My Tank crash - Hopefully you can learn from my experience :(

[Animal-Chin]

Originally Posted by loumaggs

I'm far from a scientist but I enjoy making the videos... which is why I do it.

I actually have a learning difficulty which is why I speak slightly slowly, one of the reasons I started doing the channel was for that (I'm improving compared to my first videos you'll notice)

Would have never noticed, you speak very well in your videos.

We all go through ups and downs in this hobby. I've seen guys with full flourishing sps reefs make a mistake and crash the whole thing losing a fortune in coral. If its something you love, ya just gotta keep on going. If I were you, I'd re aquascape first. Make your tank look different than when it crashed like a fresh start sort of thing. Then go slowly from there bringing in new favorite fish!

[ComfortablyNumb]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Not only was your tank reasonably heavily stocked, the fish you kept were mostly large tangs and other species that require heavily oxygenated waters to thrive. Once circulation was lost, these large tangs would have been the first to go and then it would have been a cumulative effect in a very negative way since each death would have depleted the oxygen level even faster and create a dead zone at the bottom layer of water, which is of course where the living fish would settle to conserve energy (Murphy's Law at work). Without the energy to stay near the surface, those fish would have been the next to succumb to oxygen deprivation. This is my theory of what happened in your tank.

Anthony

Here's a vid of a friend's tank (Cabinetman) who posted earlier in this thread. This tank went without power for over a half a day and its full of big tangs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PEHCTBfDXQ

From his post on pg 2: "Something ain't right. I don't doubt she had a mass die off but I don't thing 4 hours without power did it. I've got 3 times the bioload and I've had power go out for half a day before and I lost nothing. Id like to know what really happened."


I don't think o2 levels drop that fast to fatal levels (1 hour or so as OP claims) when this tank went over 12 hrs with no
fatalities.

[rsisvixen]

From the speed of the tank crash I can only guess that even though all looked well that the tank was red lining on Dissolved oxygen content already and the power out pushed it over the edge.

I didn't hear a mention of a protein skimmer, and maybe surface agitation wasn't sufficient to maintain high enough levels of dissolved oxygen for the amount of bioload to sustain them once circulation stopped.

Although the bacteria would have been the last thing to die rather than the first, and probably via ammonia spike rather than lower lvl's of oxygen

[Dearth]

Every tank reacts differently it depends on so many factors like how much live rock, how stocked is the tank, how many high maintenance corals and fish are there, how easily do they become stressed and so on. All that factors in

Remember just because one tank will do well with no power for 12 hours does not mean every tank will react in the same way some do well others can crash in a matter of hours

I learned very early on in this hobby there is no such thing as standard or baseline everything involved in this hobby is a guideline there is nothing standard in this hobby at all and it is something that too many people in the hobby forget.

My personal opinion is that people here are disbelieving because loumaggs posted the video and didn't follow up and are less inclined to believe her story and that the fact she is on so many sites which by the way doesn't bother me but aparantly it bothers a lot of people but each to their own

[Myka]

Lack of oxygen is really the only thing that will kill that fast in a power outage.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Heat could have killed the fish too. Poisoning is also a possibility. Over-dosing meds or additives also. To say 02 deprivation is the only possible source is short-sighted in my view.

I know some tanks are different than others, but the same laws of physics and chemistry apply to all. I have never heard of any reef tank failing due to oxygen deprivation in such a short period of time as the OP surmises. It doesn't make any sense given the vast bulk of evidence indicating otherwise from practical experience by well experienced keepers here and elsewhere.

[ComfortablyNumb]

My own experience also indicates the stated cause is "fishy". I had a tank go almost 2 full days without power... with one minor loss of a fish that wasn't doing that well anyway. All other inhabitants lived, although 3 of the 14 later got ich. The temp in the tank dropped a few degrees (which actually assists with o2 uptake) while I had a blanket over it for about 40 hrs. A dark tank, as presumably the OP's tank was as the claimed outage happened at night, would also use up less o2 due to the relative inactivity of the fish.

My apologies...but colour me sceptical.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by ComfortablyNumb

Heat could have killed the fish too. Poisoning is also a possibility. Over-dosing meds or additives also. To say 02 deprivation is the only possible source is short-sighted in my view.

I know some tanks are different than others, but the same laws of physics and chemistry apply to all. I have never heard of any reef tank failing due to oxygen deprivation in such a short period of time as the OP surmises. It doesn't make any sense given the vast bulk of evidence indicating otherwise from practical experience by well experienced keepers here and elsewhere.

Why would there be poisoning or over-dosing meds or additives in a power outage??? As things start dying from lack of oxygen, their deaths will obviously create a snowball effect, but it's the lack of oxygen that is the primary cause in power outages in tanks that size, with that many fish, at this time of year (they have the same seasons as us in England). Heat wouldn't have changed that fast in a tank that size at this time of year. Anthony provided evidence of lack of oxygen. I've seen it happen within hours - several examples actually. It's really not that uncommon.

I don't think the "beneficial bacteria" loumaggs talks about would have been any significant contributing factor at only the 1 hour mark as she describes in her video though.

[Myka]

For those interested, Denny (reefwars) lost his tank in a power outage in Calgary recently too.

Also, here at Canreef it seems us "friendly Canadians" are the only ones that seem to be acting so "unfriendly" to loumaggs.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2579672

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/marin...rience-173993/

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-...rience.248900/

[IanWR]

I don't think scepticism is the same as unfriendliness.

In court there is a concept of clean hands. Those plaintiffs that don't play by the rules are treated differently than honest people seeking help. In this case the OP did not come to share an experience, seek advice, establish relationships, etc. She came here as a business person to advertise her business. When other non vendor businesses are linked to, the mods delete the link. I imagine if a non vendor business started posts like this, the posts would be deleted and the account banned.

That is my issue with the OP. If a fellow hobbyist shared a bad experience (eg tang they kept in a 40g died)they would get support, advice, possible criticism of a poor stocking choice. If some reef store posted about how they recommend tangs for 40g tanks they would be excoriated. Businesses are held to a higher standard than your average joe, since we expect them to know what they are doing.

The OP posted a commercial video containing erroneous information (your BB dies after an hour without power), crappy advice (tear your rock work apart to remove a fish body), and manipulation (poor me may not have the funds to continue, stay tuned to my channel to hear, links to direct cash asks). She deserves to be held to a higher standard of scrutiny, and held to the same rules as other businesses. Otherwise, let Denny back and allow him make posts sharing some neat new zoa, with a link to his site (for example).