107 F Reef Temp Help

[mwlude]

I am on vacation and my tank sitter shows up at my house and the heat is stuck on and the house is 107 F. We think it was a thermostat issue but I cannot find out until tomorrow. She got the temp down to 66 and the heat seems to be functioning normal and turning off. She said that everything was dead and the coral looked like it melted. I have asked her to remove the fish. What are the chances that anything will grow back Softies, zoos, mushrooms. The tank temp could have been that high for one day. What should I do to the live rock(I assume mostly dead rock now)/ live sand. Should I scrub the coral off. It will be a few days until I get back so I have to rely on the tanksitter/mother in law. The tank is two years old.

[coralnut99]

Did the TANK temp. go from normal to 107 and down to 66 in the span of a day or two?

If the tank did hit 107, that's way beyond what any coral can tolerate I think, and you're most probably looking at a real mess.

If the HOUSE hit 107, then maybe the tank topped out in the low 90's, though I doubt anyone knows for sure now.

[mwlude]

According to the tank sitter the digital thermometer said 107 on my tank. The house temp was back down to 66F I don't know about the tank. She is going to clean out the coral today. Do you think the rock is dead or can the bacteria survive that temp for a short time. Should I do water changes or let is cycle it self.

[coralnut99]

I think there will be extensive die-off if the tank temp. hit 107.

I would try cooking it. There's tons of threads on Cooking LR. The term cooking shouldn't be taken literally.

One thing I would take for granted is thermometer accuracy. I would ask her to double check it with some other thermometer just to make sure it was really anywhere near that.

[dsanfilippo]

Your house temp went to 107??? it could be a long shot but what about homeowners ins?

[coralnut99]

Originally posted by dsanfilippo
Your house temp went to 107??? it could be a long shot but what about homeowners ins?

Darn good thought! I'd call my agent and make him earn his commissions if I were you. Can't hurt. If it really was 107 in the tank, I'm about certain you're looking at a wipeout. If you decide to go that route, you may want to place a call / email asap to put them on notice. The worst they can do is say no, according tp paragraph X in your policy.

[mwlude]

Home owners said that since thermostat malfunction isn't in our policy they wont cover it. The tank is down to 78 but when the light came on she said she didnt see any change in the coral. She said my clam was open and looked to be "breathing" so I told her to wave a net by it to get it to close but it didnt close. I am assuming everything is dead.

[widefx]

FYI my digital Therm went wacko once it said 103 put my finger in the tank and it was normal. The next morning it said 66.

[Spracklcat]

This happened at my job--building went to 111. Tank was shot--nothing survived at all. Be prepared for a mighty foul odor. I'd toss the sand, scrub and dry the rock, and start fresh. I don't think any beneficial bacteria will have survived on the rock, so all you'll do by trying to revive it is get a bloom of something undesireable from all the rotting matter.

So sorry--

[coralnut99]

107 and 111 sound almost too high to comprehend. But I guess most of us have seen summer spikes in the 90 range. The distress level is easy to see at that temp. Take it up another 15 degrees and you can picture the tank being completely oxygen starved.

[rexdenton]

That's a terrible story. That said, it seems unusual to me that your tank would have reached the same tem as the house...first of all it takes a little while to warm up to the room temp, and secondly, the evaporation of water would have given some hedge against temp spike.
That said, if it got that high, your reef may be in dire shape. Watch for the corals to either wilt, stay closed, or eject their algae as the first signs of bad things to come...

[mwlude]

I got home late last night. The coral was all wilted and laying flat on the rocks. I took them all out. Ammonia is 8+ Nitrites 0 and Nitrates 5-10. This is with the dead stuff sitting in there for 4 days. The corraline is all very pale and algae looks dead. What do you guys think about scrubbing the rock and skimming the tank. Do you think is will cycle the dead stuff out so I can use the rock in my new tank I am setting up?

[coralnut99]

You never mentioned the size of the tank or the quantity of rock. If this isn't a large volume of rock, I think you're best served starting from scratch. Scrubbing and cooking rock isn't the smallest chore you can endeavor. Sorry to hear it was a wipeout.

[mwlude]

It is abot 70 lbs or rock. I would prefer to try to save it. I scrubbed it and put it in a rubbermaid with a power head, heater, and skimmer. Does this sound right? I was a 55g but I am in the process of taking it down. I had just started an in wall 120g that wont be done for a couple of months. how long does it usually take to cook rock. I am guessing it is pretty dead right now. I know that it probably will have some die off but how would it compare to when it is collected and allowed to sit on the beach for hours or shipped to a warehouse and allowed to sit with wet newspapers. I would guess some bacteria has survived? With starting a new tank I will need all the rock plus 100lbs.

