fish coral sand tank everything etc without killing anything and still having all my good bacteria and established tank water? You know how it is it’s not like I can fill up a tank with new water then it will throw the balance off. I didn’t know if I should use buckets/containers and transfer the water rock fish and coral or what would be a good option. This is the only thing holding me back because I would love to start a tank again especially since I have experience now but don’t know how the moving process would go. I don’t plan on moving far maybe 20 min drive at most

 

[Chortanator]

This is for anyone and everyone so I am debating about starting up my aquarium again however i’m 22 and still living at home. When I move out in a few years I was wondering if anyone had any idea how to transfer all my rock fish coral sand tank everything etc without killing anything and still having all my good bacteria and established tank water? You know how it is it’s not like I can fill up a tank with new water then it will throw the balance off. I didn’t know if I should use buckets/containers and transfer the water rock fish and coral or what would be a good option. This is the only thing holding me back because I would love to start a tank again especially since I have experience now but don’t know how the moving process would go. I don’t plan on moving far maybe 20 min drive at most

Hello fellow 22 year old who still lives with their parents!

We moved about 2 years ago, 10 minutes down the street. I bought 10 5-gallon buckets from a hardware store and loaded up all my fish and live rocks into buckets (live rock separate from the fish, of course). With a short trip like that you don't need an air stone, otherwise get a battery powered air pump or two if you're going longer than an hour or so.

In my case, I had a second tank waiting for me at the new place that I had set up prior. I added 50% of the old water and added 50% new. Everything lived, even my sea apple and sea cucumber.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

wrong

Does on the outside. Inside nearly 100% of bacteria is dead within 24 hours. OP Drained and dried the rock more than 24 hours ago.

 

[Swanus]

If you are consider a battery back up like an ups for your next tank I would highly advice you to diy one. The ups are very very expensive and for a 400 dollar one might only give you about 10 hours of wattage for a pump. While you can easily make one for 150-200 dollars with a 12vdc lead battery, a pure sine wave inverter and a battery maintaner that can run your pumps for 80 hours. Or if you have dc pumps go with an ecotech back up or icecap. This article contains good information about the options.
https://www.thebeginnersreef.com/aquarium-battery-backups-your-ultimate-guide/

 

[NaCl addict]

Hello, I was needing some help and wondering why everything in my aquarium died. I left for vacation all parameters were good and normal fish was healthy and I came back to this. The gfi receptacle tripped and tank got turned off for a day or two. I believe something with the aquarium tripped it. The fish and coral I had in the tank was: Flame Angel, Coral Beauty Angel, Mandarin Goby, Pajama Cardinal, Bangai Cardinalfish, Goby, Tomini Tang, Yellow Tang, Siganus Vulpinus Foxface, Ocellaris Clownfish, Ocellaris Snowflake Clownfish, 2 red bubble tip anemone, 2 green bubble tip anemone



Coral:

Cali Torte Acropora, spider-man zoas, watermelon zoas,Mohawk/Pandora Zoas, Rose Gold zoas, Blue Zoas, Rasta Zoas, Blood Sucker Zoas, Ricordia Yuma Mushroom, Blue Devils Finger Leather, Green Rhodactis Mushroom, purple discosoma mushroom, Purple Scrolling Montipora, Green Star Polyps, Pink Star Polyps and Toadstool leather.



I was wondering if my anemone died and completely wiped out the tank or what the cause of this could be?

If the tank was off for two days, that's enough to crash a tank. I'm sorry for your loss. It's heartbreaking

 

[Kolby’s Reef]

If you are consider a battery back up like an ups for your next tank I would highly advice you to diy one. The ups are very very expensive and for a 400 dollar one might only give you about 10 hours of wattage for a pump. While you can easily make one for 150-200 dollars with a 12vdc lead battery, a pure sine wave inverter and a battery maintaner that can run your pumps for 80 hours. Or if you have dc pumps go with an ecotech back up or icecap. This article contains good information about the options.
https://www.thebeginnersreef.com/aquarium-battery-backups-your-ultimate-guide/

Just curious on what your setup is for a DIY for “$150-$200 that will run for 80 hours” because I have never heard of such for that price that will run that long.

 

[OfficeReefer]

After my similar crash (also a GFCI tripping flow and heat from a failed heater), I invested in a UPS for my apex to alert me of this kind of problem. Mine is set to alert me for all kinds of things, but for this issue specifically I have alerts set to tell me if the power is lost to any specific energy bar or to the entire tank. If that happens I can run home, have my wife help, or ask the neighbor who also has a reef tank to investigate.

Other things that can help for this specific situation are

- using multiple electrical circuits for the tank and splitting flow evenly between them.
- getting a battery backup or UPS for your wavemakers.
- using an aquarium controllers loss of communication heartbeat function (If my apex loses connection to the network for 30 minutes in a row, I get a text and can send someone to investigate)

@ZombieEngineer My condolences to the OP, most awful. You mentioned the UPS with the Apex, was this just power and comms or were you able to plug in the USB cable and get the Apex to know its on standard power vs UPS power?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

My apex has

@ZombieEngineer My condolences to the OP, most awful. You mentioned the UPS with the Apex, was this just power and comms or were you able to plug in the USB cable and get the Apex to know its on standard power vs UPS power?

My apex has power monitoring set to ON, the EB832 plugged into a battery outlet of a UPS, and the 12V supply plugged between the wall outlet and the head unit. The 12V supply is what tells me when the power is out.

This thread shows different setups and how to use them

How-To Guide: Slides from the Apex Power Monitoring and Management presentation given at MACNA2013

This attachment contains some of the slides from the presentation I gave at the APEXusers meetup at MACNA. ------------------------------------- Updated with some enhancements from the presentation given at RAP 852

forum.neptunesystems.com