Sunday, October 23, 2005
I made a huge mistake last night. And it cost the lives of many of my beautiful fish.
I turned off the pumps to feed the suncorals, and forgot to turn them back on. The pumps were off from about 3am until 11am, and when I woke up and saw the tank I quickly turned on the pumps. Within minutes I saw the carnage. Dead fish littered about the substrate, others gasping. I can't believe I made such a horrible mistake. It literally brings tears to my eyes even typing this out.
Here's the list:
2 Yellow Belly Hippo Tangs
Blue Hippo
Flame Angel - MIA
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
True Percula Clownfish
Lemon Meringue Wrasse
Purple Tang
Naso Tang
Bengaii Cardinalfish
Blue Mandarin
Green Mandarin
Blue Damsel
Lawmower Blenny
Even some bristleworms died.
The serpent starfish were out in the open. All the corals look perfectly fine. Ammonia level is 0. Skimmer acting normal. Water clarity good. Temperature 79.5F Some snails were inverted, but I flipped these back over. Blood Shrimp and Peppermint seem unaffected. Ceriths laid eggs!
I had Phoenix my Flame Angel for over 3 years. Since the Coral Beauty is dead, I think that Phoenix may be as well. The Longnose Hawkfish I've had for probably 5 years, and not seeing it is a bad sign.
Spock was really in distress but looked at me closely as he labored through his breathing. After about an hour, he started to swim, but bumped into lots of coral and rock. He's swimming better now.
The Purple Tang was the most unaffected of all the fish.
The Coral Beauty was the one that came with my 55g 3 years ago, and due to diligent care was in perfect condition again. It was 3.25" long
Nibbles, the Powder Blue Tang was 5.5" long and 3/4" wide.
Spike, the Six Line Wrasse, was probably the biggest one most people have seen. It was 3.5" long, now that I'm able to measure it.
Tom, the Copperband Butterfly fish, was a relative newcomer. He was 4.5" from tailfin to the tip of his nose/mouth.
I believe that many died minutes before I noticed the tank. They all were still rich in color, and when I pulled them from the tank they still somewhat soft. It saddened me to pull out such thick healthy fish that were now dead due to my error.
I suppose the irony of the situation is that the survivors are the fish I didn't want, such as the hippos, the damsel, the bengaii....
Flame Angels, Powder Blue Tangs, Copperband butterflies... all are very difficult to keep, and are prone to not eat, prone to getting sick and die very quickly unless we get lucky. To lose these is a huge blow. The tank looks empty now without those colors swimming about in the open.
I can't believe I made this horrible mistake.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Here's a video from tonight's water change. It is a 14 meg file, so dialup should Save As.
A Pico Water Change
A Pico Water Change
Saturday, October 15, 2005
MaxiJet Modification
If you'll take 10 minutes and a couple of common tools, you can alter a Maxijet to increase the flow in the tank quite a bit. I was told how to do this, and finally decided to try it out. It worked!
Using a hacksaw, I cut off the jet off the impellar cover.
Holes were drilled in the coverplate to allow more water to flow in.
Here it is in the tank.
And what the tank looks like. The white is a sheet of eggcrate that keeps the eels away from the clownfish.
And a 30 second video that is under 2 megs.
This was done in my son's 29g, as his tank only had one powerhead and not enough flow. The white divider is 'egg crate' that is keeping the eels away from the clownfish on the left.
I also tested the water in my 280g reef. Results have been posted.
If you'll take 10 minutes and a couple of common tools, you can alter a Maxijet to increase the flow in the tank quite a bit. I was told how to do this, and finally decided to try it out. It worked!
Using a hacksaw, I cut off the jet off the impellar cover.
Holes were drilled in the coverplate to allow more water to flow in.
Here it is in the tank.
And what the tank looks like. The white is a sheet of eggcrate that keeps the eels away from the clownfish.
And a 30 second video that is under 2 megs.
This was done in my son's 29g, as his tank only had one powerhead and not enough flow. The white divider is 'egg crate' that is keeping the eels away from the clownfish on the left.
I also tested the water in my 280g reef. Results have been posted.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
The suncoral page has been updated. So has the Pico tank page.
Fang, my clown goby, has been evicted from my 280g reef. It spent the last two days eating one of my new MACNA frags that Zenya had given to me. Watching it kill a perfectly healthy SPS coral is just sickening. Fang is now in Casper's tank, where it can perch on the zoanthids.
The new Dendrophyllia is doing great, and is eating well.
The rest of the corals in the 280g are looking great, and water quality must be up to par to see these kinds of results. I'm going to start making more water for a water change, as all the tanks need it by now.
Fang, my clown goby, has been evicted from my 280g reef. It spent the last two days eating one of my new MACNA frags that Zenya had given to me. Watching it kill a perfectly healthy SPS coral is just sickening. Fang is now in Casper's tank, where it can perch on the zoanthids.
The new Dendrophyllia is doing great, and is eating well.
The rest of the corals in the 280g are looking great, and water quality must be up to par to see these kinds of results. I'm going to start making more water for a water change, as all the tanks need it by now.
