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Whole Tank Wipeout Discussion
Ever had a whole-tank wipeout, losing all or most of your livestock in one event?
The CORAL Magazine Reader Survey
RESULTS TO DATE
1. Have you ever lost all or most of your livestock in a single event?
YES 60.5%
NO 23.6%
ALMOST 15.7%
2. What was the cause of the event?
Human Error 21.2%
Power Failure 15.1%
Mechanical Failure - Heater 9.0%
Poisoning - Overdose of Aquarium Supplement 6.0%
Poisoning - Household Chemical 6.0%
Disease - Cryptocaryon 6.0%
Aquarium Catastrophic Leak 3.0%
Disease - Amyloodinium 3.0%
Other (see below) 30.3%
3. What lesson did you learn from the experience? Do you have any advice to others?
A few interesting responses:
Poisoning - reef inhabitant induced
This was a case of ALMOST. it was a rather rapid event that manifested itself over a period of 2 days without an opportunity to view the tank, otherwise it might have at least partially been avoided
Details: I had a long-spined sea urchin that apparently ate through the insulating layer of the power cord to a power head used for circulation in the tank. As a result there was exposed copper which dissolved in the tank and resulted in the loss of most invertebrates, including the offending urchin. Only a few mushroom corals, gorgonians and other hardy cnidarians were saved. All snails, echinoderms, anemones (exept the few Aiptasia present), crustaceans and other miscellaneous inverts died. Some featherdusters and other worms also survived.
Lessons learned: Never allow a power cord to any electrical device be fully exposed to where a Urchin can have access to it. The copper exposure must have been limited enough to avoid it penetrating the rocks, because after utilization of cuprisorb and and polyfilter for a two week period, I was able to reintroduce gradually inverts and within a couple of months everything was pretty well back to normal. The rocks with mushrooms that were never removed, showed rapid recovery wtihin less than a week.
—Richard Crowell
Poisoning - Household Chemical
Details: Seafood: shrimp and squid purchased via a retail seafood store was soaked in chlorine bleach. This occurred in early 1970's. years before decent fishfoods existed.
Lessons learned: Always dechlorinate any seafoods purchased through seafood stores. The level of chlorine that will destroy biological filtration is not detectable by smell i.e. < 1.0 mg/L
Test any clams, shrimp, squid or fish purchased via seafood stores.
— Kenneth Howery
Poisoning - Overdose of Aquarium Supplement
Details: This event was approximately 15 years ago, so safe to say it was basically a "fish only" tank. The tank had been established for approx. 10 years and one of the damsels had been there from day one.
The poisoning occurred due to a simple cleaning sponge mix-up.
Lessons learned: I became much more paranoid about ANYTHING that went in that tank. Now I buy funky orange sponges specifically for the aquariums and NEVER use them for anything else !!!
—Kevin Blakely
Human Error
Details: I turned a power strip off that housed powerheads as well as heaters to feed my tank, forgot to turn it back on and had a cold night with the windows down killing everything in the tank minus a yellow tang.
Lessons learned: Pay attention to details-both minor and major. My loss of life is almost always attributed to one of two things-neglecting details or purchasing poor livestock.
—Nicolas Sadaka
Power failure
Details: Lost all of my SPS, most of my fish. was able to save a few soft corals.
My backup air pumps worked for several hours, but the tank became too cold. I was not home. Ugh. It still hurts to think about....
Lessons learned: I try to have someone check on the tank if I am going to be away for more than 48 hours. But even then, it is not foolproof . .
—Paula Obuchon
Mechanical Failure - Heater
Details: While i away on vacation, the heater stuck on.
Lessons learned: I now use digital controllers on all systems.
—Guy M
#1 Disease - Cryptocaryon
#2 Poisoning - Aquarium Medication
Details: Whole tank wipeouts? Yes and Yes.
#1: 260-gallon reef tank got Crypto from introducing a new tang without QT (quarantine).
#2: Emptied tank to remove fish and treat with copper in a 100-gallon stock tub with established wet/dry filter. (Copper killed the biological filter.) Lost 8 of ten fish. The cure was worse than the sickness. My lionfish was almost 15 years old.
Lessons learned: QT. Always. Now i would never put sick fish through that stress. i would increase feedings and try food additives to help the fish recover on their own.
—John Hildebrand
Human Error - Mechanical Failure
Details: First case - Deep sand bed disturbed in combination with "reef safe" antibiotics.
On a separate occasion, I was away at university and my calcium reactor malfunctioned.
Lessons learned: My advice to others would be to keep a separate "frag" tank for your favourite coral specimens. It is well worth the cost to know you always have more to propagate.
—Jeff Strohm
Human Error
Details: Because I was not at home for weeks at a time and had my friend taking care of my aquarium, I did a 30% water change to clear up the nano tank and did not get the RO/DI water up to the temperature needed.
Needless to say, when I returned home, most everything was beyond saving. This was entirely my fault. Thank goodness, my friend was able to save three of my fish by putting them in another reef tank. Human Error (Use free space to explain)
Provide additional comments below: cscs See above
Lessons learned: Do not be in such a hurry to correct a problem and take shortcuts. Do it right the first time. It saves a lot of heartache.
—Donna Marietta
Poisoning - Sea Apple
Poisoning - Overdosing Aquarium Medication
Details: Had wipeouts in a well established 75-gal reef and a 30-gal nano reef, on two separate occasions!
Sea apple got the 30. Between me and my sig other, we chemically overdosed the 75 with meds trying to save a Coral Beauty! Neither of us knew the other was dosing it...
Lessons learned: No more sea apples... only ONE of us will dose our tank with meds!!! Communications are standard for us now!!
—Karl Courson
#1 Poisoning
#2 Mechanical Failure
Details: These were ALMOST wipeout events. Twice.
#1: A nickel in the tank. I guess this falls into human error although I assume the nickel was put in by a visiting child on purpose. I caught it in time to save most of my livestock through water changes metal remover media and Nitra-Max.
#2: A small LED light fell into the tank one night.
Lessons learned: Use Marine Velcro instead of regular heavy-duty, and keep the acrylic shield/cover in place. Pay attention to your tank so you notice when things don't look right. Take immediate action.
—Jaqueline Kalionzes
Human Error - Overfeeding and Overdosing
Details: I lost all of my coral and a couple fish in the beginning of my experience with reef tanks. I did not understand water chemistery. I am not sure what I did wrong but it was for sure wrong. If I had to guess, it was salinity not being stable or temps or both with a combination of turning my water into chemical soup. My phosphates were too high, like .5ppm-1.00ppm, and I tried everything on the market to get them down.. I was overfeeding and not skimming enough.
I did not understand how to purchace livestock or take care of them properly.
Lessons learned: Take things slowly with saltwater. With a new tank, when you think it's time to add a fish give it anouther two weeks. It won't hurt.
READ READ READ everything you can on water chemistry and how to keep a tank stable, and when you think you've got it, you most likely don't, so read some more. Don't be afraid to ask questions, even if you think they are dumb. I still don't understand half of the stuff out there, but I still keep on reading and learning.
Research everything you want before you buy it. It is not fair to bring something home that you don't know how to properly care fcr. I try to give my creatures the closest thing to nature that I can.
—Howard Thomas