TANK CRASH

[kj-1]

does anybody know any special things to do after a high teperature induced crash? the temp was 95 f. yes i know about a chiller. i will be getting one shortly. i found that a RIO pump leaked and heated up. i was very fortunate to have had my grounding probe in.

 

[reefann]

What are some of the inhabitants? Are they all dead? Has the temp been brought back down, and how long was it high? Was it caused by a heater or ambient room temp? Did the Rio leech any of the sealing epoxy. Knowing what I do already I would say A few large water changes.
JJ
_________________
Spyder VS2
_________________
Honda XL175

 

[kj-1]

inhabitants: a couple open brains,candy cant coral, many mushrooms, polyps, red and blue leg hermits, snails, varieties of calurpa and a few chromis. no leakage from pump. temp was brought down. temp was up for around 6 hourd that i can tell. it was fine in the morning and when i came home ~9 hours later temp was at 95.0. the pump was actually causing the heat. when i removed it the pump was probibly 100+ F. it looks like all of the calurpa is dieing. the brains have "shed" (i hope they make it) and look o.k. 1 chromis died. all mushrooms and polyps have closed since the high temp. some hermits and all copids have seem to die. the candy cane has "shrunk (i don't think it will make it).

 

[Anonymous]

run some fans over the top to induce evaporation. Throw a bunch of ice in some ziplock bags and throw in your tank. The higher heat is going to reduce available oxygen for your fish. Turn on an airpump to get some oxygen in there.

Throw some carbon in your sump to remove pollutants. If you have a hospital tank, move your remaining live critters. (float them in bags to acclimate them to the lower temp)

 

[panmanmatt]

i experienced the same problem recently only mine was caused by a faulty fan in my MH hood. i just removed the door on my hood and used a fan to blow cool air across the tank. my shrooms and candy canes shrunk up for a couple days but then returned to normal. good luck and sorry for your losses, i know it is heartbreaking. keep us posted on how you make out.

 

[reefland]

I had this recently happen as well. After the northeast power outage, the next day I found the tank at 96*F. The heating knob on the PRO-WON II heater was cranked! I don't know if my 3 year old daughter did it or if perhaps I did it fumbling in the dark the night before.

In any case, I used floating ice in bags and freeze packs to drop the temp rapidly a few degrees. lower temps = more oxygen. I have a box of 24 freeze packs dedicate to the tank use -- just in case. (clearance sale). And they came in handy.

Once the temperature was below 90 I just used large fans to do slower evaporative cooling.

Then did a 40% water change that night.

I lost a brittle star and my anthias. Tangs, clowns & anemone, other stars and cukes did fine.

 

[kj-1]

well, the tank is stablizing. one brain has completely recovered and the other looks well. mushrooms and polyps are still closed, not sure why.... all tests are excellent. my losses are: several red and blue leg hermits, 2 green chromis, all visual copods, all tube worms that i can see, many if not all bristle worms, snails, all of the macro algae except coraline and i don't think the candycane will make it either.
the survivors: 2 beutiful open brains, a few hermits, a sally lightfoot, many mushrooms and many polyps. and sinch my water tests look great... i think my sand bed and rock are ok also.
i have had a couple of crashes in the last 7 years but this is the second this year. the first was from LFS fish that died while i was at work. and now a pump boiling the water. i was just about ready to re stock before this happened. lucky for me and the inhabitants i did not.
I am expecting a new chiller in next week, to avoid this type of crash again. a healthy reef i will have again!

 

[reefland]

Don't put to much faith in chillers. They have issues as well in the probes and switches. It's not uncommon to hear about chiller failures and tank crashes as well.