Emergency Help!!!!

[ramous]

Friday night my wife and I had a heated dispute. She poured her rum and coke into my reef tank that night. I didn't think much harm would come to my aquarium but yesterday when I got home from work the water was cloudy and the fish were breathing rapidly. I did about a 25gal water change and cranked up the skimmer. This morning the water was still cloudy but all the fish, cleaner shrimp, sally-lightfoot crab so far haved died. I'm trying to save my coral by cramming them in my 12 gallon nano but I don't know how long they will survive in that. My tank has been up and running for about 2 1/2 years and all the fish I have had for the same amount of time. My question is, do I have to drain the tank completely and take everything out and start all over again?


Specs:
75gal all glass. Refugium with calupera. 75-100lbs of live rock. Red Sea Pro Skimmer. Fish(rip): Purple Tang, Yellow Tang, Coral beauty, High Fin blenny, Royal dottyback, Royal gramma, Dot-Dash goby. Inverts/Coral: 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 sally lightfoot crabs, 2 serpent stars(still alive) numerous snails and blue/red leg hermits, anchor coral, button polyps, mushroom/leather coral, green star polyp, sea rods, yellow zoathid, hairy mushroom, sea mat.

[Samper]

How much did she pour in there? With that much water I wouldn't think it would have had that bad of a result. I'd do a huge water change and hope for the best but maybe someone with experience with this will chime in.

[ramous]

How much did she pour in there? With that much water I wouldn't think it would have had that bad of a result. I'd do a huge water change and hope for the best but maybe someone with experience with this will chime in.

It wasn't that much so I to thought there wouldn't be that much harm done but yesterday afternoon the water was cloudy. The lfs told me that the alcohol may have killed some bacteria and recommended I do a water change and add some type of bacteria accelerator. I know it was probably just another one of their useless sales pitches outside of me just getting some r/o to do my water changes. I'm in the process now of changing as much water as I can without taking the live rock and sand bed out. Just the dead fish and invertes.

[Poseidon]

As alcohol is processed by our liver, or in this case the tanks bacteria, fish, and inverts the first by product is Aldahyde, a very dangerous TOXIN! I would run MASSIVE amounts of carbon, and continue with the water changes! I think you may well have to wait this one out and see what happens, if it clears up great! I have a feeling you may have to RE-Cure your LR and possible replace the sand bed, as the critters in there may also be dead, and decay, causing a constant NH3 problem!

[Samper]

My girlfriend is just the type to pull some crap like that if she were to get too upset......I don't know what I'd do.

[ramous]

As alcohol is processed by our liver, or in this case the tanks bacteria, fish, and inverts the first by product is Aldahyde, a very dangerous TOXIN! I would run MASSIVE amounts of carbon, and continue with the water changes! I think you may well have to wait this one out and see what happens, if it clears up great! I have a feeling you may have to RE-Cure your LR and possible replace the sand bed, as the critters in there may also be dead, and decay, causing a constant NH3 problem!

Thanks for the reply and advice. I was hoping it wouldn't come down to me replacing my sand bed but if I have to I will. I can't believe this happened. This was such a beautiful set up and I constantly got rave reviews from our guests. I hope my coral will survive the cramp space until I can get the main tank back in shape. Thanks again.

[ramous]

My girlfriend is just the type to pull some crap like that if she were to get too upset......I don't know what I'd do.

I'm too upset myself over this senseless act. I think she was just jealous of the time I spent putting it together and keeping it up. Now she is apologizing. Too late for the fish now!!!! Hopefully I can keep the coral alive until everything is back up and running.

[Samper]

My girlfriend is moving out in December cause of the time I spend on this hobby.

[Max]

Thats a shame what she did !! and a bigger shame that your spouses dont share the same likes. My wife is almost as much into the hobbie as me. But I did do one thing you may not have done, I got her a tank of her own I mantain it of course but even that is sliding her way. She desides what goes in it and what she wants the over all looks of it to be.

Christmas is coming !!!! Get them a tank !!!!

[Poseidon]

No Prob Ramous... By the way, welcome to Reefland!

[Arctic Fox]

aye! that's no good... I'm sorry to hear about your fish loss. (Expensive too!) I think all ya'll who have the jelous type of girlfriend who is jelous over the fishes need to dump her! I mean, A fish is a fish is a fish! You're not out humping hookers, now that I could see the lady getting upset about, but fishes... that's no good, she can't get jelous over fish. Me & my wife have an agreement, I get as many fishy critters as I want and she gets as many frogs and fuzzy hamster critters as she wants, so it works out pretty well, we have a zoo. ;)

[flyfishingben]

Like they say: Women; can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em. All hilarity aside, I hope your tank gets better. Good luck. Cheers.

I dumped my last 2 girls because they told me I fished to much....

[Reefland]

My girlfriend is just the type to pull some crap like that if she were to get too upset......I don't know what I'd do.

Hopefully no one has any experience with anything like this.

I think your best bet is to run some carbon, changing it daily and doing a couple of decent water changes over the next 48 hours.

[saltjunkie]

well all the answers you needed have already been posted,, not much i can add..
But i do know this..
With the money i have tied up in my tank.. Not to mention it is LIVE animals....
now dont get me wrong.. i never hit women...
But if my girlfriend ever did or tried something like thios..
She would meet the busines end of a left right combo!!!!!!
My girlfriend now thinks the stuff is "pretty" but thats about it.. so i think i am good right now..
good luck with the tank and lady..

[ramous]

Thanks once again to everyone for your replies and advise. This is why Reefland is my favorite online site. Like I said earlier, the wife did apologize and she is feeling pretty bad right now. The Nano setup I have in the bedroom was originally for her. I guess that is why she didn't touch it. I have all my corals in it for the time being and so far they seem to be doing ok. I took the calupera out of the refugium and placed it into the 5 gallon setup in the kids room. Hopefully everything will survive in these temporary homes until the 75 gallon is ready again. As for the 75 gallon, I did about a 95% water change last night and I will just wait it out, WITHOUT FISH, over the next few weeks and see what effects it had on the sand bed and live rock. Thanks again...



Specs:
75gal all glass. Refugium with calupera. 75-100lbs of live rock. Red Sea Pro Skimmer. Fish(RIP): Purple Tang, Yellow Tang, Coral beauty, High Fin blenny, Royal dottyback, Royal gramma, Dot-Dash goby. Inverts/Coral: 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 sally lightfoot crabs, 2 serpent stars(still alive) numerous snails and blue/red leg hermits, anchor coral, button polyps, mushroom/leather coral, green star polyp, sea rods, yellow zoathid, hairy mushroom, sea mat.