Tank Crash! Are there warning signs? How did you recover your system? Share your experience.

[nothing_fancy]

Most of us that have been in the hobby for a while have experienced or know someone who has experienced major and minor tank crashes. The term "Crash" is fairly broad, so for this question I will narrow it down to an event where let's say 90% of livestock was lost. Most of the time a tank crash occurs due to equipment failure, lack of or poor maintenance, bacterial bloom, sickness, additive overdose, harmful chemical exposure, and a variety of other factors some of which can be outside of the hobbyist's control. What thing(s) abruptly caused or built up over time to cause a catastrophic event in your system that quickly rendered the tank incapable of sustaining life?

And:

*In hindsight were there any warning signs leading up to the event?
*Did a tank crash affect the way you've maintained your tank moving forward?
*Are there any fail safes or backups that were inspired by an event such as this?
*Do you have a plan in place to act quickly when or if it happens again?

I had my own run in with this about 2 years ago. For me it was caused by a long period of time away from the tank/hobby with very little maintenance being done. Then, when I got back into it, rigorous and abrupt maintenance was done in an attempt to make up for almost a year of neglect. A lot of mistakes were made and the system had to be started over from scratch...It was very enlightening for me and I took it as a learning experience. I have since been curious about other's experience and what they do to try to avoid this unfortunate element of the hobby.

 

[TopShelfAquatics]

When we hear the term tank crash typically what comes to mind is an event that is sudden and wipes out most of the tanks inhabitants. The ones that we have seen typically have to do with swings of some sort. Alk, temp and salinity being the usual culprits. I think a case of neglected tank isn't really a "tank crash" if anyone stops taking care of if a system that is just a slow decline. Having a good monitoring system will definitely help avoid crashes as you can typically set warning for swings and hopefully get to the tank immediately before any damage is done. Another thing we see often is someone will have slight swing and try to correct it instantly with another drastic change which can lead to bigger issues. Water changes are normally your best weapon when trying to save a tank so having water mixed and ready is always a good idea.

 

[nothing_fancy]

When we hear the term tank crash typically what comes to mind is an event that is sudden and wipes out most of the tanks inhabitants. The ones that we have seen typically have to do with swings of some sort. Alk, temp and salinity being the usual culprits. I think a case of neglected tank isn't really a "tank crash" if anyone stops taking care of if a system that is just a slow decline. Having a good monitoring system will definitely help avoid crashes as you can typically set warning for swings and hopefully get to the tank immediately before any damage is done. Another thing we see often is someone will have slight swing and try to correct it instantly with another drastic change which can lead to bigger issues. Water changes are normally your best weapon when trying to save a tank so having water mixed and ready is always a good idea.

Thanks for your input. RE: Neglect, yes I agree that is slow decline and not a crash so that sort of situation might be best left out of the discussion. However, in my personal experience that I mentioned, although the tank was fairly neglected, everything in it was alive and accustomed to those conditions, it was actually the cleaning, the stirring up of the sand bed, the massive water change, that big change to my parameters as a result of moving too quickly is what caused the losses that followed. Probably more akin to your example of trying to correct a swing which leads to drastic change. Trying to chase those small swings with chemicals is a dangerous move for sure, thank you for mentioning that!

 

[unchaotic]

My crash killed off everything but a couple dwarf cerith snails. Despite me asking her to wait for a cool day where she could paint with the doors and windows open, my wife painted the kitchen on a 100 degree day with the house sealed up tight. What she was painting with was a shellac primer. In case you didn't know, shellac primers reek of alcohol because that's the thinning agent used in them. The fumes caused a massive bacterial bloom in my 60g. It was so bad we referred to it as milk because you couldn't see from front to back. I shoved a couple UV filters in the tank, did water changes, and proceeded to lose a few coral but no other livestock.

