BTA killed by Vortech overnight! Help!

[NastayNatron]

Alright so I woke up late for work this morning (naturally on a Sunday) and did the quick once over the tank. I had bought a RBTA yesterday afternoon. It was doing well and hadn't moved all day. I noticed its foot blowing in my MP40 and the water was cloudy! I immediately called in sick to work and did a 25 gallon water change. I also added 1 1/2 cups to each of my tlf reactors. I removed my phosban to add carbon to one of them. So as of now I am out of salt waiting for an aquarium store to open (horrible timing) and I am running 3 cups of carbon. I have also changed out my micron filter socks.

This is all on my 125g reef tank. The only fish swimming are my clownfish as the lights do not come on for another 3 hours and 40 minutes. If anyone has suggestions as to what could help me through this please say! Also any stories of this happening to you and your experiences! Thanks everyone!

Nathan

[Lampshade]

I had the same thing happen awhile ago. You did the right thing by refreshing carbon. I did a 30% water change and refreshed my carbon, but the water was still cloudy. everything was ok in the end, no other losses at all, even in the cloudy mess of water coral still had healthy polyps.

Hope everything goes well, in my experience it looks much worse than it actually is.

[DiverDude]

It's a good idea to keep at least 1 extra bucket of salt on hand for emergencies as well as RO/DI water.

I always have ~40 gal of water on hand and an unopened bucket of salt on standby !

[ponokareefer]

I had the same thing happen a few years back and you are doing all that you can. I'd look into some type of screen for the powerhead if you are looking at getting another RBTA.

There was a video posted by someone on here a while back where they video taped a BTA through the night and it was amazing how much they can move around.

[Beverly]

I'd look into some type of screen for the powerhead if you are looking at getting another RBTA.

There was a video posted by someone on here a while back where they video taped a BTA through the night and it was amazing how much they can move around.

That was me who did a timelapse of our RBTA overnight. Man, that poor thing moved like crazy for a few nights before it settled down. We always had serious protection over the intakes of our powerheads so those kinds of mishaps did not occur. Poor RBTA :( RIP :(

[NastayNatron]

Alright well the tank seems to have cleared up a lot. I usually do have extra salt on hand but red coral was all out of H2Ocean which was the kind I have been using. I ran out this morning and bought Instant Ocean as I have been thinking about switching to this for a while. The lights come on in 15 minutes so well see if the fish are out and about swimming like usual. I sure hope they are. As for the anenome im pretty choked. Ive been wanting one since I got into the hobby and now after this im not sure Ill try one again for a while. I should have had the sponge screen over the vortechs to try and prevent this.

Anyways ill keep you updated on progress. For now here are a few pics.

The BTA after being intoduced to the tank

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff418/NastayNatron/fa5a25e5.jpg

Waterchange

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff418/NastayNatron/6a9ca934.jpg

Carbon running in the two reactors

http://i1234.photobucket.com/albums/ff418/NastayNatron/85f4a764.jpg

[mexxedm]

Yep, it happened to me twice since the last 6 weeks. First time, all the fishes and corals died. It have just happened again yesterday. The only fish survive in the cloudy water is clown fishes. Leather coral died. I know I should not have done this but I removed all water out of my 29g tank. Put new water in. The water was not clear. Cloudy is still there. Changed 10% of water last night. The water got worse this morning. Changed water again this morning. Crossing my fingers that everything will still survive when I get home. It's amazing that cleaner shrimps and peppermint shrimps are still survive in cloudy and stinky water...
I always like the RBTA. It looks very nice. If it does not want to be in the tank, just go and pass out somewhere in the tank instead of committing suicide to the power head and kills everything in my tank :'(

[rastaangel]

Ive had 3 different nems hit a powerhead... I feel your pain, first time it wiped out my tank from sitting in the powerhead for the weekend. Second time I watched it happen, all slow-mo like, so I got it out fast. Third time there was nothing else in my tank to kill off.

[intarsiabox]

My nem has been sucked into my powerhead four times now and it's still doing fine. Unless your RBTA is completely shredded to pieces I wouldn't write it off as dead yet.

[spawn]

Yep it happened to me once not long after we had our tank. It happened in the middle of the night. I noticed around 5am after getting up because the tank looked like someone had poured milk into it. At the time I was running 2 bags chemi pure elite & a bag of purigen. I didn't even do a water change because after fishing out what little was left of the nem I went back to bed & when I woke up the water was crystal clear & everything seemed happy. To bad that happened that was a nice looking nem. I'll never get another one, cause I like sps to much now.

[NastayNatron]

Well I did another 15 gallon waterchange tonight just to make sure things were in line. Everything is looking great and back to normal! As for the anemone there was literally nothing left of it. Sadly nothing to salvage. I am just happy it all worked out well. I will continue to run extra carbon for a few days and maybe do an extra waterchange this week but all is well.

Thanks for the help everyone. Maybe I overreacted a bit but this was my first scare with the tank. Hopefully I won't have another for a long time!

Cheers :razz:

[Gripenfelter]

Happened to me 2 months ago. Killed almost everything in the tank coral wise.

Had a white BTA.

Here's what I lost:

Blue sponge.
2x torch coral.
2 other anemones.
3x clams.
2x leathers.
Bubble coral.

A UV sterilizer helps a bit but otherwise you have to do big water changes.