Jump to content
Coral Vue Hydros

Mr. Aqua 17.1 - tank crash :(


hinnenkm

Recommended Posts

The new FTS is beautiful! I love the colors and textures in your tank.

Oh, and congratulations on the Apex. You'll hate it while you figure out how to get started, but you'll love it once it's all set up :)

 

Thank you so much! I am excited about the Apex, but honestly need to figure out what would be the best application of it for this tank... I mean I like being involved with it and am not sure exactly what I would use the Apex for, but at the same time and very thankful for it!

Awesome to see a tank doing so well with a simple HOB! Just shows you do not need the fancy gear!

 

Thank you so much, and yes, keep it simple :)

Great photos and video Katie

 

You were the one that won the Apex at New Wave?! Congrats!!

 

If you ever want to downsize to the Apex Classic I have a brand new one in box I'd trade + cash for that one. wink wink

 

Thanks for the compliments, and yeah it was from New Wave :) that's my all time favorite store!

I'd definitely consider your offer and we can chat more about it, thanks!

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
  • Replies 75
  • Created
  • Last Reply

29473974323_c9ce7e5f58_b.jpgIMG_2440 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

29473989523_23417f515f_b.jpgIMG_2441 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

30067158266_94d0b6ca81_b.jpgIMG_2444 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

30067161946_6be4e065d1_b.jpgIMG_2445 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

30067165866_6ef336cd50_b.jpgIMG_2447 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

30067170036_e41aa753e1_b.jpgIMG_2450 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

29806866250_983d22905b_b.jpgIMG_2059 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

29806861920_d1a83facf7_b.jpgIMG_2064 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

I've been really happy with how the tank has been running - mainly in maintenance mode with no issues at the moment :) Things have been going smoothly!

My 15 gallon has been running as smoothly as well and I have officially gotten rid of the green hair algae that it had, as well as the aptasia. I don't have a build thread for it, so figured I'd post a pic here!

 

29806857680_2aee842ab7_b.jpgIMG_2451 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

Also, this happened for the 17 gallon.....

 

30018222681_94c250aafd_k.jpgIMG_2513 by katieh4002, on Flickr

 

After getting the Apex, I wanted an all in one so that the probes and whatnot could be put in the back compartments. I started looking on Craigslist and found a Fluval M60 in great condition and very cheap. Everything is now transferred to this tank and I have added sand as well. In addition to moving everything to the new tank, I've gotten a few more fish for the tank as well - a beautiful mandarin dragonet and two dragon faced pipefish. They are all doing really well and I'm very happy to have them!

 

I wasn't sure if I'd get another dragonet after losing my male that I had had for almost 4 years, but saw the new guy at the store and he was just beautiful, so I took the plunge!

 

The pipefish were additions from one of my favorite lfs, and they had been at the store for over a week or so already, so I took them home. I started hatching baby brine for all of them, but it turns out that NanoV Softfreeze Zooplankton is a pretty appetizing food!

 

I'm looking forward to getting some new pictures/video up within the next week.
Thanks for taking a look!

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

The new tank was doing really well until just a few days ago. On Saturday I woke up to my pipefish dead and was pretty upset by that, but couldn't do much because I had an all day training to attend. After getting home from my training, I found my filefish dead and so I tested the water and all was fine, except nitrates were a little high (not great with the exact numbers, sorry!). I did a large water change (75%) and things were looking good. The next day, things seemed alright and then by yesterday when I got home from work, my cardinal and dragonet were dead as well. The only thing I noticed is that my water was reading at 82 degree and so I pulled the heater out of the tank (by this time, I had already gotten my remaining fish into an extra five gallon I had laying around...). The only other pieces of equipment were the hydor 240 powerhead and the pump from the fluval m60.

 

After talking for awhile on the phone with a local fish store (whom I trust), we weren't able to come to any great conclusions, but think it was the heater?

 

He also mentioned though that a 75% water change can be more harmful and good - so I'm curious to get others' opinions on this since I've read things from all across the spectrum and have used that to remedy issues in the past.

 

With all that being said, it really really sucks to have this happen and to lose as many fish as I did (several inverts and corals too). At this point, I'm seriously just reconsidering my options and am not sure what direction this whole thing will take - nothing is left in the new tank...it's all been moved to temporary tanks.

 

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, comments, suggestions, or trouble shooting ideas you may have!

~Katie

Link to comment

I'm really sorry to hear about your loses, that really sucks. If water quality was ok and it was a busted heater it could have been stray voltage that did the damage. Certain fish and some corals are more susceptible to it than others.

Link to comment

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear about this, especially when things were going so well!

