Pumps/filters off last night for coral feeding; forgot/passed out and woke up to dying fish. Help

AquaticYeti

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As the title says, I turned off my pumps/filters last night for coral feeding and passed out and woke up to dying fish.

I’ve added a bar bubbler, battery bubbler, and lifted wave makers to surface level to increase agitation to the max. I’ve lost one fish and two (scopas tang and foxface) look to be goners. Any other help or suggestions how how to save my fish please?!!
 
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AquaticYeti

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Should I force the tang and fox face to swim or let Them lay at the bottom? Tang is already moving a bit already but settling nears rocks. The foxface will not move when I blow water at him with an extend baster. He’s typically super skidious and will swim around if you walk near the tank. melanurus wrasse has yet to surface from the sand which is concerning since my leopard wrasse was gasping for air at the surface and is usually the last one up. He swam a bit and sat near a rock (not typical) I scared him and he went back in the sand. I’m scared that low oxygen and buried in the sand is worse than being out of the sand. Just more info. Any help, please
 
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AquaticYeti

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You already did it by providing oxygen.

Do not stress your fish anymore?

Thank you. I’m honestly freaking out. Trying to do all that I can to save the ones that look close to death. Can they be far to gone or if still alive do you think they will all recover?
 
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AquaticYeti

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ck your temperature.
Temp was 71* when I saw it. Usually at 78. It currently at 75*. Didn’t think of this. I guess increasing back to 78* is automated but very important as well.
 
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AquaticYeti

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75g with over 100 pounds of rock, HOB filter, two wave makers, HOB skimmer, but been off for two weeks due to motor dead.

Clown, scopas tang, melanurus wrasse, leopard wrasse, fox face, blue devil, gold head sleeper goby (died), green spotted mandarin, blood red shrimp, huge long tip anemone. Tons of mixed corals; limited SPS (oddly elegance coral looks rough, all others ok).
 

littlefoxx

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All you can do is wait and see unfortunately. They either recover or dont. That temp is actually better at 71 for now because heat kills oxygen faster so leave that part alone, wait and see how they recover then slowly raise temp back up
 
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AquaticYeti

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Sand surface is covered with tons of dead amphipods and bristles. Copepods though obviously hard to see, I have a deep nook in a specific rock that typically looks like a be hive; now nothing.

I’ve read no immediate water changes but should in vacuum sand surface?
 

Subsea

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Thank you. I’m honestly freaking out. Trying to do all that I can to save the ones that look close to death. Can they be far to gone or if still alive do you think they will all recover?
Once while away from home, we had an area power outage during the night. A neighbor who was babysitting my 120G tank came over the next morning and removed all dead fish. All coral survived with no apparent damage.

PS: Yes to vacumn sand bed.

PSS: Cold water holds more oxygen and slows metabolism down, which is a good thing.
 
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AquaticYeti

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strange that they are dying with it being shut off for a night. I've had all my stuff shut off for 2 days without an issue
I did it around 9:30 last night. Not sure of timing but in my circumstance, it’s not going well. I know I made a MAJOR mistake and hurt right now. Just trying to do what I can.
 
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AquaticYeti

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Once while away from home, we had an area power outage during the night. A neighbor who was babysitting my 120G tank came over the next morning and removed all dead fish. All coral survived with no apparent damage.

PS: Yes to vacumn sand bed.

PSS: Cold water holds more oxygen and slows metabolism down, which is a good thing.
Thank you. Plan to vacuum the sand after I can account for all fish; hoping I don’t stress the wrasses more by surface cleaning the sand, so I wait and see if they come out. I disconnected one of the heaters to slow down the temp increase.
 

Subsea

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Nothing strange about oxygen deprivation considering the maturity of biodiversity in the system.

When lights are off, all photosynthetic organisms consume oxygen and respire carbon dioxide. So, many reefers use opposite light cycle in algae refugium to control pH swings, however low oxygen is much more important.

Vacume sandbed now to remove dead pods. Partial water changes later today would also be preventative.

Expect a nutrient spike over the next few days.
 
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lbacha

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Use this as a learning situation, compared to the cost of a tank full of fish a basic controller is cheap and they all have auto feed features that will turn off pumps for a set period of time then turn them back on. Lots of other benifits but this is one of the most important since pumps off will typically equal tank deaths. Even a WiFi temp controller would have let you know the tank temp had dropped and you can set many to have an audible alarm that would have woken you up. I use cheap water sensors that are really loud for just this reason. If the tank is leaking in the middle of the night I want to be woken up.
 

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I hope that all of your fish pull through. There is some great advise above, especially on getting a basic controller to turn things back on. Look at the Hydros Launch. It has enough room for your heaters, powerheads, and pumps and can avoid situations like this in the future. It also has ports for probes for temp, ph, and salinity.
 
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AquaticYeti

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Use this as a learning situation, compared to the cost of a tank full of fish a basic controller is cheap and they all have auto feed features that will turn off pumps for a set period of time then turn them back on. Lots of other benifits but this is one of the most important since pumps off will typically equal tank deaths. Even a WiFi temp controller would have let you know the tank temp had dropped and you can set many to have an audible alarm that would have woken you up. I use cheap water sensors that are really loud for just this reason. If the tank is leaking in the middle of the night I want to be woken up.
Have water sensors that I can speak enough of. When I got my inkbird heater controller I thought I got the WiFi version but didn’t. Now I’m paying for that. What type of controller do you recommend. I’m buying one
 
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AquaticYeti

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Nothing strange about oxygen deprivation considering the maturity of biodiversity in the system.

When lights are off, all photosynthetic organisms consume oxygen and respire carbon dioxide. So, many reefers use opposite light cycle in algae refugium to control pH swings, however low oxygen is much more important.

Vacume sandbed now to remove dead pods. Partial water changes later today would also be preventative.

Expect a nutrient spike over the next few days.
Vacuuming now. Thank you
 

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