Long time since I've posted, not for all good reasons - a rash of deaths in the family - ALL my aunts and uncles on my mother's side have now passed away, of course before this round of deaths I lost both my parents and my husband and my dog all pretty close together - but this last round of aunt/uncle - oh and one of my favorite cousins all came so close together - mostly due to dementia or cancer. It's just been a sad time. I'm also in arguments (polite ones) with my stepmother who I suspect is, now that my father is dead, writing me out of the will. They have about 1 1/2-2 million dollars. In the old trust which I was executor of - it all went first to the surviving spouse, then when she died it was to be split equally among the three children (she had 2, my dad had 1). I kind of thought it should be split in two with me getting 1/2 the estate - he contributed most of the money and it's not his fault he only had 1 child and she had 2 plus her daughter just inherited a 1 million dollar house from her dad (the same dad left her brother 10K - that's it, so cruel). I was also supposed to get the townhouse I'm living in now along with the other side - it's recorded on a Quit claim deed in their safety deposit box. My step mother pretends she never heard or saw any quit claim deed so she sold this right out from under me. The guy that bought it was a dear friend of my fathers and has no idea this happened but he is given me about a $200 per month discount on rent which is sweet). I should have fought harder when my dad died but I just didn't have it in me - plus what's to fight? There are no witnesses that I know of. But I'm just shocked at how people can be about money. I have a very long-term illness and would like to have some extra money for assisted living when I need it just like my dad did. Nothing fancy. She did, however take wonderful care of my father when he was having open heart surgery and hip replacements etc - I cannot fault her for that. She's 85 and I'm 61 - but her family tends to live a long time so she might outlive me - still it would be something to leave to my daughter and her family. OK enough drama, I need to get over it and move on with my life which is what I'm trying to do with my fish tanks.
I have a 32-gallon Biocube Reef/Saltwater tank. I bought this way back last April, had it cycled once so my first purchase were two Clown Fish and one beautiful anemone which seemed to change locations every time, I would look at the tank like it couldn't find just the right place. I started worrying there wasn't a BEST place and he would forever be a nomad but he settled down. The clown fish ignored it even, After two months I added (or tried to add) 4 more very small coral frags on sale for $9.99 each, Two got dropped and lost in the depth below. Number 3 found a shelf on the inside of the reef where it could attach to. The 4th frag was a leather - very firmly attached to it's frag so I just attached it to what appeared to be a good spot, based on it's requirements for medium flow and medium lighting. It looked very healthy. Then a month or so later I go in the fish room look at the tank and everything is dead, I can't even locate the fish - months later their skeletons appeared at the bottom of the tank, I wasn't actively measuring anything because things were going so well. Feeding was flake food (fishes preference) as well as some frozen (melted brine and shrimp). I kind of squirted these over the corals and anemone - no idea if they ate the food or not. This is far more difficult to do - it difficult enough to read up on all of this (with books contradicting each other) but I'm finding it more difficult to put into practice)
Here are my questions:
1. Should I replace all the water or just re-adjust it? I know the salinity is too high right now because I made the mistake (after everything was dead) of adding salt water when it was just evaporation and I should have used the RO/DI water that I made. I have to use a Hydrometer rather than the fancy ones that are so nice a professional looking because even with glasses and a magnifying glass and lots of light I still can't read the tiny numbers. My assistant can but he's on here on Tuesdays only. I probably have close to enough salt water on hand to almost replace the water but it would probably take one more day to have plenty on hand, Is it likely that everything died because of something in the water? Can we even guess what killed them all (my cat is not strong enough to lift the lid )
2. I've only done a water change (30% per one book) once. when animals were in it. No problems occurred. Salinity was perfect in the tank at that time and what I was putting in was perfect too.
3. How and when will the protein skimmer take off? This is the only model that fits the Biocube and I fight problems like the lid constantly coming off and the protein skimmer sinking clear underneath the water line. I had it resting on about 6 thick squares of sponges so the top would be out of the water but not so far I couldn't close the lids. Lost a lid deep in the reef - tried to purchase a replacement - they sent me an entire cup and lid for free.
4. I have two "fans" - but they don't seem to blow very hard. i could try to add a 3rd one perhaps with a wavemaker but I'm out of outlets so I'll have to do some playiing around until they have proper outlets. I'm so short on power that I have to dry my hair on the opposite side of the house. If I do it on the same side as the fish room (in the bathroom) I pop a breaker that turns off all my power on the fish side of the house. Also my oxygen concentrator is on the power out side so I'd have to wear a tank and go down some narrow basement stairs to the breaker and turn it back on. Some of the drugs I take mess with my balance so I usually send somebody to the basement to do whatever I need. It is very well organized so stuff is easy to find. It was sprayed for bugs and spiders last year and swept out well so other than the stairs it's very safe.
