the exploding tank...

My 20 gallon looks like a firecracker went off in it... its cloudy and smells like sulfur. what should I do? I'm gonna do a water change or 2 today and pray that nothing died off...

I was running a tetra submersible heater, I did my water changes, but nothing survived the assault. I've come to the conclusion that my tank went anaerobic last night and everything died off from lack of oxygen, this triggered the bacteria to go back to anaerobic respiration, causing them to release sulfur into the water column.  Are there any science nerds out there to help me with correct terminology would be great.

did you loose water movement to cause it?

Lemonpeel wrote: I was running a tetra submersible heater, I did my water changes, but nothing survived the assault. I've come to the conclusion that my tank went anaerobic last night and everything died off from lack of oxygen, this triggered the bacteria to go back to anaerobic respiration, causing them to release sulfur into the water column.  Are there any science nerds out there to help me with correct terminology would be great.

What is your reasoning for that?  It seems unlikely to me unless you did something really crazy with the tank.

I'm curious about the current water parameters:
Salinity
Temp
Alk
Ca
How old is the tank?
Was the water change different than usual?
Sulfur smell might come from disturbing a lower level of the sand bed. Did that happen?

I still find your conclusion very interesting. Even more interested in how you came up with it?

I see, that would make sence. guess that's why thought it went anaerobic.

I agree mark, but be a little easy on the poor guy.  I bow to your wisdom, and he should definitely at least have his sg and temps, the VERY basic of even saltwater fish keeping.  But as for the conch, I could see it happening.  Specifically if he had a relatively shallow, old sand bed, and if he had no sifters or sand dwellers like nassarius etc.  There's a conch at the LFS that would require at least a 6 inch DSB, and if that guy went home to like a 2 inch sandbed he'd likely turn all the sand causing a similar scenario IF the tank was old and circumstances similar.  I just can't fathom any other reason that would release all this junk in to his tank and kill everything minus a severely disturbed sandbed, from either the conch or a displaced power head. 

Lemon peel, as fun as it is to go to the LFS and grab something that catches your eye, it's really a good practice to go home and research on what you want to buy.  Making sure that the desired specimen is compatible with your system and that you can meet it's requirement.  I've done this myself, buying something and getting it home and it either dies or cause havoc in my tank because I didn't research it and found that it would be incompatible with my system.  I would hope that you learned a lesson here, don't let it discourage you from rebuilding.