Catastrophic loss - why?

[howieb4]

My home had a power outage while I was on vacation. Power came back but air conditioning did not. And the siphon on my sump did not restart. I did have a homemade lava rock bubble filter running inside the tank. It took four days for my brother in law to get to my house. He said the house was extremely warm inside and when he went to feed the fish he did not see any. This occurred six days into my two week vacation. I thought he was crazy and he only called because he said he didn't want to be blamed for killing my fish. He has fed them in the past while we are away. So I get home last night and all my fish are floating in a decomposing mass at the top corner of the tank. Only survivor was my large pleco. The tank is a 135G housing around 35 cichlids. A variety of moori, stuartgranti, bumblebees, phicinulus, lamps, etc. All peaceful and been together for years. I consider myself a beginner even though I have had a tank in my house for over 20 years. Besides the normal maintenance the tank has always taken care of itself.

I am embarrassed to ask, but what could have happened and what do I do with the tank now? Was it the heat in the house? There was a brightish green algae covering the center two feet of the gravel. I have never had an algae issue. Do I need to break the tank down and clean everything or just a major water change with heavy gravel vacuuming? Or maybe this is a sign to exit the hobby. Thanks

[jred]

Well could be multiple factors that occurred, first thing that comes to mind is possibly a couple fish died from oxygen deprivation which resulted in the water petrifying and killing the remaining stock. Unfortunately you don't know how long the power was out and with 35 fully grown adult fish they could run out of air within 24 hrs. After a couple fish perish and your brother not coming for 4 days, they would start to decompose (as you mentioned) and create an ammonia spike - unfortunately your sump lost its siphon and this was likely where the majority of the filtration occurred so there wasn't enough benefitical bacteria in the tank to support the remaining fish. Likewise, even if the power came back on in a couple of hours your sump was still cut off and an ammonia spike did probably happen regardless and as the fish died it just kept magnifying the issue. Sorry to hear about your loss, I would clean everything out best you can - give a good rinse to all material then just leave it... take a break for the summer. Enjoy the outdoors, clear your head about the bad experience and then in the fall if you still have no desire to get it going then start selling it off. If you want to give it a second chance you can more easily restock in the colder months and take your time rebuilding. Hope all goes well and we don't loose another hobbyist. Cheers

[gturmindright]

I agree with taking a short break. Plan your next tank and you have a chance to wait for the exact stock that you want. Also time for reflection and an opportunity to improve your system if you need to. Or develop some sort of care plan for while you're gone on your next vacation. Its a tough break. It happens to everyone but don't quit if it's something you enjoy. For me looking at my fish is what helps me unwind after work so I'd be doing a disservice to myself if I were to quit.

[Steve]

Know the situation all too well, the exact same thing happened to me about 5 years ago. I was on vacation for 2 weeks and we had a storm come through about 5 days into my vacation that knocked the power out for 2 days while I was gone. I came home to about 20 full color large male peacocks & haps all dead and decomposing. Only fish that survived was one of the plecos.

I agree with what jred said it's lack of oxygen, and then once one fish dies it's just a domino effect with the ammonia spiking more and more with each fish that dies.

Just take a short break and regather your thoughts and then start back up. That's what I did when it happened to me. I felt like getting out of the hobby at first but after a week that passed and I was back at it.

[cranialdisturbance]

It's been so warm lately that temps in your home were probably well into the mid 80's.  That, coupled with the main filter being offline killed the fish. 

You don't need to break everything down.  I would clean the filters, vacuum the gravel, and do a 90% water change then you should be fine. 

[howieb4]

Thanks for the replies and words of encouragement. I forgot to say that I also had a total loss over 20 years of my 90 gallon reef tank. A major winter storm took out power to my whole block for five days. So maybe this is a 20 year event for me. Not happy to hear that others have experienced a loss like mine, but I do like the idea of taking a break and planning out my next tank. Thanks again.

[E.Y.]

I have a battery backup system on my office tanks.  Might be a worthwhile investment.  I had the same thing happen before so I know what you are going through.  I felt pretty awful for a while.

[howieb4]

What really stinks is that all the fish in the tank besides the pleco(the sole survivor) were gathered through auctions, craigslist postings, and purchase of fry from Wet Thumb Aquatics(when they still were around). All of course at once-in-a-lifetime prices. Except the pleco.

Trying to theorize what happened in the tank. I did find some carcasses under some of my larger rocks. With the air con out, maybe the fish were trying to burrow as deep as they could to get to the cooler water at the bottom of the tank. Then maybe one or two died and then started the domino effect of the water turning toxic.

[Phish]

Try to add a canister filter in the future with your sump if sump lose siphon canister will still kick back on I use both.

[gshark7]

Hot water holds less oxygen.  The pleco survived because it can breath air for the surface.

Sorry for your loss.  Take a break and start over at the auction.

[mightieskeeper]

Do you have drilled tank? Or use hang on the back overflows? My drilled tank have never lose siphon to there sump.