HELP!!! Huge disaster!!!

[goldie]

OMG. My 3 year old daughter dumped an entire can of flake food into my 33 gallon tank when I wasn't watching. There is fish food everywhere!!! What do I do. I've only had this going for 3 months and I will de devistated if I have to start over. I have siphoned out 75%of the water with as much food as possible. I set up my fluval(wasn't using it before) and am going to be running lots of carbon. How often should I change out the carbon for new? I guess I will do 2x a week water changes until things get back to normal...unless you think I should do more often? Should I try to set up a temp tank in a rubbermaid with just a heater and a powerhead...or shoul I leave everything in? I have 5 fish and about 5 corals(softies and LPS) Realisticly what are my chances? I am so sad.

[Snappy]

If you siphoned out the extra food and did a big wc you should be fine. Just keep an eye on things and do another wc in a few days.

[Whatigot]

totally snappy...
no need to panic, just keep an eye on things and if you see murky water, algae outbreaks or anything out of the ordinary, do 10-20% water changes.
repeat as necessary.

[Chin_Lee]

I suggest:
- keep the lights off to prevent any algae bloom.
- siphon the substrate and the rocks again with gravel cleaner and just put the cleaner close enough to lift the top layer of the sand which would lift up all the lighter flake food
- do another water change
- change the carbon after 4-5 days

and you should be good to go. Your softies and LPS would probably appreciate the extra nutrients for a little bit but unfortunately it also promotes algae bloom. The above recommendations should minimize it.

[goldie]

how long should I keep the lights off for? I don't want algae but I want to keep my corals alive too. Thanks

[steve fedyk]

Keep some new water on hand just in case something gose wrong.
You did everything right in my books.

[skylord]

First...take a deep breath and relax. Your first moves were good. Follow Chins advice (most of the others said the same things). Check your nitrate and phosphate levels. Those levels would help decide how long a period you might want to leave the lights out (if at all....with your first actions you may have got a lot more food out than anyone realizes).

Next...teach your child the finer points of reef keeping, like having to clean the skimmer cup when you over feed....

My 2 1/2 yr old grandson keep throwing toys at the tank and every once in awhile got one in. 3 days of helping me clean skimmer cups and he decided toys in the fish tank wasn't fun anymore.

Scott