Sorry to hear about this Cecil... That had to make you feel sick to your stomach!
It's just a setback although an expensive one. I consider myself lucky when I see the misfortune of others.
Unlike ponds the fish in an RAS are in a situation similar to our astronauts in space that are living in a hostile environment. That is if their environment is compromised it means death. That's why just like NASA, with an RAS, you need everything covered and nothing is left to chance. Even redundant systems like NASA.
Turns out it was not the siphon. The drain hose for the biofilter that is supposed to be curled up against the tank was laying on floor uncurled. That's how the system got drained. For some reason the lock tie that was holding it up had released as it's not broken. The zip tie won't lock either but I know it did before. Perhaps poor quality? Next time I'll even add a plug to the end of the hose.
In hind site I'm not sure making it easy to drain the tank was a good idea. If I had just left a plug in the tank fish would still be swimming.
