My first tank crash
 

My wife ran into the bedroom last night and yelled, "Come and look at the fish tank, the fishes are dropping off to the bottom like airplanes being shot out of the sky!". I raced to the tank and saw most of my fishes are lying on the sand bed, breathing heavily. The water looked a bit cloudy but not too much to be concerned about. I looked around the tank to see if one of my anenomes has committed suicide like one of the threads I've read on here. I finally found the problem in my sump tank. The water was cloudy and full of white foam. I was like, what the heck... foam?? Then I saw an empty Johnson baby shampoo bottle and knew what just happened. My three year old son has decided to give daddy little fishes a bath like the one he gets daily. :sad:
I did a water change (70%), changed the filter and carbon. I plan to do another water change maybe tomorrow. I performed some tests on the water this morning and all the parameters are back to the level they were pre-crash. Half of my fishes died but the corals seem to be doing fine.
Has anybody had a similar experience before? What else do I need to do? Should I remove my corals and the rest of the fishes and wait a week or two before putting them back into the tank? The fishes that survive are eating and breathing normal (except for the yellow tang but I think he's recovering). The corals are opening up and showing their colors well.

Soap residue can be hard to get rid of. Thankfully it was johnsons which rinses ok. I would scrub glass and equip to pull residue off before water change. Haha. Kids are awesome. Good luck

I guess you have room for that purple tang now.

Sounds like your bases are covered. That's exactly what I would do.

Titus,
Yeah, good thing he's my kid. I can still have a little bit of laugh thinking about it. I almost bursted out laughing seeing his face expression when I asked him about the shampoo bottle. I had to pretend being mad, otherwise he would do it again.
And yes, I now do have the room for the purple tang. It's in transit last time I checked. Unfortunately, my favorite fish didn't make it either so I would need to get a replacement in the near future. The Naso tang did survive, along with the clown fishes and fire fishes.

PS Anybody has a red sea sailfin tang or flame angel for sale?

My daughter decided to feed our cichlid tank one day. A hole can of flake and a can of pellets. Lol couldn't figure out for the life of me why the water was so gross. Then I found m t containers in the recycle. Haha. Now she's aloud to feed as long as I'm there.

That's rough. My son has done a few things as well, hotwheels in the sump, helping to clean out cheato, pulled a reactor hose out and drained 25 gallons onto the floor..... One of the best investments for my tank has been childproofing it.

If you have a quarantine tank I would move the fish to that tank and do a complete scrub down and start over. Soap is hard to get rid of. Some of the fish could still die in the days that follow.

it must be the week of three year olds. Mine decided to add a whole handful of kitty litter to the tank a few days ago. Thankfully it's corncob litter and i walked in just after so i got the python out immediately.

Kids!
Sorry to hear about your fish, Oilers.
I am SOOO glad that mine are lots older now. They used to do lots of silly stuff, too, just not to such an expensive tank.
I'd change more water soon to dilute the water further, and change out the carbon as well, to catch the last of the soap.
Supposedly, Johnson's baby shampoo isn't as bad as, say, others, but still...
Good luck!
Lenny.

i wouldnt think running a second skimmer would hurt if you have an extra one kicking around. sorry to hear about your tank bro:) good luck

Last spring my 3 yr old dumped 5-6 kleenexes into the tank. Gummed up the power heads and return pump. No real damage.

Oh no!!!! Hope all turns out ok.

Yikes!! And my husband can't understand why I want to put a lock on the door to the fishroom :rolleyes:

I hope everything turns out ok. Keep up with the waterchanges.

Good luck.

My 3 years old (Felicia) knows not to mess with daddy's tanks and she helps feed the fish (small amounts of pellets, fd shrimp & basting tubefuls of frzn mysis since she was 2) daily. She's even helped with 3 water changes so far.

I would try to show your son what he can & can't do around the tanks. Hopefully this is a one time accident. It sounds like you're taking the right steps to clear up the problems.

Now I have to worry about training Isabella (only 4 months old) the same tank-safety lessons.

Anthony

How awful! :sad: Keep up with the water changes and give the equipment a vinegar bath and keep a close eye on things

so much for no more tears!!... sorry couldnt help myself
Hope it turns out OK
VR

eeeek!.....sorry to hear David......what all did you loose?

OMG David!!! How is the tank doing now. Hate to ask this but is the Naso ok?

haha I totally was going to insert a no more tears joke

(I thought it was supposed to stop tears not create them)

:mrgreen:

Sorry to hear about the tank, I like the teaching the Do's and Don'ts of a fish tank.

I hope everything turns out well. Good Luck.

I lost my sailfin tang, regal tang, flame angel, copperband butterfly and coral beauty. The naso tang is doing extremely well. He and the foxface are the only fishes that were able to swim through the whole ordeal, just hyperventilating. I was surprised to see how hardy both of them were.
Of all the fishes, the sailfin tang was my favorite because somebody gave it to me as a gift. Steve at Red Coral is a very kind person. He offers me one of his tanks at the store to use as a quarantine tank if I need one. He will also try to find me a replacement for the sailfin tang as soon as he can. Maybe he can offer it to me as a gift too :mrgreen: Thanks Steve.

vanreefer,
lol, that was funny. Thanks for the laugh :biggrin:

That is truly sad and devastating loss for sure. I will keep my eyes & ears open for some replacements for what you lost as well. I have a couple sailfins but my small one, which I rescued is slowly recovering from HLLE & the large one is huge waiting for my 300. Same with my Regals both almost 6" body only. I don't know if I could keep going if I lost all my livestock especially all my tangs.

Yes, losing a lot of fish all of a sudden, especially ones you had for years, can make you want to quit this addiction.

I have a 2 year old son, I also have my 200g seaworld locked in the basement. its not the crash that concerns me most of all, its him jumping in and trying to get "nemo" as he calls it so until I know for sure he understands me i keep him away from the basement. he can shampoo the dog instead. I certainly hope you can get all the soap out before you get an algae problem. have you got a green cheato in there? they tend to gobble up phospates. I really hope you dont have to do a dark cycle on your tank to keep algae blooms from appearing. good luck

Kids can drown in two inches of water. That would be my biggest concern also. Also all the chemicals we keep. Fish rooms definitely should be protected from young children or child proofed. I am surprised to not read more of these posts. I have often wondered about these overnight sudden tank crashes as being young child or animal related. Thanks for your honest post, sorry for your losses. Sounds like you have it under control. Maybe the mod should start a "do you child proof etc. "

I did another WC today (30%). Cleaned the sump tank and skimmer. Everything looks good. Hoping for the best :razz:

That's good to hear that thing look better. Sounds like you are in need of some locking doors, I put keyed locks on my cabinets not because I have little kids of my own but we have some little visitors & grand kids.