[Al]

70 lbs of rock is not nothing to replace. I would try to save it. Scrubbing it is not necessary as long as you remove anything dead. The bacteria probably survived. As rexdenton said, the temperature is unlikely to have been at 107 in the tank. Check the water above the sand, did any microlife, like copepods, survive?

[LisaD]

This happened to me back in the early 90s, when I lived in Minnesota. I lost everything. I had a new 125, as well as established 55 and 20 gallon reef tanks.

I was messing with the new tank right before leaving town over Thanksgiving. I was cycling with live rock, no fish yet. The thermostat was on the wall behind the tank. I was on a chair, must have bumped the thermostat without realizing it. It was one of those round dial types.

Pet sitter wasn't coming until the next day. Got a call from the pet sitter the next morning. The house was over 100. Horrible smell. The fish were dead, huddled under rocks where they tried to escape the heat, coral melted down. The only good things were that the 125 didn't have fish in it yet, and that while stressed, none of my birds died - I had a collection of 10 parrots in another room. Also, my African gray parrot learned a new word, s*it! which he used appropriately, only when he was mad.

[tspors]

Homeowners Ins. will not cover living things. I just looked into it. The tank it self is not damaged so to them no loss. I am in Appleton WI.

[tspors]

You can use the old rock over. You need to dry it out though completely! That 2lb rock that is soaking wet with water, needs to weigh nothing. It will when it dries out. Then intermix it with new live rock, cycle your tank it will come back in about 6 months. Good Luck

[LisaD]

Can't mwlude just rinse the old rock really well and empty/scrub the tank with plain water? I don't think it needs to be dried out or cooked. Any dead on it will help with the cycle anyway, right? (at least that's what I did when I had the meltdown)

[coralnut99]

Originally posted by LisaD
Can't mwlude just rinse the old rock really well and empty/scrub the tank with plain water? I don't think it needs to be dried out or cooked. Any dead on it will help with the cycle anyway, right? (at least that's what I did when I had the meltdown)

I tend to agree, but its' difficult to gauge just what's died on there. Scrubbing rock tends to be a little superficial and may leave behind a lot more stuff to decay than one would like, even to start a cycle. If the tank hadn't been running for eons, you might be OK with just a scrub-off and start the cycle all over.

[Al]

Originally posted by LisaD
Can't mwlude just rinse the old rock really well and empty/scrub the tank with plain water? I don't think it needs to be dried out or cooked. Any dead on it will help with the cycle anyway, right? (at least that's what I did when I had the meltdown)

I agree with LisaD. This rock can't be any worse than some 'Live Rock' I've seen. If I had to choose between sterilizing the rock and throwing it away, I'd throw it away and buy new. But I don't think he does. I would have flushed out the tank, rock, and sand with new saltwater and recycled the rock and sand right in the tank.

Mwlude, let us know how it turns out.

[mwlude]

I have drained the tank and by scrubbing the rock I mean that I scrubbed off the zoos, macro algae, and star polyps. I am going to throw out the sand and by new. I'll keep posting and see how the rock progresses. I think te corraline might make it some of it is still quite purple and not bleached like the corraline on my glass. I have moved it to a bin with some water I had mixed. I just cant see throwing out 70lbs of rock. The rock is between 1-1 1/2 yrs old.

[LisaD]

no reason to throw it out or sterilize. you didn't have a disease wipeout, it was a temperature issue. I'm so sorry about your loss. I really do know how you feel, since it happened to me too. I lost some really great fish and corals. It pretty much ruined the holidays for me. It still makes me sad, even though it was about 15 years ago. I think you could keep the sand, too, if you rinse it well. your call. I'm just cheap.

[aurora]

I'd take out the live rocks and clean/rinse everything with tap water to wash off dead stuff, drain the tank and start with new freshly mixed water. Put your liverocks back in and keep your finger crossed to see if anything can come back. You'll be surprise at what may survive...some of this stuff can be quite resilent. If you have zoos...I'd bet that some survived. I wouldn't scrub (or cook) your rocks since there's a slight chance that somethings may come back and the bacteria on the rocks are probably not affected. Expect your skimmer to really crank out some foam. Your tank will likely go through a mini-cycle again but will be stable in a couple of weeks.

[mwlude]

The skimmer is going crazy. The ammonia has dropped from 6 to 2 in 2 days So I am assuming that there has to be some bacteria at work.