Flooded Floor Fiasco

[Bug_Power]

So my dolphin 1200 pump had a hose come off this weekend. I get a call at 6am saying my sump is empty and the laminate flooring has 30 gallons of salt water all over the down stairs. Well I head over there as soon as I can get dressed and by that time my mother had the waterhose in the sump and the pumps on. I don' t have a problem with the hose, as we use well water and it tested fine for PH and all other perameters. Only problem is she didn't add salt. So I went from around 1.027 down to about 1.019 or 1.018. I added salt as quickly as I could to the sump, and brought the salinity back up where it should be, but the damage was done. Almost as if in a matter of hours the whitecheek tang had white spots on it (ich I pressume from the stress) and later died the next evening. One of my domino damsels died this morning, and my percula now has what looks to be ich from the stress. All my corals look good oddly with full polyp extension. I've informed my parents now that it's better to have no pumps on, and a dry sump and mix up some saltwater then to add water and turn the pumps back on. Anything else I should lookout for to be proactive? Water loss was around 30-40 gallons in a 180gal tank.

[GaryP]

Unfortunately, the best lessons in this hobby usually come from disasters. Its sometimes easier to learn from the things that go wrong then from what goes right. Sorry to hear about your loss.

In that case, I might have suggested bringing the salinity back up slowly with a series of high salinity water changes. IMO, fish can handle a drop in salinity better then a fast increase. This sort of situation is not uncommon in coral lagoons that are getting hit with a lot of fresh water from tropical storms. The combination of the drop and then followed by the increase was probably a double whammy that did the damage. I realize you were just trying to react to a situation and do what you thought was right. No one can blame you for that. This is one of those "lessons learned" type of situations.

I'm not surprised the corals are OK. They have the option of closing up and waiting things out until conditions return to a more favorable situation.

[Bug_Power]

Thanks Gary I was worried about that, but figured it may have been better to get things back to normal ASAP, rather then leave the salinity there. I've been feeding minced garlic with the food to help with the Ich, any other suggestions. I also have been fighting a temp problem where my tank goes from around 79-83 during the day. I'd like to keep it 77-80ish instead. I'm postive the heat had a bit to do with the ICH.

[Bill S]

Nature has taken care of corals, which can't move to avoid changes in their environment like fish can. They will generally take some short term abuse better than the fish can. You've just reminded me to give my all stainless steel hose clamps another twist!

[GaryP]

I also have been fighting a temp problem where my tank goes from around 79-83 during the day. I'd like to keep it 77-80ish instead. I'm postive the heat had a bit to do with the ICH.

Add more cooling fans, or increase the cfu rating of the fans you are using, that are on timers with your lights. This is the toughest time of the year for temp. control. Humidity is up, temps are cool enought that we aren't using AC and the result is that we have less evaporation. Less evaporation means more heat. The only other thing I could suggest is to add a heater to help bring the temp up at night to reduce the temp. swing. That might also hurt you because your starting point for the day is going to be higher. I would rather see you bring the high end down with more cooling though. While 83 isn't a huge problem, its getting close to it.

Right now I have 2 X 100 cfu fans running 24/7, and another two that are on timers with the lights. I don't really need a heater unless the house is really cool due to the heat I am getting from my pumps. When the AC comes on later I can cut off the fans running 24/7.

[Bug_Power]

yeah I have a 110v AC fan I bought locally that I'm putting in my pendant. It's roughly 300-500cfm I forgot. Right now I have a pedestal fan blowing on my sump. Temps stayed at 80.5 all day today.

[GaryP]

That may be to much of a fan to put into a pendent, I don't know. I was thinking in terms of a hood. You don't want to cool the bulbs to much inside the pendent. They won't work very efficiently if the bulb cools off. Maybe one of the lighting gurus can jump in here.

You actually want to blow air across the surface of the water to break up the layer of humid air that forms along the surface. The drier, cooler air will increase evaporation and cooling. I think it will also help with gas exchange.

[Bug_Power]

The fan is just slightly more powerful then the fan cooltouchlighting.com wanted to add on for $35. Right now just at the end of the MH cycle the ballast for the VHO's shuts them down because of heat.