Fish killed??? Power outage?

[jaketuff]

It would be sad if they died of old age...

But a mass killing like that of this morning is disturbing. I came down to the tank around dawn. Lights were in normal mode. All fish in the tank were dead... lying on the sand lacking color. SPS and LPS are fine. Starfish ok. All inverts ok. Pink Cucumber seemingly ok..... Culprits?

1. Power outage... hob was NOT running...but lights and canister was on...
2. Pink Cucumber detonated his bowels?

I left them at 12AM all were normal. Aside from one clown battling ich.

Right now all coral seems normal.... whew! Will post parameters later.

 

[Pife]

Stay voltage? I would guess oxygen deprivation. Or ammonia spike.

 

[Metal Man 1221]

Look up that cucumber.

I wish I had a source for you, but I remember reading that, if threatend, some cucumbers will spill their guts out and release a toxin.

Dare I say like a suicide bomber....

I hope some one else can confirm this.

 

[julie180]

Lack of oxygen would be my guess. Sorry for your loss.

 

[trueperc]

How long was the power outage. How full of a coral reef do you have? The reason I ask is that this happened to me and a friend. We had no clue at the time, but basically the coral robbed all the oxygen out of the water because the power outage. Its was about 8 hours. Buddes of our who had fish only were fine. Talked to lfs and they had the same reports. Hence why the corals are fine but the fish are not.

 

[nrbelk]

Is there a good way to determine oxygen levels?

 

[Tahiti]

This may be a dumb question but how do fish stores ship fish in a bag across the country and not die? Seems your fish should have been okay even with an overnight power outage.

 

[Joe14]

jeezus, Sorry for your loss

 

[jaketuff]

Still have not gotten home to determine wth happened. All clocks were fine... none flashing 1200.... The cucumber doesnt seem to have grenaded itself.

It is a Pink Cucumber that releases harlquin (sp?) Toxin. But damn here one moment dull, colorless, lifeless the next.

 

[jaketuff]

Well... All coral survived what appears to be a power outage, or some intermittent power drop. My HOB Filter did not restart, nor did my skimmer. I have a good amount of coral which could have vacumned the Oxygen from the fish. The coral right now is fine...

Torch (2 head), Duncan (4 different multiheads), Candycane, Hammer, and a good amount of Zoos. My CuC also survived aside from one cleaner shrimp (damnit) and even my Starfish survived - a beast that is about 8 inches from tip to tip.

What a letdown... Bicolor Angel was quite a creature and a strong hardy fish!!!

 

[OrQidz]

wow, sorry to hear about losing your fish! I'm glad most of the rest of the tank survived. Crazy what can go wrong overnight with reef tanks.

 

[julie180]

This may be a dumb question but how do fish stores ship fish in a bag across the country and not die? Seems your fish should have been okay even with an overnight power outage.

They put very little water and pure oxygen in the bags.

 

[Mr.Tan]

how long was the power actually out? if it was just overnight I don't think any fish should have died that quickly... We had a power outage 2 years ago or so during a freak snowstorm in october, power was out for 4 days and the tank temp got down to around low 60s to high 50s and it wasent until the 3rd day that my fish started to die off.

 

[Guygettnby]

i seriously doubt it was from a power outage or lack of oxygen in the tank. i have had to deal with a very good amount of power outages in my area. some have lasted for as long as a week. my tanks made it days with no power and no air pumps until i managed to buy some battery operated air pumps. all my tanks were heavily stocked BTW.

 

[hkgar]

how long was the power actually out? if it was just overnight I don't think any fish should have died that quickly... We had a power outage 2 years ago or so during a freak snowstorm in october, power was out for 4 days and the tank temp got down to around low 60s to high 50s and it wasent until the 3rd day that my fish started to die off.

If I read correctly, he doesn't know that there was a power outage and only asking if that could be reason for the mass wipe out. If there was a power outage, it seems it only affected the tank as no clocks needed to be reset or corrected.

 

[Ontheway]

Can it be related to the things mentioned, below?
http://reeftools.com/nn/venomous-tankmates-just-be-careful/

 

[Reefmedic79]

How old is the tank?

How deep is the sand bed?

Hydrogen Sulfide?

 

[jaketuff]

Parameter Check...

Parameter Check...

How old is the tank?

How deep is the sand bed?

Hydrogen Sulfide?

6 months, 1 to 1.5, idk...

No ammonia
No phosphate
Nitrite and Trates in line near 0

PH Plummeted... to near 7.0! Amazingly Pink Cucumber, a sensitive creature and Starfish survived... (I use Red Sea Salt, and had just water changed with RO/DI 8.2 the night before this incident) Most Snails, and CuC surivived.

My skimmer was off, and HOB (for surface breaking, and phosgen filled) was off. I am thinking that the 'brown out' on the skimmer and the HOB coupled with a blossom of red velvet (of course the lights stayed on!!!) did the damage.

Coral is all good... CLEANED all cyno out, and brushed down live rock... Received some ORA Clowns... have them now in hospital tank. Will take pics when back up and running well.