When kids and fish tanks collide

[dtm2420]

Had a nice evening with the neighbors tonight… until I came inside to see my fish tank that is. The neighbors kid dumped 2 entire canisters of @ReefChasers reef candy coral food and an entire bottle of vibrant into a 20 gallon tank!

How did I notice you ask? I hear my tank overflowing from being so clogged. My surge protectors I have everything plugged into were sizzling. Had I been away any longer I am afraid the loss could have been worse than just a fish tank.

Of course this all happens on a night that I am almost completely out of water. Luckily I have one 5 gallon bucket of water left and an empty 5 gallon tank.

Question now is, my rocks, pumps, filters etc… will the vibrant mess with them or can I rinse and get started back up again? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

 

[dtm2420]

@tbrown3589

 

[dtm2420]

Just realized she dumped an entire container of reef roids in the tank too. Hope the corals were hungry tonight

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I would get that 5 gallon tank up and running as quickly as possible and move your corals and fish over there along with some of your rock.

After that I would do a 100% water change on the main tank as soon as you can get the water ready.

That much algaecide and food is likely to nuke your corals in short order if you don't get them out.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Party-time inside that tank!

(Actually, of course, I feel for you.) Anything expensive in there, either fish or corals?

 

[dtm2420]

Party-time inside that tank!

(Actually, of course, I feel for you.) Anything expensive in there, either fish or corals?

I would get that 5 gallon tank up and running as quickly as possible and move your corals and fish over there along with some of your rock.

After that I would do a 100% water change on the main tank as soon as you can get the water ready.

That much algaecide and food is likely to nuke your corals in short order if you don't get them out.

All fish and corals are moved to a 5 gallon for now. Not sure how long it was like this though. Hopefully i caught it in time

 

[dtm2420]

Party-time inside that tank!

(Actually, of course, I feel for you.) Anything expensive in there, either fish or corals?

I had 3 goni’s that I paid roughly $100 each for. That would be the most expensive in the tank.

 

[JumboShrimp]

They were (hopefully still are) beautiful. If you have limited room in another emergency tank, “triage” what is most near and dear to you.

 

[dtm2420]

They were (hopefully still are) beautiful. If you have limited room in another emergency tank, “triage” what is most near and dear to you.

They are slowly coming back out

 

[Spare time]

All fish and corals are moved to a 5 gallon for now. Not sure how long it was like this though. Hopefully i caught it in time

If you need to, you can use a bin from home depot or whatever to house the fish.

 

[Spare time]

After a 100% water change, I'd run an abundance of bituminous or rox carbon in a reactor if you can. I'd also siphon the sand bed and blast the rocks with a powerhead during all of this. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get some gfo too as I imagine those phosphates are going to spike up dramatically. I personally would add some bacterial mixes that would help consume that waste and minimize the amount of phosphate that gets absorbed by the rocks. The thing I'm worried about is the vibrant and extreme phosphate value that might occur.

 

[ScubaFish802]

I would think/hope since you caught it soon after the event, that the corals would of just had a really good feeding.. hopefully no ammonia etc.. spike

 

[fishguy242]

bummer, sorry to see
make sure you have plenty of air in holding tank.
hob w carbon would be ideal.

main tank , 100% water change asap.
let others chime in on sand , possibly complete tear down, rinse sand ,clean tank and eq. wiwd...

 

[ReefChasers]

Probably a few back to back 90% Changes will do it and a sand vac. I'm sure you got the corals out in time -- they can probably be fine if you just keep them at the right salt and temp for a few days in an alternate tank while you "Fix" the madness in the primary display.

Hope this works out for you!

 

[gbroadbridge]

Had a nice evening with the neighbors tonight… until I came inside to see my fish tank that is. The neighbors kid dumped 2 entire canisters of @ReefChasers reef candy coral food and an entire bottle of vibrant into a 20 gallon tank!

How did I notice you ask? I hear my tank overflowing from being so clogged. My surge protectors I have everything plugged into were sizzling. Had I been away any longer I am afraid the loss could have been worse than just a fish tank.

Of course this all happens on a night that I am almost completely out of water. Luckily I have one 5 gallon bucket of water left and an empty 5 gallon tank.

Question now is, my rocks, pumps, filters etc… will the vibrant mess with them or can I rinse and get started back up again? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

The biggest concern for coral welfare is the vibrant.

It's an algaecide. They will die unless you move them to new water - it may already be too late.

 

[i cant think]

They are slowly coming back out

As the corals are starting to come out more I’d say you got the incident in time and only a small amount of harm occurred.
I agree with the others in which a whole tank break down may need to happen. Possibly could get away with back to back 90% waterchanges.

 

[G Santana]

Sorry to hear, I hope you can save everything.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Well this sucks! I feel a bit awkward as I’m not so concerned about the tank, but more so about the kid. In this whole disaster could they have ingested, or had anything get into thier eyes? I don’t know how old they were but it sounds like very young. I know kids will be kids, but I’d freak out if my neighbors kid drank vibrant, ingested any chemicals, or chemicals burned thier eyes! Not to take away from your tank disaster or anything

 

[Dburr1014]

Had a nice evening with the neighbors tonight… until I came inside to see my fish tank that is. The neighbors kid dumped 2 entire canisters of @ReefChasers reef candy coral food and an entire bottle of vibrant into a 20 gallon tank!

How did I notice you ask? I hear my tank overflowing from being so clogged. My surge protectors I have everything plugged into were sizzling. Had I been away any longer I am afraid the loss could have been worse than just a fish tank.

Of course this all happens on a night that I am almost completely out of water. Luckily I have one 5 gallon bucket of water left and an empty 5 gallon tank.

Question now is, my rocks, pumps, filters etc… will the vibrant mess with them or can I rinse and get started back up again? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated

OMG, that is crazy. Hope you pull through okay.
You will probably be having a talk with the neighbors.
I don't let the grand kids touch my tank until I'm there and they know it. They love to feed them and watch the tank come alive.
Sorry op.

 

[Reefing102]

Sounds like the corals will survive. I concur with the water change and getting a few bacterial boosters like turbostart, Dr. Tim’s, etc. While getting it re-set up I’d consider small water changes on the emergency tank too