Dawn On The Reef

[aaronnorth]

PS. Bring your wallet

My dad wants me too set up a marine tank but seen as i dont work it is too much money, it is the salt aswell.

 

[seffieuk]

Seffie X

 

[seffieuk]

'failure is a great teacher' does that then mean that the best teachers' are failures (I'm allowed to say that, I'm a teacher!)

Seffie x

 

[BigC]

Could be a Great Failure in progress seffieuk (Oh prophet of doom) LOL
Gotta go could loose the tank and all thats in her. Catastrophe in progress Real Time.
Somethings not right.........
Get back as soon as I can with details Good or Bad.
Regards
BigC

 

[ben1987]

it was your tank that finally tipped me over to starting mine after looking for over a year on different forums. Limited on space, yours showed me you can make a small tank look stunning.

 

[BigC]

Thanks Ben,

Crisis Overted
I'm nearly temped to swear here at my own stupidity, Friday evening I saw a large turbo snail fall from high up on the rock all the way down to the tank bed. Thought nothing off it as these snails can right themselves after a fall, right. I left the snail there and went about my business. Just before going to bed I checked the tank again and the snail still hadn't moved. "I'll get it out when the lights come on tommorrow" I thought and went to bed. Next morning I inspected the tank and sure enough the snail was still upturned, and this time shrimp, crabs and the tenticales of the maze coral were all attending to the snail. "The snail is defo dead" I thought, "I'll just wait until the lights come on then I'll remove it". (mistake) An hour later there was an almighty smell comming from the tank (like rotten eggs) Phew. The acrid smell was spreading around the house. Action Stations I quickly whipped the offending dead snail from the tank (worried about loosing hundreds of pounds worth of stock) Things were manic during this time. I run off some RO water and made up some salt solution as quick as I could, barely giving it time to mix (two powerheads and a heater and a large ladle were employed) Once the SG was right and the heat was equalised I changed 12ltrs of water in the tank. The tank was still smelling bad, I performed this proceedure a total of four times (48ltr exchange in all) I also placed an airline feed into the sump/refugium and reduced the water level in the main aquarium so as the spraybar return greatly aggitated the water surface for more gas exchange.
This senario played itself out during Saturday and I think I've managed to save everything. All stock looked fine during the process except for the Xenia which initally alerted me to there was something just not right. But I think I've managed to save this also.
Stand Down
Phew, after a few adreniline fueled hours running to and from the garage mixing RO and waterchanging I have managed to save the tank in its entirity. I shudder to think what might have been if I hadn't been on hand (being a weekend and not a work day). One darn snail, one pesky little dead snail and my reluctance to act quicker could and would have nuked my tank. Doesn't bare to think about.
A Big Lesson learnt here I think, a wakeup call of titanic proportions. I pride myself around being vigilant with my fish tanks and always have done over many years but in this instance I was lax and not tuned into the fact that on this side of the fence any abnormalities need and must be dealt with immediately otherwise you may stand to loose quite a lot.
The tank is back to being sweet again, the acrid smell is a thing of the past and all the corals,critters and fish seem a lot better for the massive water exchange.
But to reitterate I shudder to think what might have become if I hadn't acted so promptly. The smell was not there on the Saturday morning and enveloped the house quite quickly (within an hour) Doors and windows had to be opened to rid the house of this awful pungent aroma.
This is a lesson I wish to publish not only for me but for all you budding aquarists out there, that to always be vigilant keep an eye on your pride and joy notice everything thats going on both in and around your tank and be quick to act to any emergency which may arise. Anything dead or dying dont leave it in there, extract the offending article immediately. Thus reducing the risk.
I am a great advocate of having your own water (RO) on hand for such emergencies as without it I would have been up the creek without a paddle.

Sorry for such a long post but I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of at least one of the pitfalls (if your not careful) which can befall your beloved aquaria
Regards
BigC

 

[@ombomb]

glad to hear you managed to avert disaster, completely agree on having enough water ready to do an unscheduled water change

 

[seffieuk]

Holy Moly, was wondering if crisis was dealt with successfully, thank goodness


Seffie now adds another thing to shopping list: always ensure you have spare RO for an unschedualed change of water. Boy, life on the salty side is perilous, blooming scary stuff


Seffie X



ps
can we have some more photos?

 

[BigC]

Yeah alls well that ends well as they say...Phew
Yes folks, get yourself a nice full sized RO system, hook it up to the washing machine cold tap (as discribed earlier in thread) and install a rainwater butt close by for stock water collection, your run off or waste water can be directed down the washing machine waste pipe.

ps
can we have some more photos?

You certainly can, might just do that tomorrow evening as a few coral sp need to be moved around due to close proximity to each other. I'm gonna have to move the maze coral a little way forward because boy you want to see the extension of the sweeper tentacles in the early morning they must extend a good 100mm from such a small frag. The gold/yellow sand polyps are just growing like weeds so I'll have to move them as they are encroching on a mushroom colony. I have another Zoa frag due to arrive on Wednesday (after the Bank Holiday) This is a nice metallic green I've been after for some time.
http/www.zoaphoria.co.uk/forsale/zoas/fr...e/zoafrag49.jpg
Get you the pics as soon as I can, thanks for showing an interest.

Regards
bigC

 

[AnakBettaMoon]

This is a nice metallic green I've been after for some time.

Thats funny, i was just thinking how it would be an awesome pop of color to have a bright green like a flashlight acropora, or a sunset montipora

love the tank by the way, spent a good deal of yesterday reading over the last 21 pages, made my self wait and not skip to the end to see the results

 

[kj23502]

wow! That was crazy.

Glad it all turned out ok

 

[BigC]

wow! That was crazy.
Glad it all turned out ok

Yeah that was a sticky moment, true, heart in the mouth stuff.

Anyway I took delivery of the aforementioned Zoa frag (metallic green) and the seller threw in another (freebie) which is a blue colour I think. I will get some pics up when my Finger Leather decides to come out of its sulk (again)
Regards
BigC

 

[dark_stranger]

thanks, I dont mind really how long it takes i think you tank looks brilliant. Did you buy the ceraminc media from ebay aswell? From my LFS 10 boxes comes in at just short of 100 quid
Anything else you could use instead?
cheers

PS hope you dont mind me using your idea

Ben, search for Alfa Grog,its the same stuff, but you can get a bag holding over 100 of those boxes for about £25

 

[ben1987]

Ben, search for Alfa Grog,its the same stuff, but you can get a bag holding over 100 of those boxes for about £25

Thank you

 

[BigC]

Just a little update,
For the most part everything is going really well at the moment (just a few little gripes). I have aquired another coral (Gorgorian sp) I aquired it from a fellow reef club member who was swapping over to an all SPS type tank. I got it home and immediatly fragged it by taking some cuttings with some scissors. I stripped the skin of the bottom end of each stalk (10mm) with my fingernail. Just like stripping wire really because you'll be left with a stalk that resembles such. Next I drilled 3 holes in a small piece of LR and filed these with Milliput. I then planted the Gorgoran stalks into the epoxy, to the position I wanted them. I let this rest on the tank floor for 24 hours before placement. After which time the polyps had emerged (cream polyps on purple stalks). This was a real easy operation to perform and was my first introduction into the art of coral fragging.
See pics below.

One fragged Gorgorian

and again!

Maze Coral with Scooter Blenny in background

Greedy Duncans

Scooter Blenny

FTS

Latest pics.
I'm having a problem with the larger Clownfish feaverishly attacking my large Fanworm, to the point where it no longer comes out. Should I remove the Fanworm?
Regards
BigC