I need some advice- in trouble here.

Well today I came home to a disaster, my 45 gallon coral tank got nuked by my coralife light timer- for some reason all 6 bulbs were on, and I think this might have been for most of the day.

My colt coral is dead, my huge devils hand is dying , or dead (I think), and I also lost a flower pot (they say wont live over 1 year) that I have had for nearly 2 years, I lost 2 of my 4 gorgonians- that I grew out, my elegance isnt looking so good either..

I did a salt water change as I usually keep four 5 gallon buckets of pre-mix on hand, I did this slowly, I removed all the dead critters, my skimmer is wasted- it will need cleaned.

How do I tell if my devils hand is dead? I have him in a 5 gallon bucket with a 50/50 mix (old/new sw) right now- I really dont want to loose him, but he looks really bad. My tank looks barren w/o him, and the gorg's.

My clams are fine, red nen is fine, every thing is ok for now.

I have never had this happen in all my years- any experienced advice- I would really appreciate. It has been a rough week, really rough.

Water param's all all over the place right now. It pains me to post this- I am supposed to know what I am doing.

 

I really don't have any experience with over-lighting events but I'll give you a bump because I feel your pain. I too had a disaster recently, although not quite as bad as yours. My thinking is that the only real solutions is to return all the params to normal, even lighting, and play the waiting game. Good luck to you. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn.

 

Sorry to hear, had the same thing happen to me but with little effect on the corals besides looking like crap for a few days. I will never again use the coralife timers, I have had two go bad on me both times leaving the lights on. Both powerstips under a year old to.

 

Your light was left on for a day, and it caused all these issues? The reason why I ask, is because a couple of times, I turned my lights on manually through my controller, and ended up leaving them on for over a day. This is with 2x400W metal halide, which is about as strong as you can get PAR wise, other than some of the new LED's. And I never noticed even a bleaching of corals.

With your softies dying, I would recommend running carbon for a few days at least. Or if you already use it, I would replace it with some fresh stuff.

 

Im with the above post ive left my halides on for lengthy periods of time too with nothing like that. how shallow is your tank that 6 t5s could bleach your corals?

 

Unfortunate issue, sorry for the loss.

I would really try to pin point another factor that could have caused this issue. I have literally left lights on for over 24 hours (not Mh) with not significant issue. Sounds more like a cascade type effect going on with your tank. One corals demise lead to another corals and another coral......

Good luck hope it all turns around quickly for you.

 

I feel your pain....sorry about your loss.

 

I took the leathers out, and the gorgs- I suppose it's possible one of them tried to nuke the tank- chemical warfare perhaps, but they have been in there for quite a while w/o issue. The only other thing possible was the partial water change of 15 gallons two days before this happend. Other wise I have no other ideas.

 

You never said anything about using carbon...if you don't then there is a chance that was your problem. Old carbon or no carbon with soft corals, especially leathers is not a good idea. Run fresh carbon in a reactor preferably but if that isn't an option, then use it passively in a filter bag.

 

I'm thinking heater malfunctioning