Hard to Forgive.....

[LRS078]

HELP!

Girlfriend (yeah she's done salty fish for more than a decade both professionally and as a passion) just f'ing nuked one of my 200's. She thought there was a problem with ick (there might/might not have been) and dosed with enough copper to re-plate the friggin statue of liberty. (didn't measure, squirted and guesstimated) Did it when I was at work....

By the time I came home ms junkie had laid waste to a ~200 gallon tank with the following inhabitants: Goldflake Angel, Queen Angel, French Angel, Red Coris, LM Blenny, Dogface Puffer, and a couple hundred pounds of live rock. Thus far the Goldflake and Queen are dead. Coris is MIA, puffer is huddled and panting, french isn't doing too bad considering. Blenny is 50/50...

She wasn't drunk, tired, mad (that I know of and IF she was the LAST thing she'd take it out on would be an animal of any kind), or anything other than careless and thought she knew best.

Only had enough spare salt on hand for 30 or so gallons so I had to run to Petco and drop almost $70 on a jug of instant ocean. Only thing I hate more than paying too much is paying too much at Petco but they were the only ones open with salt. Still a drop in a large bucket given the damage (haven't even BEGUN to figure the cost in dollars yet...)

Presently, I have about a 3 softballs worth of activated carbon in a filter sock, a massive dose of IO Prime, a fair amount of "stability", and a 50% water change later we are keeping our fingers crossed.

Near as I can tell the rock is toast, the remaining fish are very touchy, and the biological aspects of the nitrogen cycle are ****ed. Given the water change and additives (I know prime fubars test results) I can't really trust chemistry tests. They seem to indicate 8.1 ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, ~35 nitrates, temp never gets far from 79f, .020 sg. Seachem and Tetra test kits. Don't have a copper test kit anymore, wouldn't of dosed without one but ahem....

I'm in more than a little bit of shock and dismay. When the person who taught you almost all you know (not counting here, WWM crew, etc) about salty fish goes and does something so arrogant and bone headed your at a bit of a loss.

Only saving thing I can say is luckily I moved the big longhorn cowfish and my eldest dogface (they are bonded/best friends to each other) to a retirement/dedicated tank less than two weeks ago and as of this posting are doing fine.

To you other experts out there....what am I missing? Any steps I need to take I'm forgetting in the confusion of it all? Any ideas or hail mary's? Outside of close observation and another water change in 48 hours I'm tapped. Thoughts?

Anyone have a good plan for going forward for those critters that do make it? Sorry, still a bit mentally numb from the crash...

Thanks all,
Lee

[sean48183]

Sorry to hear about that man. Women can't live with them and can't shoot them. Just a thought but you might want to buy that copper remover stuff that's made by the same people that make amquel. It's like Novaqua or something.

[JamesJR]

First, get a new girlfriend. I could never forgive my girlfriend if she did that.

Next, try a heavy metal sponge. Kent marine makes it, is these really small beads you can throw in a mesh bag. They change color once they
can't absorb any more and then you can just recharge the beads and throw them back in the tank.

[Sk8r]

It was a mistake. We all make them. THis one was spectacular.

Carbon will help. Don't give up on your rock and sand: the dieoff may not have penetrated to the deeper levels of either if you can get the stuff cleared out asap---I admit there isn't too much of a chance, but if you can clear it out fast enough, the bacteria may be able to recolonize the dead areas, and maybe the copper won't have sunk into the silicone joints. You're facing a new cycle, I very much fear, as the dead stuff clears, but maybe you can get some live sand from your lfs, and that will speed it.

What a mess!

[techigirl78]

Did you have any inverts in the tank?

Coris is probably hiding out in the sand for now.

[1010]

at least the icks gone

[LRS078]

Update: the dogface and the french angel are alive (at least for now) I held a mussel in the tank and both tried to hand feed a bit so that is a good sign. Still no sign of the coris. The blenny is alive but keeping very much to himself. The tank itself is bare bottom (so no sand) but it has a small critter keeper of sand in it for the coris to hide in. I'll probably take it out and swap for new sand in there sometime tonight. If the coris is in there and alive (hopefully) we'll know then. No inverts. The carbon has pulled the copper to a now undetectable level. I also put a good bit of "stability" in there to help with any 2nd cycle. I'm keeping an eye on ammonia/nitrite levels but I still don't trust test results for another week.

[BadOleRoss]

I did the same thing when I was very new to thi hobby and got bad advice from my LFS. I also lost all of my LR andsand as well. This was in a 220. I ended up having to totally empty my tank and clean it to remove the copper. The cleaning process was 2 fold....I first had to do a general cleaning of the tank and thenrefill it with fresh was and 2 gallons of muriatic acid. Using a brush I scrubed the tankand then drained it. Then, I refilled the tank and added 3 lbs of citric acid and scrubbed it down again. Then a drain and a final fill and rinse. I then had to run the tank with water testing for copper for a couple days. All of this was done based on Waterkeepers advice and the tank is going fine now. I did lose most of my fish in the process. All I had to keep them in was 2 44 gallon brute t-cans and that just did not work. Good Luck!

[BadOleRoss]

One more thing......my ammonia evels went sky high due to the die off on my LR. If you are reading no copper thats a good sign but watch for copper leaching out in the future.

[XtrmCHoPZ]

Man that sucks. iM sorry!!!! Polyfilters!!!!!!

[johnvu713]

Ditch the girl man LOL ...just gradually change your water and you should be fine.

[techigirl78]

Did you find the coris wrasse?

[LRS078]

Yeah the coris turned up alive but hidden. Replaced sand and first thing he did was hide again. Oh well, I am leaving him a tiny bit of shell on mussel outside/on the surface of his "litter box". Hopefully he'll take the hint.... Other than that no further fatalitites to report. So far no big ammonia/nitrite spikes but I put in a bunch of bioballs from another good system to help. (and replaced with new/virgin bioballs into the donor system that also has a massive RDSB/fuge)

Thanks all for the kind words....

[huskerreef]

Look on the bright side you now have a free pass to screw up majorly and if the girlfriend get ticked off, just bring up the copper event. now may be the time to go to the bar and look for some fun on a serious note, hope all recovers well.

good luck

[Pleco420]

sorry to hear about the dilemna. However, you could use this to talk your gf into that 3some you have wanted for long. HAHAHAHA

[I like Triggers]

Originally posted by Pleco420
sorry to hear about the dilemna. However, you could use this to talk your gf into that 3some you have wanted for long. HAHAHAHA

haha

[JamesJR]

Wow, that is totally out of line.... Talk about innapropriate.

[musty baby]

For what it's worth, I find it far more appropriate than what you said, as it was a joke

Originally posted by JamesJR
First, get a new girlfriend. I could never forgive my girlfriend if she did that.

[JamesJR]

Originally posted by ryansholl
For what it's worth, I find it far more appropriate than what you said, as it was a joke

No. I totally disagree. Discussing sexual suggestion on this website is totally out of line and is entirely different than making suggestions about someone's relationship.

[mhurley]

Thread closed.