Crash Test Dummy

[gullmo]

Well I noticed Glenn's post so I don't feel so bad but I had quite a terrible crash myself. I was gone for one freaking night and I returned to horror. My power shorted out in the socket I had all my vitals plugged into except my light, they are on a timer. So my tank sat for who knows how long (24 hrs.?) with no circulation or filtration. The fan used to cool the tank shorted as well so my water was almost 100 degrees from my light. Fortunately I was just finishing my cycle so I had no expensive livestock, just hitch-hikers and a few snais. My LR has started bleaching as well. So I guess its start over from scratch for me. I just had a few questions on what to do though. I have the electrical problems solved. I put my LR in a huge bin with water I was using for changes with a heater and protein skimmer so I assume that will be ok? My substrate has all kinds of dead bristleworms and pods should I just pitch it? And also do I need to let the rock "cure" for a while in the bin to make sure all the deceased animals are gotten rid of? I have nothing but a bad learning experience and a huge test of my patience from this. Thanks for help and sympathy if you have made it through this post.

Pete

[MrConclusion]

I wouldn't trash anything, unless you're hot to start over from scratch. Some stuff will live through the 100 degree torture test.

 

I'd leave everything running, and do frequent major water changes (25-35% every 2 days) for 6-10 days. That's not too much water to change during a cycle, as long as you mix and prep it correctly. I'd be inclined to stir up the sand or use a small "gravel vac" siphon when removing water.

 

Of course you could also let it cycle completely hands-off and see what happens. At worst, everything dies and you have to start over, which you are considering anyway!

[printerdown01]

I would not start from scratch... Unless you have NO coralline on the rocks now -it will all grow back, no worries. Not to mention that a few worms and pods will have survived, and will repopulate the tank... No doubt that if the mortality rate is as high as you make it sound you will see a re-cycle! I would do 10% water changes a little more than weekly (almost semi-weekly) in order to keep the parameters a little more stable. No need to cause a deadly ammonia spike! After 3 weeks (approx 5-6 water changes later), I would stop the frequent changes and go to bi-weekly. If you do a really high % water changes, and do them frequently, you will only prolong your re-cycle (your tank will not be able to develop enough bacteria to keep it self stabilized... thus your cycle will take longer while you wait for this to happen). Lower more frequent water changes will still allow you to dump 20% of you water weekly, but it will also keep the tank more stable, i.e. you won't have a TON of ammonia, then no ammonia then a ton of it again...

[Crakeur]

even if you have no coralline algae you can get coralline plugs from ipsf.com and, when you add corals, you are bound to have some on the new stuff. it might take a bit longer to get the crusty to spread but it will show up.

[MrConclusion]

There's no reason that higher% water changes will prolong a bacteria cycle. The vast majority of bacteria are on surfaces, not suspended in the water.

 

Also, changing 20 or 30 percent of your water does not take you from TONS of ammonia to NO ammonia. It would take you from TONS of ammonia to TONS-minus-20% ammonia. Small water changes are for maintenance of healthy tanks.

 

Large % water changes are needed to reduce toxic levels to non-toxic levels. a 10% water change will do little (only 10%) to reduce toxic levels of ammonia or nitrites.

 

I have a cure for "Old Tank Syndrome" that never has catastrophic results: 50% change every other day for 5 days. That reduces tank toxicity to 12% of its original level. (My fish and inverts aren't bothered, i bet yours won't be unless you prep the water badly.) You can never achieve that with 10% changes.

 

I'm not trying to carp on this, but there is a somewhat irrational belief prevalent in the hobby that a small water change magically wipes out pollutants... hence the "TONS to NONE" argument.

 

Ages ago (lol) when I was working in tank maintenance, we did larger water changes all the time because most customers wanted high-bioload tanks and didn't want weekly visits from the fish guys. Never had problems from water changes that were routinely 30 or 40 percent.