I need some help for how to manage my tank at this point. During the night last night my Hygger heater and temperature control system malfunctioned and cooked my tank (I know, I should have a back up. In fact, I do have an inkbird, somewhere...) I have a 20 gallon Nuvo AIO softies tank and I had 4 fish. I lost one of my clowns and my pink streaked wrasse. One clown is holding on but it's swimming near the top of the saltwater reserve I use for AWC he's in and my spotted watchman goby looks okay and is on the bottom. The reserve wasn't heated when I moved the fish so I'm sure they got an extra shock coming from hot water. I thought my serpent stars were dead but to my surprise they're still alive so I moved them into the reserve too. I also have a red legged hermit crab still alive in the tank. I'm not sure how it survived. I have a small in-tank refugium with chaeto in the sump and see a lot of little dead copepods. I didn't know I had so many. At this point I'm exhausted and numb. Both the ammonia and nitrate have spiked. The ammonia was 40 ppm and after a 6 gallon water change in increments of 2 gallons, it reads the same. The nitrate was 40 ppm but is now 20 ppm. Should I keep the fish in the reserve? Move the red legged hermit crab out of the display tank into the reserve or would that be too much shock for it? Do more water changes?
My question is, is there anything else I can do at this point? I've also changed the carbon and left the Chemipure Elite because I don't have a replacement (should arrive tomorrow). I'm not sure if I should leave it or keep it in. I imagine the all bacteria is dead but don't know. The softies in the tank are all fallen over. Some are white and release a substance (powdery looking) when I touch them, although most have little dark green dots on them, so there may be some life. Some zoas show life. My duncan is closed. I have 4 RFAs in the tank. Two look okay, two do not. I also need to drive to the airport in a couple of hours to pick up overnight guests, so I'm in a time crunch. I'm not sure what I can do, but any suggestions would be appreciated.
My question is, is there anything else I can do at this point? I've also changed the carbon and left the Chemipure Elite because I don't have a replacement (should arrive tomorrow). I'm not sure if I should leave it or keep it in. I imagine the all bacteria is dead but don't know. The softies in the tank are all fallen over. Some are white and release a substance (powdery looking) when I touch them, although most have little dark green dots on them, so there may be some life. Some zoas show life. My duncan is closed. I have 4 RFAs in the tank. Two look okay, two do not. I also need to drive to the airport in a couple of hours to pick up overnight guests, so I'm in a time crunch. I'm not sure what I can do, but any suggestions would be appreciated.