CageUK
Fishaholic
I saw a D&D 24g on ebay on monday night. The owner, to aid quick preparation for collection had removed all the live rock and put it in a bucket. Now although I've been looking at alternatives for a larger aquarium I was looking for something larger, but the price was good and I wanted to see if the ailing tank could be ressurected (I'm a sucker for punishment).
When I phoned him he said that the live rock had been out of the tank for about 36hrs in an unheated, uncirculated and unaerated bucket. He had also had a major outbreak of "red stuff" and to me it sounded like cyno. To cut a long story short I picked it up at midnight same night (as I was worried about the state of the live rock etc).
The tank was in a pretty sorry state when I got there. He had not only taken out the live rock but he had not replaced the water that he was storing the live rock in so the tank was only half full. The few softies that he had were scattered around the filthy sand, the tomato clown and humbug damsel were looking rather sorry for themselves and the external filter was jury rigged to circulate the water.
I got home at about 2am (it was over an hours journey each way) and started to do an emergency installation.
The live rock surprisingly seemed to have survived it's ordeal and was showing zero ammonia and nitrites but the nitrates were rather high.
The tank hadn't fared so well though and was showing ammonia at around .25 and nitrites at about .50. Again nitrates were high at about 20ppm, and boy did the water smell bad
As it was very late and I still had loads of work to do to sort the tank out I decided to get the tank up an running and sort out the water chemistry problem in the morning. The ammonia and nitrites were not extreme and the inhabitants would cope for one more night.
At about 4:30am I had got the tank inhabitable (just) and fell into bed.
I spent a major part of the next day setting the tank up properly. I'd intended cycling the live rock in the bucket with a powerhead, heater and air pump. Once, cleaning up, repairing the broken filter walls (the walls had come away from the tank back panel) cleaning changing water etc. I had originally intended to cycle the live rock seperatly in the bucket along with a heater, air pump and powerhead but once I realised that the live rock was not the problem it made sense to put it into the tank to help to stabilise it. I also removed half the stinky sand and rinsed the remaining half in tank water before returning it.
Unfortunately I didn't have enough RO to do the amount of water changes that I would have liked but I got about 30% changed. I put some Rowaphos and some nitrate remover into the external filter. It took a couple of hours or so to get the live rock water up to temp. The poor fish and softies spent most of the day in a plastic tub with a heater aeration and powerhead.
I noticed that there are ceramic noodles in the rear chamber and noodles and foam in the external filter. This certainly will not be helping the nitrates problems and the blooms of diatoms/brown algae that has ensued. Once the tank has completed it's cycling I will gradually remove all this filter stuff and add some live rubble. I may eventually remove the canister but for the moment it can house my Rowaphos etc.
As of tonight I'm getting waves of brown algae throughout day/night and tank is pretty much safe as far as water chemistry is concerned (minor trace of nitrite still). PH has risen from a worrying 7.8 to a more respectable 8.25. Nitrates are still high at 20ppm but another large water change should help that, now that I have another new mix bubbling away.
I am going to get a skimmer for the tank and a UV. Having used these in the Orca that I have I am now considering these a must! I have already added an additional powerhead (Koralia Nano)
There is a green leg hermit and a turbo in there so my next priority will be getting a substantial clean up crew the get the tank into shape.
Here is the tank soon after refilling/scaping. It is still a little cloudy.
The tomato clown
The tiny humbug damsel
The hermit. He's sure got his work cut out!
Some shrooms
And the brown stuff (not at it's worse!!)
As said I won't be running this as a journal as I already have one, and one more would just be greedy
I just didn't want confusion if I need to ask questions
Cheers
When I phoned him he said that the live rock had been out of the tank for about 36hrs in an unheated, uncirculated and unaerated bucket. He had also had a major outbreak of "red stuff" and to me it sounded like cyno. To cut a long story short I picked it up at midnight same night (as I was worried about the state of the live rock etc).
The tank was in a pretty sorry state when I got there. He had not only taken out the live rock but he had not replaced the water that he was storing the live rock in so the tank was only half full. The few softies that he had were scattered around the filthy sand, the tomato clown and humbug damsel were looking rather sorry for themselves and the external filter was jury rigged to circulate the water.
I got home at about 2am (it was over an hours journey each way) and started to do an emergency installation.
The live rock surprisingly seemed to have survived it's ordeal and was showing zero ammonia and nitrites but the nitrates were rather high.
The tank hadn't fared so well though and was showing ammonia at around .25 and nitrites at about .50. Again nitrates were high at about 20ppm, and boy did the water smell bad
As it was very late and I still had loads of work to do to sort the tank out I decided to get the tank up an running and sort out the water chemistry problem in the morning. The ammonia and nitrites were not extreme and the inhabitants would cope for one more night.
At about 4:30am I had got the tank inhabitable (just) and fell into bed.
I spent a major part of the next day setting the tank up properly. I'd intended cycling the live rock in the bucket with a powerhead, heater and air pump. Once, cleaning up, repairing the broken filter walls (the walls had come away from the tank back panel) cleaning changing water etc. I had originally intended to cycle the live rock seperatly in the bucket along with a heater, air pump and powerhead but once I realised that the live rock was not the problem it made sense to put it into the tank to help to stabilise it. I also removed half the stinky sand and rinsed the remaining half in tank water before returning it.
Unfortunately I didn't have enough RO to do the amount of water changes that I would have liked but I got about 30% changed. I put some Rowaphos and some nitrate remover into the external filter. It took a couple of hours or so to get the live rock water up to temp. The poor fish and softies spent most of the day in a plastic tub with a heater aeration and powerhead.
I noticed that there are ceramic noodles in the rear chamber and noodles and foam in the external filter. This certainly will not be helping the nitrates problems and the blooms of diatoms/brown algae that has ensued. Once the tank has completed it's cycling I will gradually remove all this filter stuff and add some live rubble. I may eventually remove the canister but for the moment it can house my Rowaphos etc.
As of tonight I'm getting waves of brown algae throughout day/night and tank is pretty much safe as far as water chemistry is concerned (minor trace of nitrite still). PH has risen from a worrying 7.8 to a more respectable 8.25. Nitrates are still high at 20ppm but another large water change should help that, now that I have another new mix bubbling away.
I am going to get a skimmer for the tank and a UV. Having used these in the Orca that I have I am now considering these a must! I have already added an additional powerhead (Koralia Nano)
There is a green leg hermit and a turbo in there so my next priority will be getting a substantial clean up crew the get the tank into shape.
Here is the tank soon after refilling/scaping. It is still a little cloudy.
The tomato clown
The tiny humbug damsel
The hermit. He's sure got his work cut out!
Some shrooms
And the brown stuff (not at it's worse!!)
As said I won't be running this as a journal as I already have one, and one more would just be greedy
I just didn't want confusion if I need to ask questions
Cheers
