My Reef Is Gone

[MaineReef22]

I turned my lights on this morning only to find a white cloudy water within it my beauitiful reef that i have worked so hard on the past couple of years DEAD. All my coral turning to goo and melting off the rock. My first thought was why and i think i know but i wanted to know what you guys think. A major heat wave has hit my state of maine the past week and my room being upstairs has become VERY HOTT could this drastic temperature change be what killed my reef? Ok now my problem is cleaning i did a 10 percent water change and sucked out as much coral goo as i could within that change. How much more should i do? My healthy hippo tang and yellow tang and clownfish are all still fine swimming around like WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED. What do i need to do to make sure my beautiful fish that i have had for years dont die?

 

[DaytonaJoe]

That's a huge bummer man, sorry to hear. Seems like it's been happening a lot this week. Run carbon, do some more water changes over the next few days. I would buy a chiller to make sure it doesn't happen again. Either that or install a window AC unit and leave that running all day on low power.

 

[chimmike]

uh, do you not have any way to monitor temperature on your tank?

What was the water temp in the tank yesterday?
Of course hot weather is going to mess with your tank temps and cause issues!

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

What a shame! How hot did the tank get? High temps definitely can be a problem. I had a heater malfunction once and my tank temp went up to 94. I lost quite a few corals to that. You can float some bagged ice to slowly bring down the temp and adding a clip on fan will help keep the tank temp down.

Sorry for your losses.

 

[TwistedEnvy]

I am sorry to hear that as well!!! I think you should post the temp if you can because I have noticed my corals get agitate as well due to heat, but nothing so exteme. I hope it all works out for you!

 

[jefathome]

You should be able to conrol it all with a simple clip-on fan. MY frag tank is in the garage and the summer temps in there get well up into the 110 range. Clip-on fan pointed across the top of the tank set on a timer to go on from 8am - 9pm. Works great... water temp never gets above 83.

 

[sslak]

Define HOTT....what temp did the tank get up to?

 

[chimmike]

You should be able to conrol it all with a simple clip-on fan. MY frag tank is in the garage and the summer temps in there get well up into the 110 range. Clip-on fan pointed across the top of the tank set on a timer to go on from 8am - 9pm. Works great... water temp never gets above 83.

you're lucky. Mine was in my garage, ran halides at night, and it NEEDED a chiller to maintain 82*.

 

[BFG]

Sorry for your loss. In the future, if you decide to get a chiller, get 1 model above what you need to have. A proper sized chiller might have difficulty overcoming a heat wave, a larger sized chiller could overcome that but if it's too hot I guess Murphy will show up.

 

[Levito]

Sorry about the loss. Very possible the heat wave did it, especially if the swing was relatively fast. Either get everything out of your tank thats dead/dying, or if the damage is as extreme as you're implying, get out whatever's still alive into a QT.

 

[outy]

%10 and carbon wont cut it.

drain everything, clean it all including sand in saltwater and put all new water in and start over.

some bacteria will still be alive but you want all that junk out.

yes heat will wipe it out fast, hotter the water the less oxygen it has and chokes itself out.

my swamp cooler didnt start automaticaly like it has for 10 years a few days ago. if i had a small tank i would have lost a 14 year reef. my only saving grace was its a 100g and the size kept the water at 88 and rising when i got there so i saved it in the nick of time.

 

[TheH]

When you say the water was white, it makes me think of a kalk overdose.

 

[enasco]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss, but don't feel bad it too happened me a few months back. My issue was disturbing the sand bed and to top it off a temp increase. My digitial thermometer's battery apparently was almost gone and would show 77F when really was around 98F! I lost everything; I put new sand, complete water change(NSW) even bought a new pump and a new pump for the skimmer. Now slowly I'm redoing my reef (46g bow) were all the parameters are back to normal. In reference to your situation YES heat can cause this effect were what I would do is a complete water change, you don't have to change the live rocks or sand, but definitely do a complete water change and check the parameters, plus definitely with what happened to me I know only use the standard thermometer which give a true reading and not the digital ones anymore.

Hope this info has help a bid and wish you luck always remembering patience in this hobby is a main formula in keeping a reef.

Eddie

 

[Mattik]

When you say the water was white, it makes me think of a kalk overdose.

was my initial reaction as well.

 

[cmoreland]

Had a buddy that OD'ed vinegar in his tank and turned the water white and nuked everything. Bacteria bloom.

 

[serpentman]

Sorry about your loss. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that it was the heat. The milky white you see is a bacterial bloom that results from the die off.

Extreme heat is often much more fatal than a significant dip in temps. Since you are in Maine, a chiller is probably overkill. However, if your house does not have AC, I would suggest a window unit for that room.

Also, in the future, if you know that temps are going to be an issue, don't run your lights or only run them at night. This will also help keep temps in check.

 

[lisafoster]

Sorry to hear about yourtank. I do not run a chiller but I have an ac that has been running 24/7 on 60 for a week to keep my tank at 80 even with three 250 metal halides.I am fortunate that where I live near the water stays about 10 degrees cooler than anywhere else but an ac is necessary in this heat. I also keep the lights off on days when I know it is getting up into the 90's

 

[chimmike]

Where's the OP? I'm curious to know if he had a thermometer to monitor temps!

 

[MaineReef22]

Would anybody be willing to donate some coral frags so i can try and get my reef started back up i lost everything in this heatwave and ive been very depressed because i have nothing now.

 

[Dave VG]

How hot did it get that is the question? If the heat did not do it it may have been somthing else. What were the tank permeters the last time you checked. To help you understand what happened these are the things we need to know. With a crash of that magnitude I'm surprised the fish made it. IMO I would also empty the water out and tear down the rockwork and then clean it in clean salt water. I think you need to get the tank inhabitable again before even thinking about restocking.