Reef Discussion

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

OMG... So I just went to switch on my lights...

All fish are dead.... snails seem fine and so do corals....

I do regular water changes and the only thing ive added in the last few months is two new zoo rocks...

The water has a strange burnt plastic or gasoline smell but everything seems fine!

Lost fish are 2 chromis, flame angel, bi colour blenny and two clown fish. Last water change was about 4 days ago.

just... f**k

DavidS · Jul 12, 2014

Start looking for which bit of kit is dead with that smell.. and perhaps keep your hands out of the water while the powers on (look quickly then turn off the power). Sounds like something has cooked. :(

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

DavidS said:
Start looking for which bit of kit is dead with that smell.. and perhaps keep your hands out of the water while the powers on (look quickly then turn off the power). Sounds like something has cooked. :(

Already chucked my hand in... So I do have a voltmeter. Anyone used one of those to test the water? It seems like everything is fine and working.

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

And of course the day that my partner is duty for his job, he takes the car.... so I can only do a 50% water change.

DavidS · Jul 12, 2014

You could take things out and smell them. Usually if something is overheating and starting to melt, you'll smell it easier out of water.

Wrangy · Jul 12, 2014

Oh shit!! Sorry to hear that :( :(

I'm with @DavidS here, I would go through and check each piece of equipment out of the water as having the smell like that suggests it would be an electrical fault :( Take each item out, start at the plug and check the cords all the way to the item then go over each item really thoroughly and try to take it apart where you can as the faults can be hidden sometimes, I had an ehiem put shite itself and I only found out why by prying the back cover off because I wanted to see if it was salvageable. Hopefully you can find the fault and fix it!

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

Wrangy said:
Oh shit!! Sorry to hear that :( :(

I'm with @DavidS here, I would go through and check each piece of equipment out of the water as having the smell like that suggests it would be an electrical fault :( Take each item out, start at the plug and check the cords all the way to the item then go over each item really thoroughly and try to take it apart where you can as the faults can be hidden sometimes, I had an ehiem put shite itself and I only found out why by prying the back cover off because I wanted to see if it was salvageable. Hopefully you can find the fault and fix it!

Found it!!! Cheapo pump for some flow in the back area I bought a year ago..

This is why I love my mp10. :( haha

Oh and my blenny is still kicking! I went yo grab him out. He was JUST breathing. I put him in a bowl of clean salt water. He is recoverying!

So looks like its a journey to get a shit load of carbon.

Wrangy · Jul 12, 2014

Excellent, it's good to hear you've found the cause! And it's great news that the blenny is still kicking too :) Hopefully he makes a full recovery!

Now just to keep an eye on the tank and get it back on track and you can start stocking again! Have you test ammonia, nitrite and nitrates at all? I'd keep an eye on them but hopefully because you caught it so quickly there has been minimal pollution

Rob · Jul 12, 2014

I would put a small amount of carbon in there to try and scrub any crap out of the water. Even if you just did it passive in a bag in your sump.

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

Yeah, done the usual testing. Nitrates are super low which is nice. Just the contaminants really.

holly · Jul 12, 2014

Sorry to hear about your fishies :(
Best of luck to the blenny!

Neillw · Jul 12, 2014

That is just terrible,
Sorry to hear about your fish. :(

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

I've chucked in some poly filter and activated carbon. See how it goes. The smell is going down considerably.

Sam Parker · Jul 12, 2014

So sorry to hear :(

MagicJ · Jul 12, 2014

What did you find wrong with the pump?

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

MagicJ said:
What did you find wrong with the pump?

The wavemaker just smelled burnt and had all this black stuff pouring out of it when i pulled it out of the water. It was horrible.

Going to give it a bit of a hit with a hammer and get to the internal parts. See what went wrong.

Darkspartan · Jul 12, 2014

Darkspartan said:
The wavemaker just smelled burnt and had all this black stuff pouring out of it when i pulled it out of the water. It was horrible.

Going to give it a bit of a hit with a hammer and get to the internal parts. See what went wrong.

Everything else seemed fine. the corals are abit upset but all the snails, crabs, cucumber etc are fine.

ezza · Jul 13, 2014

:( I am heartbroken for you :( What a terrible thing to happen.

Do you have a safety switch / circuit breaker attached to your fuse box or power board? Perhaps consider getting one or one of those earthing rods reef secrets advertise all the time. It's probably a good time for all of us to assess the safety of our electrical equipment. If you're buying electricals online or from overseas, check it has the CE mark on it, this means it's been certified for sale into European and Australian markets based on safety regulations. There were news reports recently about a woman who killed when she was electrocuted by her phone charger as it was a cheap unregulated product.

Take care and best of luck for the remaining stock and reestablishment.

Darkspartan · Jul 13, 2014

ezza said:
:( I am heartbroken for you :( What a terrible thing to happen.

Do you have a safety switch / circuit breaker attached to your fuse box or power board? Perhaps consider getting one or one of those earthing rods reef secrets advertise all the time. It's probably a good time for all of us to assess the safety of our electrical equipment. If you're buying electricals online or from overseas, check it has the CE mark on it, this means it's been certified for sale into European and Australian markets based on safety regulations. There were news reports recently about a woman who killed when she was electrocuted by her phone charger as it was a cheap unregulated product.

Take care and best of luck for the remaining stock and reestablishment.

Thank you for the kind words.

This was a whole other ball game. The wavemaker melted inside the tank and just spewed out chemicals. I'm thinking that the chemicals bound the O2 or released large amounts of CO or CO2. It sucked out all the oxygen. The blenny recovered very quickly in clean water.

Besides the electrical lesson, another is always have a few Litres of fresh salt water and GAC laying around. Just for those moments when your tank becomes a toxic nightmare.

Though I must appreciate that reefing for 3 or so years now, I didn't just panic and calmly worked it out. I remember when I first had a major tank crash and freaked out! haha

VaultBoy · Jul 13, 2014

Darkspartan said:
Though I must appreciate that reefing for 3 or so years now, I didn't just panic and calmly worked it out.

A great lesson can be learnt here! Being calm and prepared has solved more problems than freaking out.

Sorry for the losses but I hope you get it back up and running soon.