Devastating Tank Crash...HELP!!!

[FishPharmD]

Well, I've experienced my first disaster. Just when my corals were really starting to look good and my tank was well on its way to being a high-quality show tank, my stupid heater failed in the "on" position. I check the temperature every day....one morning I went to work, the temperature was at 80*F. When I came home, all my corals had closed up or were flopped over, several fish were floating, and the temperature was in the neighborhood of 96*F. I'm so upset and devastated...I lost my flame angel, a firefish goby, my large sebae anemone, a pink African Tree coral, my beautiful fast-growing hammer coral, a nice E. Divisa, and a bunch of beautiful mushrooms I've had since I started. About the only thing I have left is a small versicolor anemone, my Clarkii clown, a couple zooanthid colonies, some pimpled mushrooms, and a yellow tang. Oh yeah, and all those snails I got off of eBay. I'm so upset about this.....I put a lot of $$ into this tank, and there it's gone, just like that. Plus, I put a couple of powerheads near the bottom to get rid of that nasty cyanobacteria, and it's just taking over more than ever. It's almost completely covering one of my zooanthid colonies. I just don't know what to do, I really need some advice. How could I have prevented this disaster? I replaced the broken heater with a nicer heater that's supposed to fail in the "off" position. Please, any advice or suggestions would be great. I love this hobby, but it really just ruined my motivation. Please HELP!!!!

[dougc]

Redundancy. I had the same thing happen on my old tank. I also had a low-temperature event. Both incidents killed prized corals. My new tank, which I am setting up now, will have an AquaController II running the show. Heaters and chiller will controlled both by the AquaController and built-in thermostats. That way, only failure of both the AquaController and the built-in thermostat can fry or freeze the tank. The Aquacontroller can also alert me to a failed thermostat. I will set it up to page me in the event of a problem.

[FishPharmD]

Oh, BTW....anyone who has frags of ANYTHING they need to get rid of, I'd be very interested. My wife is mostly opposed to me spending any more money on the fish tank for a good while, so I've got to find some cost-effective ways to get my reef going again. Thanks!!

[Poseidon]

Hey Casey Bummer about the heater. Just keep at it, I think we have all had that or something similar happen. Mine was on a 10 Gallon, the heater made FISH SOUP, the water was so hot I could not touch it.... Nothing survived. Luckily that was a fresh water tank... But since that point it has only been high quality heaters.

[Reefland]

What kind of heater was it? Most of the time when you hear this, it is with low quality equipment where someone tried to save a buck or two. Just like the old RIO pumps, sure they could push some water and costed significantly less than others but when they melted down and ruined your tank, the $35 you saved on them just wasn't worth it. Not saying this is what happened in your case but...

Sorry to hear of your losses Casey,
Scott Z.

[acropora]

I am sorry to hear about your tank losses.A good heater with a seperate probe and controller or a seperate controller is a good piece of insurance.

Cyano bacteria can be avoided by taking the same general steps that you would take to rid your tank from any nuisance algae. Export nutrients and limit their intake. It has also been found that higher Alk and Ph values help to prevent an outbreak.Therefore the addition of kalkwasser is a good idea, even when a calcium reactor is used.
I have also used Ultralifes red slime remover with great success and it did not harm corals or clams. However you will still have to address the underlining cause to prevent reoccurring outbreaks. Good in tank circulation will also help.

export; good quality protein skimming, Carbon and phosban filtration, water changes and the addition of a refugium.

reduce imports: use RO/DI water, phosphate free carbon and food, limit tank additives, especially avoid overfeeding with Dt's ,etc.

[lovesalt]

Sorry about your losses. I had a similar event happen 1 yr ago. Tank too hot lost just about everything.

To battle the cyano I pulled it out by hand, increase flow, added inverts, conchs, snails, urchin, less food, and waited it out. It finally went away and all is well with the world now.

Good luck and keep with it.

[MarineManMercer]

I think we all have at one point of reefing had a crash and yes its really upsetting.I had one about six months ago as i upgraded my lights and shocked nearly all my corals by keeping the luminarcs too low to begin with.I had even considered packing the hobby in but am very glad i never.You will get through this and in time have a better looking tank,chin up.

[Samper]

Very very sorry to hear about your loss. It happened to me in my old 20 gallon and I lost about 15 sps and lps corals and 3 fish.