 

Switching tanks is a weird business. For some folks it goes smoothly and with no problems. For others, bad things happen a couple weeks after the move, and for no apparent reason. I agree with Jase, though, if the heater was not working right, it could have leaked stray voltage, which would definitely explain what happened.

 

As far as the water change goes, a 75% change isn't unreasonable if it's a last resort and you're thinking everything's going to die anyway. If the parameters of the new water match the tank closely, it should be fine. But if the water change results in a sudden swing in parameters, it could be really hard on the corals, at least.

Link to comment

I'm really sorry to hear about your loses, that really sucks. If water quality was ok and it was a busted heater it could have been stray voltage that did the damage. Certain fish and some corals are more susceptible to it than others.

 

 

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear about this, especially when things were going so well!

 

Switching tanks is a weird business. For some folks it goes smoothly and with no problems. For others, bad things happen a couple weeks after the move, and for no apparent reason. I agree with Jase, though, if the heater was not working right, it could have leaked stray voltage, which would definitely explain what happened.

 

As far as the water change goes, a 75% change isn't unreasonable if it's a last resort and you're thinking everything's going to die anyway. If the parameters of the new water match the tank closely, it should be fine. But if the water change results in a sudden swing in parameters, it could be really hard on the corals, at least.

 

Thank you both for your words and suggestions. The stray voltage is the only thing that I can come up with, but it just sucks to have resulted in so much loss of life. It's such a simple thing to go out and buy a new heater, but you never know when something like that will happen...

Thanks for the info on the water change too - that's along the same lines of what I had been thinking, but it's always nice to hear it from other people too!

Link to comment

I am very sorry to hear of your losses. That can be so disheartening. I also doubt it was the WC as I have done big WCs many many times as a tech and never had an issue. The only thing I worry about with big WCs is if the municipal water is temporarily not up to par. That is rare however.

 

Maybe try a polyfilter pad just to check if there is any odd contaminate. It will change colors if there is. Hang in there hinnenkm.

Link to comment

That's horrible. Sorry to see that. Your 17 was like perfect and I'm sure this one will be also. Great pics too.

 

Thank you for the sympathy and the compliments, I appreciate both!

 

I'm really undecided as to what the next steps are and don't know if I will end up using the fluval still or doing something on a really small scale...

I am very sorry to hear of your losses. That can be so disheartening. I also doubt it was the WC as I have done big WCs many many times as a tech and never had an issue. The only thing I worry about with big WCs is if the municipal water is temporarily not up to par. That is rare however.

 

Maybe try a polyfilter pad just to check if there is any odd contaminate. It will change colors if there is. Hang in there hinnenkm.

Thank you, I appreciate that because it really isn't a fun process.

As far as the water change, I've done them many times on many tanks throughout the years and never had issues, which is why I'm curious as to other people's opinions/experiences. I do use RO water all the time though and when I test tds it's always at zero or very close.... so who knows?

 

Sorry to hear that you're pipefish isn't doing well, just caught up on your thread. The guy I talked to about my tank when I told him my pipefish was the first I lost and said that I had had him for over a year and a half said that was great. Two years sounds like you've done a fantastic job with yours, but never fun to see a fish on the decline :(

Link to comment

So sorry to hear about your issues. I was very close to purchasing a pair of flame pipefish this weekend and thought of your tank. This hobby can be frustrating at times but I hope you move on and create another masterpiece.

Link to comment

So sorry to hear about your issues. I was very close to purchasing a pair of flame pipefish this weekend and thought of your tank. This hobby can be frustrating at times but I hope you move on and create another masterpiece.

 

This hobby can be frustrating at times, but thank you!

What kept you from getting the pipefish? They are such cool creatures :) I've got one of my dragon faced pipefish still that survived the crash, but from that tank, it's just him and the clowns. I'd love to get him another partner down the line though...

Link to comment

I have two tangs and two clowns in my 75 gallon tank and I am afraid the pipefish wont have enough to eat. I don't have any pods either.

 

75 gallon might be big, especially if you'd be trying to target feed and get it onto frozen. Maybe in your other tank?!

There is a really good food that worked right away for my dragonet and my other pipefish - nanoV 'soft freeze' zoo plankton has been really great.

Link to comment

 

75 gallon might be big, especially if you'd be trying to target feed and get it onto frozen. Maybe in your other tank?!

There is a really good food that worked right away for my dragonet and my other pipefish - nanoV 'soft freeze' zoo plankton has been really great.

My other tank is only 13.5 gallons. I am afraid that wont be big enough either =(.

Link to comment

My other tank is only 13.5 gallons. I am afraid that wont be big enough either =(.

 

 

My 17 wasn't all that much bigger than the 13.5... but I get what you're saying!

Link to comment

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear about this, especially when things were going so well!