5. Any ideas for the sudden death phenomenon. I did water readings right after it happened and everything in the kit to measure was within range as was ammonia and nitrites. This was about a $400 loss so I'll be buying much cheaper corals - the fish were reasonably priced for clown fish and super healthy looking,
6. Finally and this is a HARD freshwater fish question: Why did my biggest Dojo bite the head off the smallest Dojo but not eat any of him - he's never shown any aggression before, but his old friends all died due to "new assistant inexperience" so I bought him some new friends - they've all been snuggling and playing, and I thought he was happier. And wouldn't it take TEETH to bite the head off an 8" DoJo (I'm not handfeeding these guys again LOL)
Any general words of wisdom before I embark on this adventure a second time? (I admit, after the loss of the first stuff my enthusiasm is waning. I keep thinking maybe I should just sell it all at a loss and move on with my life. Not to be the drama queen here but I likely have about 5-7 yrs left to live (I've been in deep disussions with my Palliative care team because I need to know how to manage my money - I had been thinking of moving into a Senior Living place just because I get so lonely - but while I could pay $2100 per month, I don't want to pay that much - and they don't even provide any medical care at all they just call 911, for some assisted living it's about $4600 a month and could only do that for about 2 yrs and I'd be stuck on medicaid and treated like crap.)
I have a 32-gallon Biocube Reef/Saltwater tank. I bought this way back last April, had it cycled once so my first purchase were two Clown Fish and one beautiful anemone which seemed to change locations every time, I would look at the tank like it couldn't find just the right place. I started worrying there wasn't a BEST place and he would forever be a nomad but he settled down. The clown fish ignored it even, After two months I added (or tried to add) 4 more very small coral frags on sale for $9.99 each, Two got dropped and lost in the depth below. Number 3 found a shelf on the inside of the reef where it could attach to. The 4th frag was a leather - very firmly attached to it's frag so I just attached it to what appeared to be a good spot, based on it's requirements for medium flow and medium lighting. It looked very healthy. Then a month or so later I go in the fish room look at the tank and everything is dead, I can't even locate the fish - months later their skeletons appeared at the bottom of the tank, I wasn't actively measuring anything because things were going so well. Feeding was flake food (fishes preference) as well as some frozen (melted brine and shrimp). I kind of squirted these over the corals and anemone - no idea if they ate the food or not. This is far more difficult to do - it difficult enough to read up on all of this (with books contradicting each other) but I'm finding it more difficult to put into practice)
Here are my questions:
1. Should I replace all the water or just re-adjust it? I know the salinity is too high right now because I made the mistake (after everything was dead) of adding salt water when it was just evaporation and I should have used the RO/DI water that I made. I have to use a Hydrometer rather than the fancy ones that are so nice a professional looking because even with glasses and a magnifying glass and lots of light I still can't read the tiny numbers. My assistant can but he's on here on Tuesdays only. I probably have close to enough salt water on hand to almost replace the water but it would probably take one more day to have plenty on hand, Is it likely that everything died because of something in the water? Can we even guess what killed them all (my cat is not strong enough to lift the lid )
2. I've only done a water change (30% per one book) once. when animals were in it. No problems occurred. Salinity was perfect in the tank at that time and what I was putting in was perfect too.
3. How and when will the protein skimmer take off? This is the only model that fits the Biocube and I fight problems like the lid constantly coming off and the protein skimmer sinking clear underneath the water line. I had it resting on about 6 thick squares of sponges so the top would be out of the water but not so far I couldn't close the lids. Lost a lid deep in the reef - tried to purchase a replacement - they sent me an entire cup and lid for free.
4. I have two "fans" - but they don't seem to blow very hard. i could try to add a 3rd one perhaps with a wavemaker but I'm out of outlets so I'll have to do some playiing around until they have proper outlets. I'm so short on power that I have to dry my hair on the opposite side of the house. If I do it on the same side as the fish room (in the bathroom) I pop a breaker that turns off all my power on the fish side of the house. Also my oxygen concentrator is on the power out side so I'd have to wear a tank and go down some narrow basement stairs to the breaker and turn it back on. Some of the drugs I take mess with my balance so I usually send somebody to the basement to do whatever I need. It is very well organized so stuff is easy to find. It was sprayed for bugs and spiders last year and swept out well so other than the stairs it's very safe.
5. Any ideas for the sudden death phenomenon. I did water readings right after it happened and everything in the kit to measure was within range as was ammonia and nitrites. This was about a $400 loss so I'll be buying much cheaper corals - the fish were reasonably priced for clown fish and super healthy looking,
6. Finally and this is a HARD freshwater fish question: Why did my biggest Dojo bite the head off the smallest Dojo but not eat any of him - he's never shown any aggression before, but his old friends all died due to "new assistant inexperience" so I bought him some new friends - they've all been snuggling and playing, and I thought he was happier. And wouldn't it take TEETH to bite the head off an 8" DoJo (I'm not handfeeding these guys again LOL)
Any general words of wisdom before I embark on this adventure a second time? (I admit, after the loss of the first stuff my enthusiasm is waning. I keep thinking maybe I should just sell it all at a loss and move on with my life. Not to be the drama queen here but I likely have about 5-7 yrs left to live (I've been in deep disussions with my Palliative care team because I need to know how to manage my money - I had been thinking of moving into a Senior Living place just because I get so lonely - but while I could pay $2100 per month, I don't want to pay that much - and they don't even provide any medical care at all they just call 911, for some assisted living it's about $4600 a month and could only do that for about 2 yrs and I'd be stuck on medicaid and treated like crap.)
(haven't learned all the terminology yet) 
