# 3 day blackout disaster



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

Well I took the garbage bags off of my heavily planted 90G to see if the Green Water had disappeared after the three days.

It did not. There is still a slight green tint to the water. I observed this in the white bucket I was using to do the prescribed 50% water change after a blackout. Had the python feeding the water into the sink drain and used another syphon to speed the process into a bucket.

Anyways, here's the disaster part.

Many plants lost leaves and melted. Some of the plants were floating at the top of the tank. 

ALL my shrimp died! (I see none living)

One Otto died.

What a horrible thing to unveil when expecting a happy non GW tank to be waiting for you underneath.

My guess is the swing in PH (had my CO2 turned off) killed everything off.

I should've taken tests but its late and I just wanted to clean it out fill it back up and hopefully get to bed.. So no test results guys, sorry.

Big drag.

On top of that I over tightened my sink nozzle and couldn't unscrew it to put the Python on it so I had to hand bomb bucket after bucket to refill the half empty 90G... just a shite night.


----------



## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

That sucks. Sorry to hear about that. Another possiblity could have been a ammonia spike caused by the algae dying off.


----------



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

You know the worst part is that I had no idea that that was even possible.
I expected some plant melt I knew my Vals would die back a bit. I had NO IDEA that all my shrimp could die... there's no way I would've done that if I knew that.

I had reds, blues greens and amano's in there.. bunches of the little guys.

and the poor little Otto too..


----------



## planter (Jun 9, 2008)

I've had to do a few blackout before. I had some plants melt but nothing like what you experianced. What are you going to do now?


----------



## Katalyst (Jul 29, 2007)

Poor little guys, sorry to hear about that Brandon.


----------



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

I'm going to throw all my tanks out the window onto the parking lot below  

No I'm going to re-stock my shrimps, get a small pack of Cory's somewhere, A couple more Otto's, a big school of Tetra's and continue on and keep learning... sometimes the hard way but hopefully not.

If the GW comes back then it's time to invest in a UV sterilizer. Never a blackout again for me.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Agh, sorry to hear about the troubles with your tank. There also might have been a problem with DO, as decomposing plants (the bacteria decomposing them) use up DO, so the mass of plant matter decomposing could also have been an issue, but more likely than not the ammonia was the big one.

The UV is probably a good investment in the future, since it will control your GW as well as help with disease outbreaks and the like. $100 now could save you from another situation again, so I guess it`s worth the money now, especially with the cost of replacing al the plants and livestock.

Good luck getting the tank up again.


----------



## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

that sucks. Good luck with the rebuild.


----------



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

Well I'm sure the plants will bounce back. I was expecting them to melt to some extent anyway. 

I'll have more shrimp in there next week.. 

I was just at LFS's pricing out UV's I'll grab one soon but probably order it online or something..

Thanks for the kind words everyone.


----------



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

wow I just tested my nitrites and they're at about 5! Thats pretty fricken high.

I'm gonna try and use the Prime to lower them a bit.

It says to use 5X the reg amount to detoxify nitrites.

I'm assuming its that high because of some dead shrimps hidden in there I haven't found.

Ammonia is at 0, Nitrates are low, maybe 5 or 6.

Any suggestions? 

I have some Calcium Nitrate and some Potassium Nitrate in my dry ferts.. will these help?


----------



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

just a side note* 

I suspect the reason all the plants were loose and the lost leaves must be due to my trying out a powerhead in the tank the same day I blacked it out. It was an HK4 power head which was like a hurricane in there.. i must have loosened everything up and then it all just popped up in the blackout. 

I forgot I tried it in there.. 

I wanted to see if it was WAY too much flow or just really strong flow. it was WAY too much flow.. lol

It's for sale btw $40.


----------



## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

Riceburner said:


> that sucks. Good luck with the rebuild.


Well that's precisely what has happened. I tried to get the rest of the fish out today to put them in a safer tank. My nitrites are through the roof.

All the plants were mush. The tank was a mess so I just bit the bullet and pulled everything out. I kept the stronger healthy plants which were probably 15 to 25% of what was in there.

Everythings out now, the water is still green. I have the plants floating at the top. Most of the dying plant mass has been removed maybe a few small bits left.

I'm going to try again to clean out the water column as much as possible later on with the net and then I'm going away for the weekend.

My Girlfriend has imposed the first ever rule/suggestion to do with me and my tanks and is as follows:

"No more fish or plants until after you buy a UV Sterilizer!"

Thems the rules.


----------

