Livestock dead following power loss

[Duke4Life]

Correct me if I'm wrong Ken, all corals still look fine? You said you cleaned in the sink, anyway some tap water (if used was left in), possible chlorine poisoning?

 

[Duke4Life]

Just trying to think here.

 

[Congaken]

Correct me if I'm wrong Ken, all corals still look fine? You said you cleaned in the sink, anyway some tap water (if used was left in), possible chlorine poisoning?

Thanks...we have no chlorine...just excellent well water...yeah, the corals look OK...several are new since Sunday and I just glued them up yesterday...

 

[Congaken]

Sometimes you can get hit with a mini-cycle (for various reasons) where the ammonia spike is brief but still long enough to harm your animals. However, if the water turned cloudy while the power was off that would also suggest a bacteria bloom was taking place inside the tank. The bacteria would consume all the O2, and your animals would start suffocating to death.

You can try raising the pH by doing WCs, but it's probably going to take A LOT to get the pH north of 8.0 if it's all the way down to 7.5.

The only wild card here is what happened to Chucky yesterday...I cleaned the tank, epoxied rock and new corals...cleaned pumps...no problems to notice except I should have checked the pH before putting him in...perhaps the bloom spiked CO2 when the O2 was gone...and left me with low pH??...Does that make any sense?...Again, thanks for all of your concern (and others) and time trying to figure this out...

 

[WVReefJunkie]

What are you using to measure ph?

 

[WVReefJunkie]

What was your nitrate reading? That would explain the skimmer pulling hard, did you clean the sandbed also?

 

[Humblefish]

The only wild card here is what happened to Chucky yesterday...I cleaned the tank, epoxied rock and new corals...cleaned pumps...no problems to notice except I should have checked the pH before putting him in...perhaps the bloom spiked CO2 when the O2 was gone...and left me with low pH??...Does that make any sense?...Again, thanks for all of your concern (and others) and time trying to figure this out...

About Chucky ... He was still in QT when the power went out, correct? How was he looking in QT?

Because from what I remember reading he didn't go downhill until after you put him in the DT. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[omykiss001]

Just a thought as I didn't see the values posted and because all your inverts are OK makes me think a difference between the QT environment and the DT. Was the salinity of the QT and DT the same? If the QT tank was much lower than your DT could have causes osmotic shock to the fish, but it would have to be quite different. Same question on pH you said DT was down to 7.5 what was the QT? What kind of acclimation did you do when moving from QT to DT, how long did you do it for? This is a real head scratcher

 

[Congaken]

Just a thought as I didn't see the values posted and because all your inverts are OK makes me think a difference between the QT environment and the DT. Was the salinity of the QT and DT the same? If the QT tank was much lower than your DT could have causes osmotic shock to the fish, but it would have to be quite different. Same question on pH you said DT was down to 7.5 what was the QT? What kind of acclimation did you do when moving from QT to DT, how long did you do it for? This is a real head scratcher

The salinity and temp. were exactly the same...pH is another story...I didn't check before I moved the chalk bass...stupid...but that doesn't account for the losses in the DT the night before when power went out...what I'm hearing is that the lack of O2 caused deaths, the pH dropped, and an algae bloom ( without the power) spiked and took the last of the O2...something like that...am in the process of upping the pH using Humblefish's technique of baking baking soda...Thanks..I'm learning...

 

[omykiss001]

The salinity and temp. were exactly the same...pH is another story...I didn't check before I moved the chalk bass...stupid...but that doesn't account for the losses in the DT the night before when power went out...what I'm hearing is that the lack of O2 caused deaths, the pH dropped, and an algae bloom ( without the power) spiked and took the last of the O2...something like that...am in the process of upping the pH using Humblefish's technique of baking baking soda...Thanks..I'm learning...

OK so you lost some animals that were in the DT not in QT and were fine until power was lost. I thought the loses were on transfer. I suppose it could be O2 depletion. When you put the fish from QT did it swim for a bit then die, or pretty much belly up as soon as it hit the water? Sounds like you put chucky in the next day after power was returned? If the pumps were going and there was surface agitation and or your skimmer also running unless unless the bloom of bacteria was very thick I would imagine O2 was not an issue at least for that guy, still very strange.

 

[Congaken]

OK so you lost some animals that were in the DT not in QT and were fine until power was lost. I thought the loses were on transfer. I suppose it could be O2 depletion. When you put the fish from QT did it swim for a bit then die, or pretty much belly up as soon as it hit the water? Sounds like you put chucky in the next day after power was returned? If the pumps were going and there was surface agitation and or your skimmer also running unless unless the bloom of bacteria was very thick I would imagine O2 was not an issue at least for that guy, still very strange.

He went right for the rock...couldn't see him...came out on his back...I'm pretty sure that it was the pH crash ( to 7.6) that did it for Chucky...its anybody's guess exactly why that happened, but it was my fault for not checking that night...I checked salinity, I was exhausted and stressed to the max after the DT losses...just didn't check pH ...I'm learning, but costly mistake...mostly emotional...but not giving up!

 

[Congaken]

What was your nitrate reading? That would explain the skimmer pulling hard, did you clean the sandbed also?

Nitrate today is 0...using AP I kits...I know that they aren't the most accurate, but I think OK, especially for pH...