[karun]

I had a breakdown in my powerhead which resulted in the water circulation stopping in my tank. Woke up last week to find all my fish dead. Very annoying considering I have been working on the tank for a year and added fish slowly.
The leather coral, feather dusters, carpet anemone, snail survived. The H. Magnifica has shrunk from 10 inches to 2 inches. Maybe it is also badly damaged by the lack of air.

Today, I have come back after a weeks holiday to find the tank overrun with hair algae and cyno.
What should I do? Multiple water changes?
I haven't had a chance to test the water parameters. Will do that tomorrow. The leather coral has grown even in a week.

Should i add a yellow tang?


Karun

[icemark]

I almost thought this was going to be a FishKid thread.

Anyway,

How long has the tank been set up? You mention a year is that accurate? What size is it? Sounds small if you only had one powerhead.

Can you give us some specifics?

[karun]

Tank is 120G. I had 1 regal tang, 1 scopas tang, 1 lion fish, 1 koran angel, 3 clowns, 1 fox face and one damsel. The tank actually has 3 powerheads but the one connected to the protien skimmer was the one that went off. So the protien skimmer stopped working and the air exchange also stopped. I did not think that could result in all the fish dying. Actually I managed to save one by putting it in a bucket with an air stone. Sounds absurd but it happened. The fish had grown over the year and I guess the tank was overloaded??

But more importantly what do I do now. I have hair algae/cyno all over the place. Cleaned up some of it today. Water parameters
Nh4 0
NO2 0
NO3 5ppm
Ph 8.4

Anemoenes, coral and feather dusters are doing well.


Karun

[reefhead]

what test kits are you using?




Try to devote more time to your tank.

[organicreefer]

karun,
there is no way youre fish died overnight because youre protien skimmer stopped working.even if you had no circulation they wouldnt die overnight unless you are way overstocked and the temp is too high.what was the temp?they died at night during lights out?no signs of disease before or after?was the protien skimmer a hang on,and ,was it youre only source of surface aggitation?

[karun]

The protien skimmer was the only source of surface agitation. The tank temperature is 82-84 F. I could not find anything else wrong with the tank. I had added fish over a year some of them had grown quite large. Lion was 8-9 " Angel 4" Fox face 8" Regal tang 8". So probably the tank was over stocked. But the fish had grown in the tank and there was no fighting. No sign of disease. In fact, I have only lost two fish in the year. A fire goby which was harrassed by the damsel and could not eat and an emperor angel that died within one day of putting it in the tank.

I had no new fish in the tank for 2 months. The only thing added was a leather coral and a snail. The one occelaris clown which did not die is doing well in the LFS. No sign of any disease.

What should I do now? Water changes? New fish?

Karun

[organicreefer]

temp on the higher side(any chance it might have spiked a little?this is why i like to keep temps under 80 =higher temps=less oxygen=powerhead fails = all fish die), alot of big fish, no surface agitation ..hhmmmm do you have a dsb too?and corals or lots of macro?how long do you think it was without good aeration?sounds like it is a possibility i guess ,too bad
the first thing you should do is correct the situation that caused all this to begin with .....GET MORE CIRCULATION GOING!!
2 power heads (?gph?)and a protien skimmer is not enough for a 120 imo,and REDUNDANCY can never be over-stressed.if you had just one more powerhead at the surface this might have never happened.who knows if the temp had been a few degrees lower it may not have happened either............................
so after you add a couple more powerheads, pull the algea out do some water changes and start adding fish again.good luck.

[karun]

organicreefer,
I checked the PH last night 8.4 and Alkalinity was 1.1. I checked the PH again in the morning and it was down to 8.0. Is it possible that without enough surface agitation and air circulation the the CO2 build up caused the PH to drop more drastically at night and resulted in fish dying?
I have already added another powerhead and an airstone. Now the total circulation is 900 gph.

I am also doing more water changes. Added some baking soda to increase alkalinity.

Thanks for the help. I may add a fish soon.

Karun

[organicreefer]

alk 1.1 ?is that correct?that alone will cause the ph to drop drastically at night,let alone a buildup of co2.how do you maintain youre ca/alk levels?

[Northman_with_reef]

Sounds like a scenario from my tank.....

Moore powerheads, buffers and reef janitors would help out alot......And keep your skimmer in tip-top shape, that will help alot in removing you Cyanoe.

You shouls tear off you algea and throw it out off your tank and run a mechanical filter to aid in the process clearing up your water.

Good luck fighting off the cyano

[karun]

Organicreefer,

Alk 1.1 is correct. I guess I just got over confident and careless. I do regular water changes and used to test the water regularly. In the last few months everything was going well so I stopped testing the water and just did monthly water changes. Big mistake.

I use baking soda for buffering. The ready buffering agents are not available in India and I have not had a chance to travel and but it. I used to add some in the past and it worked quite well. In the last 2 days I have added baking soda and the Alk is up to 1.7. I will bring it up to 2.2 in the next few days.

I haven't really checked for Ca since I only have one leather coral and no big user of Ca.

Northman,
We learn from our mistakes. I now have back ups.

I jsut added a lawnmower blenny today.

Thanks

Karun