 

Switching tanks is a weird business. For some folks it goes smoothly and with no problems. For others, bad things happen a couple weeks after the move, and for no apparent reason. I agree with Jase, though, if the heater was not working right, it could have leaked stray voltage, which would definitely explain what happened.

 

As far as the water change goes, a 75% change isn't unreasonable if it's a last resort and you're thinking everything's going to die anyway. If the parameters of the new water match the tank closely, it should be fine. But if the water change results in a sudden swing in parameters, it could be really hard on the corals, at least.

 

Yip i can vouch for this!

 

Did you have an apex? with a temp probe? can you check the graphs to see if temp was high?

Link to comment

 

Yip i can vouch for this!

 

Did you have an apex? with a temp probe? can you check the graphs to see if temp was high?

 

Yes I have an apex, but had not hooked it up yet.... :( that was going to be one of my upcoming projects. The thermometer that I had in the tank was reading at 82 degrees, but that's all I know...

Link to comment

Temperature control is one of the nicest things about the Apex, even if it's the most basic. My Apex turns the heater on and off, with the heater thermostat set just a little higher than the Apex set point. Then I have a small computer fan positioned to blow across the back chambers, and the Apex turns it on if the temperature gets more than .2 degrees above the set point. Unless I have an air conditioning failure, my temperature stays within half a degree of the set point all the time.

Link to comment

Temperature control is one of the nicest things about the Apex, even if it's the most basic. My Apex turns the heater on and off, with the heater thermostat set just a little higher than the Apex set point. Then I have a small computer fan positioned to blow across the back chambers, and the Apex turns it on if the temperature gets more than .2 degrees above the set point. Unless I have an air conditioning failure, my temperature stays within half a degree of the set point all the time.

 

I agree with the idea of monitoring temperature and how valuable it can be! I guess it's hard because there are so many unknowns and even though you may be monitoring the temperature, would that necessarily be connected with stray voltage that may (or may not) be the cause of all of this?

 

Do you have your apex hooked up to your small tank? I'm leaning towards getting rid of the fluval and going smaller (because I do have two other tanks running, but I want a fun reef tank in my living room still....). I guess I just want to figure out the best way to do this and use apex without the probes and stuff being unsightly. So many options...!

Link to comment

You're correct, the Apex temp probe would not tell you if you have stray voltage, unfortunately.

 

I use my Apex on all three of my tanks. The Apex Jr. is on the 4g tank, and the Apex Lite has modules for both the 10g tank and the 40g tank. I have temp and Ph in the bigger tanks, and just temp in the 4g.

 

All my tanks are AIO, so the probes are hidden in the back chamber.

Link to comment

You're correct, the Apex temp probe would not tell you if you have stray voltage, unfortunately.

 

I use my Apex on all three of my tanks. The Apex Jr. is on the 4g tank, and the Apex Lite has modules for both the 10g tank and the 40g tank. I have temp and Ph in the bigger tanks, and just temp in the 4g.

 

All my tanks are AIO, so the probes are hidden in the back chamber.

 

Part of my new plan is to get the Apex set up this weekend! We'll see how it goes :)

Link to comment

Sorry to hear about your troubles

 

Would be awesome if the apex could detect stray voltage in the water column and compare it to a recorded trend of the power being used at each outlet and then kill power to the problem outlet if there were issues. No telling how many tanks would benefit from it .

Link to comment

Katie - I'm so so sorry about your losses :( it's so hard especially when you don't know exactly what the cause was! I wouldn't think 82* would be the culprit but I don't have any other thoughts. Everything looked perfect.

Link to comment

Sorry to hear about your troubles

 

Would be awesome if the apex could detect stray voltage in the water column and compare it to a recorded trend of the power being used at each outlet and then kill power to the problem outlet if there were issues. No telling how many tanks would benefit from it .

 

Yes it would be!

Katie - I'm so so sorry about your losses :( it's so hard especially when you don't know exactly what the cause was! I wouldn't think 82* would be the culprit but I don't have any other thoughts. Everything looked perfect.

Thanks much! I saw your comment on instagram too and appreciate them :)

I don't know that I'll ever have a real answer, but even though 82 is high, I don't know that that would have been enough to kill 5 fish that quick... ?! I'm still kind of leaning towards stray voltage from the heater, but again, who knows?

I spent most of the day getting the other tank moved/up and running though!

Link to comment

Sorry to hear about the tank Katie. My nano gets up to 85 many days during the summer. The corals don't do great but everything survives. SO I doubt 82 is going to do a massive crash. My first reaction when reading this was the Apex might have turned something on / off/ or overdosed something, but then you said you hadn't gotten it hooked up yet.

 

Voltage or corroding metal/magnet would come to mind if all parameters were stable and no different from before.

 

Any reason you are choosing not to use the new M60?

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...