House Fire

[IOPsurfer]

TLDR: can soot be cleaned off aquarium equipment and how or do I need to scrap everything?

Sadly, there was a fire in my kitchen while I was at work. The response time putting out the fire was amazing. Fire fighters are heros! By the time I was allowed into my home, I expected to find all the fish dead due to excessive heat. The temperatures in the tank were hot - around high 80's if memory serves me and if the sensors were working properly - but thanks be to God the fish were alive. I put some ice in bags to try to cool the tank. I didn't have any power but I had someone bringing me a battery bubbler. In the meantime I was scooping water and dumping it back in to try to let oxygen in there while thinking of what to do next. Before I knew it the fish in the 55 gallon were all laying on the bottom. The tank doesn't have a lid. The fish in a 30 gallon (with lid) and smaller Qt tank (also with lid) were still doing fine. I assumed soot got into the open top tank and was poisoning the fish, so I quickly moved them out of the tank and into the 30 gallon. They recovered nicely from there, except for my yellow tang. It didn't survive.
While I recover, my question is: how poisonous is the soot? Can it be cleaned from the tank and other equipment and if so how? Is there any media I should use to remove the contaminants? Is there a home test I can do to see if there are still contaminants in the tank?
Thank you in advance!

 

[bluemon]

TLDR: can soot be cleaned off aquarium equipment and how or do I need to scrap everything?

Sadly, there was a fire in my kitchen while I was at work. The response time putting out the fire was amazing. Fire fighters are heros! By the time I was allowed into my home, I expected to find all the fish dead due to excessive heat. The temperatures in the tank were hot - around high 80's if memory serves me and if the sensors were working properly - but thanks be to God the fish were alive. I put some ice in bags to try to cool the tank. I didn't have any power but I had someone bringing me a battery bubbler. In the meantime I was scooping water and dumping it back in to try to let oxygen in there while thinking of what to do next. Before I knew it the fish in the 55 gallon were all laying on the bottom. The tank doesn't have a lid. The fish in a 30 gallon (with lid) and smaller Qt tank (also with lid) were still doing fine. I assumed soot got into the open top tank and was poisoning the fish, so I quickly moved them out of the tank and into the 30 gallon. They recovered nicely from there, except for my yellow tang. It didn't survive.
While I recover, my question is: how poisonous is the soot? Can it be cleaned from the tank and other equipment and if so how? Is there any media I should use to remove the contaminants? Is there a home test I can do to see if there are still contaminants in the tank?
Thank you in advance!

Pure soot itself is just carbon.

However, the problem comes with other things that have burned in the fire that would have had heavy metals and other toxins in the form of gas or ash into the tank. You can wipe soot from the dry equipment,

You can do a big water change, run some sort of heavy metal absorbant, and run a skimmer and hope for the best

 

[Fish Fan]

I'm so sorry to hear about this, and I hope the best for your tank and home, but I'm certainly glad that no one was hurt, and it wasn't worse than it is.

Good luck moving forward!

 

[FishLvR]

Oh man so sorry for your home.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

So sorry this happened to you and your house, but I'm glad no one was injured!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m sorry this happened. There are all sorts of things that could have hurt them, including as massive pH drop due to excessive CO2.

Aeration and water changes would be my plan at the moment. Ironically, GAC might also help from potentially toxic or excessive organics.

 

[Utubereefer]

That’s tough. Thank goodness it wasn’t worse! They make special rubberized sponges for cleaning soot. I used to do disaster remediation. Take your time cleaning everything and setting up again.