Semi disaster in my tank

[Octupus]

good evening fellow reefers,
my heater misfunctioned and the temperature of the water was in the mid 90s i immediately did a water change and brought the water temp down to the 80s and i hope it continues to go down... the casualties were my shrimps the fish are fine but my biggest concern is the corals. They have shrunk in. They used to be very healthy. Do you think i will lose my corals? the clam seems ok... i am hoping they can pull through this. Thanks for any advice.

 

[gas4544]

What is your current temp? And what temp is normal for your tank? What size is your tank?

Gary

 

[returnofsid]

Unfortunately, there is a good chance that you'll lose some or all of your corals. It'll depend on how high the temp got, how long it was that high, how healthy they were to begin with, how good your current water quality is...etc. I hope the best for you!! We recently had someone here in Spokane who had a similar mishap. I believe she lost all of her Acropora and most of her other SPS. I think her LPS and soft corals survived, as did all of her clams. You might think about posting this in Kevin's SPS forum for further advice.

 

[gas4544]

Sid,

I imagine that while bringing the temperature down is first priority, keeping other parameters stable such as pH and alkilinity stable is important as well. The coral are stressed out enough as it is without throwing off other parameters with potentially big water changes.

To bring down temperature, you can float ziplok bags ice in teh sump or tank. You can also set up a fan to blow across the surface of the water to promote evaporative cooling.

Gary

 

[returnofsid]

Gary, I'd agree. Also, corals are more able to handle increases in temp, than they are decreases. A sudden decrease in temp might even be more stressful on them than a slow increase that goes too high.

Another problem with higher temps is oxygenation. As Saltwater gets warmer, it holds less oxygen...which will cause lack of oxygen to inhabitants, making them work harder to "breath." Yes, even corals "breath." The lower oxygenation will also cause a drastic drop in pH.

 

[Octupus]

it is a 180gallon. The usual temperature was around 78. i am going to float some ice bags in the sump hoping htat would help. thank you!

 

[gas4544]

After you work throught this emergency, it may be time to get a Ranco temperature controller if you are not already running a controller of some kind.

Malfunctioning heaters have terrorized many of reefers before.

I just purchased a dual stage Ranco controller and am I am in the process right now of buying a Ranco single stage controller for our second tank.

Gary

 

[Holygral]

Second on the dual stage Ranco controller, if you heater malfunctions, the controller will shut off the power to the heater and turn on your fans, I had the same thing happen about a years ago. I also keep 2 heaters hooked up to the Ranco.

 

[Octupus]

THank you will definitely get the controller. THe tank is slowly recovering but my corals are not there yet... in particular my hammer head and frogspawn.. they used to over the tank and now all shrunk in. i hope they pull through.. my RBTA, xenia, montipora are fine... my shrimps are RIP the fish are fine.

Any suggestion on where to get the temp controller?

 

[vwmoneypit]

yep i set up a tank for a friend 110 and the heater went straight to 91 in three days time..He says he was busy didnt see it ..we lost everything ..SO yes do what i did from the begining .GET A CONTROLLER..remember all a heater is ,is a dead short of electricity to a wound wire.been around as long as kooked fish..not the best reliabilty!

 

[gas4544]

Octopus,

How is your tank doing?

Gary

 

[Octupus]

Hi Gary!
Thanks for checking on me. The temperature is now back to 78.. fish are very well. The casualties are my shrimps all of them 3 cleaner and 1 fire blood... i had a sexy shrimp but i have not seen him for few days so he may have been goner a while back. My RBTA are doing well.. but the hammer and the frogspawn are shrunk and i am afraid they may be dying so i dont know if i should pull them out. They were very healthy and covering a big chunk of the tank. I am definitely buying a controller but bad news come in 3s.. i just found out that i am losing my job so I hope this is the end of the bad news.