The 15g tank in the same room looked completely normal, which we thought was weird but just kind of accepted it. Then a few days into the battle, we woke up to find pretty much everything in the 15g dead (adorable clownfish, springeri damsel, tuxedo urchin, emerald crab, and a bunch of snails). Checked the pH and it was insanely low thanks to a less visible bacterial bloom consuming all of the oxygen.

So I think the main thing I learned was; when in doubt, test whatever you can. In this case a bunch of added surface agitation and a UV filter probably would have saved the tank.

 

[brandon429]

neglected tank remediation should be included here due to this consequence:

-it was actually the cleaning, the stirring up of the sand bed, the massive water change, that big change to my parameters as a result of moving too quickly is what caused the losses that followed-

because your tank had those liable compounds in it, a means is needed to fix tanks without the loss.


here is the reverse engineering of that kind of waste-based crash: surgically fixing a bunch of crashed reef tanks exactly like that above without any testing or dosers or bottled bacteria, merely a surgical order of ops:

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

the cause of the loss was stirring up everything inside the tank, thinking that disassembly was the riskier mode. that thread shows how to fix crashed reefs after the fact

keeping them clean before the crash...aids in prevention

that, and fish disease protocols in place. a large degree of tank crashes are from skipped disease preps in fish, then they wait to die until someone is not home/murphys law

 

[nothing_fancy]

My crash killed off everything but a couple dwarf cerith snails. Despite me asking her to wait for a cool day where she could paint with the doors and windows open, my wife painted the kitchen on a 100 degree day with the house sealed up tight. What she was painting with was a shellac primer. In case you didn't know, shellac primers reek of alcohol because that's the thinning agent used in them. The fumes caused a massive bacterial bloom in my 60g. It was so bad we referred to it as milk because you couldn't see from front to back. I shoved a couple UV filters in the tank, did water changes, and proceeded to lose a few coral but no other livestock.

The 15g tank in the same room looked completely normal, which we thought was weird but just kind of accepted it. Then a few days into the battle, we woke up to find pretty much everything in the 15g dead (adorable clownfish, springeri damsel, tuxedo urchin, emerald crab, and a bunch of snails). Checked the pH and it was insanely low thanks to a less visible bacterial bloom consuming all of the oxygen.

So I think the main thing I learned was; when in doubt, test whatever you can. In this case a bunch of added surface agitation and a UV filter probably would have saved the tank.

Oof, that must've been a rough day...thanks for sharing. Yes, it's easy to forget the tank is there aerating. We have to be extra careful of what we use to clean the floors and surfaces around the house and definitely have to keep these things in mind when doing home improvements especially what you just mentioned, as well as having floors refinished, tiling etc, anything that gets in the air. We had our chimney cleaned some years ago and I was very concerned at the time for the tank but fortunately a tarp was all that was needed. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[nothing_fancy]

neglected tank remediation should be included here due to this consequence:

-it was actually the cleaning, the stirring up of the sand bed, the massive water change, that big change to my parameters as a result of moving too quickly is what caused the losses that followed-

because your tank had those liable compounds in it, a means is needed to fix tanks without the loss.


here is the reverse engineering of that kind of waste-based crash: surgically fixing a bunch of crashed reef tanks exactly like that above without any testing or dosers or bottled bacteria, merely a surgical order of ops:

Old tank syndrome is vanquished in reefing now

the cause of old tank syndrome is compounding whole waste particles that blanket the interstitial sand grain zones and plug up the channels in live rocks- in some cases it's sheer overgrowth allowed from various invasions that plugs up the surface area on live rock combined with a thin veneer of...

www.reef2reef.com

the cause of the loss was stirring up everything inside the tank, thinking that disassembly was the riskier mode.

Thanks Brandon, yes, I wish I was following this forum at that time, all could have potentially been avoided. I've been reading through your thread a lot lately. Thank you!

 

[PigPen84]

I had a crash due to neglect, with kids and work I found myself neglecting water changes and testing (not running an apex). But for me it was a pretty big wake-up call to lose thousands of dollars worth of livestock.