Ice Storm Killed Everything

[Cinder01]

So... It's horrible!! For those of you who don't know there was a huge Ice storm in Michigan and it cut my power for 6 days. The real bad thing was that I was in Florida the whole time. I set my tank up and its a long story but it was completly protected from short power outages but not 6 days.

Anyway i had just begun. My tank was only 4 mo. old
3 green Chromis
2 stars
3 Hermies
40 lbs live rock
lots of live plants and stuff growING ON MY LIVE ROCK.
I'm ****ed!!

So what do I do now????
I took all the dead animals out. Filled the water level back up and got my salinity back, temp back, have yet to check water levels ie. PH, Nitrate, Nitrites Etc. to afaraid of what they'll read.

My live rock and live sand and anything live is all dead now right??

What do I do, do I have to start all over?
Some plants survived the cold but so far thats all I see that made it.

Oh yeah, all the twenty fresh water fish I had in a 30 gal and 55 gal are all dead too!! Life sucks right now at my house.:mad:

[gregt]

I'm so sorry to hear about your tragedy, and I'm more sorry your thread got missed for so long.

Can you give us an update?

[XxAngelzDustxX]

I read your last thread and I'm very sorry for what happened. It's hard when you take so many percautions and do everything in your power to pretect your tank from disaster, then something like that happenes and you have no control over the outcome.

Give us some updates. I hope everything works out.

[wishmaster]

I hate to say this, but starting over is really your only option at this point. I think your rock and sandbed can still be salvaged. Use the rock and sand in your new setup, at leased to cycle your tank. I doubt that everything perished on your live rock. Live rock can go through very cold temps with out a total die off, I had 45lbs of fiji delivered 2nd day last winter it was 10 degrees the first day and 20 below the next. There is more life on my fiji today then my marshall rock I got last fall. Good Luck.

[jabster]

Wow, that sucks. I agree you LR should still have life, but it still sucks.

I had almost the same thing happen awhile ago, and I was also in FLA. I got home and all my piranhas were laying on the bottom of tank, lookng pretty dead. I was lucky enough to get home in time to save them, and still have them today. Water temps were ~50F. :(

[Cinder01]

Well I got a opinion from two LFS and one said that its a total loss and you need to get rid of at least 30lbs of the 45 lbs of LR you have and get rid of the inch of LS you have, scrub down your trickle filter and start fresh.

2nd opinion: No way throw all that out, clean up all the dead matter and just add 20 more pounds of LR and in a few weeks you'll be up and running again. They also recomended I get a few scoops from a few of their tanks to get my bacteria back up in my SB.

I have cleaned up my tank: all the filters rinsed, dead critters sucked up and cleaned out, vacumed my LR a little to get some of the dead plant and algea off them and finally tested my water. Wow was I suprised: PH 8.2 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 10 Ammonia just a wee bit from 0, like .0005 almost perfect. My bioload was so small since the tank was only 4 mo. old I think it fought off the die off. Not real sure though. Anyway I cleaned her all up and i have been noticing some life. A mushroom that wasn't there before popped up from nowhere and a few feather dusters survived. Also I have noticed a few mini snails are making their way up the walls.

Does anyone have any suggestions with the new info i have??

As far as the freshwater goes I cleaned them all out... I think I want to get this saltwater tank up and going first so I can focuss all my time on it.

[wishmaster]

Happy to hear things are on the up and up. FWIW, turn those freshy's into salty's;)

[jabster]

Well, if you are going to throw out your rock, let me give you my address so you can throw it my way :D

Seriously, if the rock WAS dead, COMPLETELY dead, I'd still keep it. But, I highly doubt everything is dead. Any die off that did occur will be taken care of. I'd just let it sit, and go through any cycling process to handle the waste and you should be good to go. The first LFS I'm sure was willing to sell you more LR to replace what they recommended you toss ;)

[SeaMermaid]

Cinder01 I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. I also live in Mi. and when ever there is a storm I loose power, but not this time. Yes I've NEVER seen a ice storm like this before. If your in the GR area I'd love to give you some frags when available.

Elaine

[Cinder01]

Yeah I heard it was bad. I was in FL so it made it so much worse when I got home my house smelled like a fish market.

Things are looking up now that I may not have lost everything.

yeah I am here in GR so e-mail me when ya have frags. I am new to hobby so I'm not sure what my lighting and tank could hadle but let me know: johnlord76@aol.com

By the way for all the chat about Rio pumps... I'm on board! I Got rid of mine in three mos. They are the worst pumps, how do they sell them? Mine choked twice and I replaced it once and the next one choked. Now I bought a Mag-Drive it seems much better. I had no choice when I bought it. It cmae with my CPR sump.

[jabster]

I can hook you up with some pulsing xenia :D I have a lot. Will trade for some good inside info on the new GTO. Been on a waitlist for 6 months, and its KILLING me! :D

Seriously, I am still running fairly low lighting as I adapt to increasing levels, and it does good no matter what. LMK. Could probably get you a few zoos too, as they are over running their space.

[cecilturtle]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Cinder, but if it's any consolation, I went through the same thing just before Xmas. We lost power for six days. The first two days I tried everything I could to keep my tank alive but by night on the second day the temp fell below 18. I grabbed my corals (impossible to get fish) and ran for warmer place. I went back to get fish with more flashlights and sunlight through windows, but it was too late, my tang gave one big burst as I opened my door and then he just sank. The others already gone. By now, it was colder inside the house than outside with a wind chill. Three days later I came back home to the largest tank death I have ever seen. Hundreds of worms, the most noticable by far, with scores of snails, micro stars, etc. Where to begin...

I netted what I could, and siphoned the rest with a Magnum Canister (HOT) setup. I did a massive water change (80%) and started up my ph's and skimmer. Oh and I ran carbon, the smell was unbearable throughout the whole house. Two days later another water change (50%) and checked parems. After 4 days I added some Turbo's. After 2 weeks I added new detritovore kits and my corals. I know maybe it was too soon for the corals but I just couldn't extend my accomodations any longer. Aside from all my coraline/live rock turning white, there was nothing else to give you an idea of what the tank had been through. Today, the tank is doing great. The only coral I lost in the ordeal was a pair of mushrooms. Oh and until I got all the color in my rock back I kept scraping the walls. It's only now starting to take off on the back wall again. All I can say is don't give up...if you can bring it back after something like this (and I bet you can) then there really isn't anything your tank can't survive.

[Addicted Reefer]

Cinder01,

Sorry to here about your tank. I am also a michigan resident and the storms hit us hard north of detroit.

Anyway i would say its a double edged sword. You have a new tank and although you lost alot i think it can work out. The dead inverts will restart the cycle and it will probably be a heck of a cycle. And after a heavy cycle you can start out with your chromis again when the parameters are stable. All live rock and sand can become alive again. But after the power outage your bug population will be small so i would by some bug kits and your back in business.

Good luck