omg tank just blew out

Blowfish · #1 03-22-2009, 11:07 AM

wow saltwater and cream carpet not a good combo, got home today to quite the mess, lost all my fish

but i managed to get all my sps into my spare freshwater top off tank, they don't look so hot well they don't look good at all but we'll see.
So all i did was mix some new saltwater to parameters and popped a heater and my powerhead in there with the corals on egg crate or whats left of them, i didn't add rock into there fearing to cause an immediate cycle. i've got a mh over the small tank. My question is will this be ok to add corals to the a tank that hasn't cycled? i mean if i don't have live rock or livestock there shouldn't be a cycle right? i dunno i'm grasping at straws and hoping that this works just over my head right now. anyways don't know what else i could do at 2 in the morning other then breaking into a lfs and sneaking the corals into their tank. its going to take me some time to get a new tank prob a couple of weeks i plan on doing 100 percent water changes spread over ever 10 days, until i get a new setup and cycle that tank. Do you guys this will be ok???

Blowfish · #2 03-22-2009, 11:09 AM

by the way i did this all drunk coming home from the bar lol, so i guess if this might look retarded when i read this tomorrow.

MitchM · #3 03-22-2009, 12:42 PM

Yikes.
In an emergency like that, I would set up 2 SW tanks or buckets or whatever - 1 for all the live rock just to keep it wet and minimize die off, and 1 for your corals only, heated with a powerhead.
I would also consider using a product like Cycle in your coral setup. Your corals will cause an ammonia cycle because they are living animals, but they're small enough that hopefully it won't be too severe, used along with the Cycle product.

Good luck.

Mitch

fishytime · #4 03-22-2009, 02:24 PM

OMG!

Im soooo sorry to hear about your misfortune. I would offer up help if you were closer. +1 to what CR said. You will need some sort of biological filtration on the temporary holding tank. Add a couple pieces of LR, the ones that stayed the wettest or use a bottled bacteria. If you cant do that, then water changes every day...maybe not 100% though, try 20% and monitor for nitrate. Hope you dont loose any more stuff.

heyfredyourhat · #5 03-22-2009, 05:09 PM

Any idea what happened to make it pop? This gets the ball of "worry" rolling for me again!!!

Myka · #6 03-22-2009, 05:59 PM

Eep! That's not nice to come home from the bar to!! Hopefully you weren't enebriated enough to lack vertical motor skills.

I would say add a couple pieces of live rock to your coral tank if some of them stayed wet through the ordeal because you really need a source of bacteria in there. Surprise surprise corals are livestock! They eliminate waste just like fish do (well not quite like fish, but you get the point) so they will cause a cycle all on their own, so it's important for you to get some bacteria in there. I wouldn't put too much weight into the bottled products. Try it if you want, but I wouldn't rely on that as your only source. If all else fails, maybe you can borrow some cured rock from a friend's tank, or buy some from an LFS. You would only need say 1 lb for every 5 gallons of water you have just to get you by.

Blowfish · #7 03-23-2009, 02:17 AM

thanks for all the input guys, my buddy is coming over with some live rock and water from his system for me, hopefully it won't cause too much of a cycle. oh well i guess time to start all new again.

Blowfish · #8 03-23-2009, 02:18 AM

oh and carpenter the seam is what gave way it was an older tank about 3 years old and now that i think about it don't think it was the best quality (well i guess thats obvious now lol)

fishoholic · #9 03-23-2009, 02:22 AM

That sucks! sorry to hear. +1 on Myka's comments.

MitchM · #10 03-23-2009, 10:55 AM

Be careful if adding live rock to help cycle the coral tank.

If the live rock is exposed to the air for any length of time you will probably have sponges dieing off right away.
If the LR came from sitting on a sand bed, there could be some H2S absorbed into the submerged areas of the rock. Once the LR is fully exposed, that would be released immediately into the new water.

Mitch