Help!!! 240g Sps Catastrophe!!!!!

[zachtos]

please help, urgent


water main above tank sump in basement broke
500G water volume
hot water dumped into tank until water heater was empty
then cold water flooded tank
now 1.10 sg, temp 60F
all corals sliming, all fish gasping, some dead
adding 1.60 sg water to tank display and heaters in display currently


how fast can i bring tank to temp
how fast can i bring tank to sg
what can live, what will die?

see my red house for photos if you need more detail

should i just drain it and assume total loss?

I also have only 300G bag of salt, is this enough to raise 500G to 1.026 from 1.10!!!?!??!?!?!?

help please im begging, losing thousands of dollars an hour!!!! not enough in bank to recover from this.

bad dream i cant wake from

DO NOT POST to say sorry, only post to offer help ONLY!!!

 

[Amoore311]

Do you have any kind of storage containers??? Get the corals out of their into storage containers asap.

That will be a lot easier and quicker to get everything back to the proper SG

 

[L98-Z]

Isn't it okay to drop the SG quickly, just not raise it quickly?

I'd work to bring the temp back up, but maybe not the SG so quickly. Although that's more for fish, not corals. Wow, this is not good.

I hope someone else chimes in here with something to save the day.

 

[zachtos]

im dosing salt into the 240G directly, and have heaters in there

i dont have the time to get all corals out individual, how fast can i raise the sg for corals to not get shocked?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Honestly I would call an LFS and see if you can take everything there. Or move everything to smaller temporary containers with proper water conditions. Do you have any mixed saltwater on hand?

 

[c.rob]

Corals can't live in hyposalinity that is why we don't dip them in fresh water. Bring the salinity up quickly for the coral. Move the fish and bring them up slowly. Filter the heck out of the display tank to remove polutants from stressed/dying stock. Jusy my thoughts....good luck!!!

 

[Amoore311]

There's no way you are going to be able to dose the salt manually and get it to the proper sg. It would be complete luck.

The temperature can go right back up quick. I had my tank hit 64 degrees over the winter b/c I blew a fuse. The heaters got the tank back up to temp in about 1.5 hours and I lost nothing. This was in a 29 Gallon.


The best bet is to just get everything to a holding container. It will be quicker than dumping in salt and waiting for it to dissipate in the large tank.

 

[zachtos]

ok, i dont have time to wrangle up 25+ fishes, i'm still bringing up the salinity slowly in the display, it will take longer to break off 50+ specimens of corals and place them in holding tanks

im sending the g/f to get more salt, 300G bag is not enough for the whole system, just the 240G, temp is 62F, sg 1.15

 

[Phillybean]

Agreed. Pull everything out, put them in a container of some sort.

The other problem is the water that was dumped in. Untreated Tap Water. Think about all the chemicals that can be causing harm.

 

[Sk8r]

i'd triage for your favorite and rarest, and if you can only break off a bit and lay it in a bucket, it'll possibly give you a re-start in a total catastrophe. I agree: motile and shelled inverts are least tolerant of rapid salinity rise, fish next, corals third. I'd try to simultaneously move things out AND phone the lfs and ask for help. They may have barrels, shipping boxes, bags, things you can use.
Remember corals survive low tide. If you could get enough water from your lfs you could do a nearly 100% water change on this tank. Bribed heavily, they might even send a truck with water, if they have the stuff to spare. You'll still have sand issues, but your rock and sand will survive. I recently did a 50% water change re a chemical buildup problem with inverts, fish, lps/montiporas, and lost nothing.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14214362#post14214362 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Phillybean
Agreed. Pull everything out, put them in a container of some sort.

The other problem is the water that was dumped in. Untreated Tap Water. Think about all the chemicals that can be causing harm.

Yeah, and possibly copper, coming from your hot water heater.

 

[grimreefer01]

wow.. simply devistating!

i agree with above, go get a rubbermaid tote for the livestock, get the salinity back up.. the temp isnt that awful low, however with the swings that it had and the flushing of fresh water, you can expect fatalities..
how much will live? well, that depends on how hardy and willing to live they are..
i wouldnt waste any time at all, as i am sure u have not..

as far as the copper, it should be minimal.. test it to check and run carbon reguardless.. this will help remove copper and remove impurities as well as help to "condition" the water (for lack of a better word)..
its what i would do for sure

 

[zachtos]

temp 71, sg 1.20, all tanks are turned on, natural gas tank heater is a life saver, bringing temp up from 55F to 71F in a few hours. fish looking better, some are dead, corals all very slimed, some brown.

slowly frag tank, angel fish tank and refugium tanks are being acclimated using ball valves at 100gph to bring up params slower.

not sure if any coral or fish can survive this disaster.

 

[zachtos]

dosed chloramine remover, using small dosing pump to bring up 1.2 sg slowly, need to get more salt out of car and add more, trying to maintain 1.20 is hard w/ the other tanks low

 

[zachtos]

my water maker is only making about 50gpd in the winter (rated 100gpd) i dont think i can get new water to the system fast enough. i will have to live with tap water dilution for a long time, cant store enough to do more then 90G water change, and it's difficult to drain other tanks, the sump at lowest is 100G, so i can't get more then that drained w/o draining display 100% w/ fishes i cant do that

 

[zachtos]

temp 74F, sg. 1.024

the natural gas water heater is a LIFE SAVER, literally. it heated 500G of water by +20F in 2 hours!!!!

all BIG tangs look alive and well now, all small fish are either dead or look bad.

corals are all slimy and brown, will any SPS make it????

 

[zachtos]

80F, the natural gas heater i designed brought the tank up +25F in 4 hours. (500Gallons!)

11dkh,

sg1.025

calc/mg unknown

added chlorine remover
added 16 cups of carbon in loose bags
2 cups of phosban in reactor
skimmer has removed around 5 gallons of 'tea' skimmate so far
ozone generators back on
sulfur denitrator back on
all tanks (frag, refugium, refugium 2, sump, remote sand bed and display all back at full flow and same paramaters.

I do NOT see any did fish (1 chromis) (i have 7-8 tangs)

I do NOT see any polyps on coras or zoathids open, i see lots of slime, lots of pale, brown and grey, not good? will any SPS make it you think?

I need to get a gasket for the mag12 that can handle 30psi too

 

[RRaider]

I have no idea what will or won't survive, but I have to say you have given a herculean effort at trying to salvage what you can. I'm hoping for the best!

 

[smoothdog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14215114#post14215114 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zachtos
my water maker is only making about 50gpd in the winter (rated 100gpd) i dont think i can get new water to the system fast enough. i will have to live with tap water dilution for a long time, cant store enough to do more then 90G water change, and it's difficult to drain other tanks, the sump at lowest is 100G, so i can't get more then that drained w/o draining display 100% w/ fishes i cant do that

If you have enough feed line going into the RO unit, make several coils and place them in a bucket of room temp water. This will bring up the temp of the water going in and help with production.

 

[zachtos]

tank is at correct temp/sg,
alk is high from the tap water, 12-14dkh
tank is very cloudy, probably from the huge salt change and tap water

also, all SPS corals are probably dead. I see white skeleton after blowing the slime off, some of the monti and millepora still have
color, but i see no polyps

zoanthids are just dandy apparently

fish all are rapidly breathing, but swimming fairly normally, not sure if they will die or not?!

all of this because i did not know that flexible PVC can not be glued, you must use quick connectors (finger trap style). sure wish someone warned me on that one.

oh well, $750 lost in corals, and 2 years of growth. GONE, just like that