blankminded Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I got a beautiful 2 head orange octospawn and a single head green octospawn last week for my newly revamped 8 gallon. Everything was going great and then I had to mess with things. I decided to make my own media basket out of egg crate and thin acrylic. I put it all together with superglue and silicone. Well yesterday i got all my media in so I set it all up and put it in the tank. Now there are 4 chambers/levels to the basket I made. I have filter floss in the top section, then chemi pure elite, then purigen, and at the bottom I have a poly filter. I thought everything was good until I got up this morning. This is what the orange octo looked like the day I got it. Yesterday It was out and extended even more then in this image. And this is what I woke up to. Both Orange and green octos look horrible. I also have a small bicolor frogspawn in there that doesn't look as bad but doesn't look happy. Link to comment
ndrobey Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Take the media basket out and do a large water change. Most likely, something you used to make the media basket is not reef safe. Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Already done. I did a 2 gallon water change as that was all the water I had ready. I'm making 5 more gallons so I can do a larger change as soon as its ready. I wasn't sure if it was the media basket or I was hoping it was the fact that I went from a small cartridge with a little carbon to all the chemi pure, purigen, and poly filter. I did rinse them all out before putting them in the basket. I was just hoping this was a normal reaction if you change all your filter media at once. Link to comment
D Z Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Not usually a typical reaction. What type of super glue and silicone did you use to make the basket? Did the silicone happen to say anything about mold inhibitor on the package? Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 The corals are starting to looking a little better now that I did the 2 gallon water change. I also took a picture of the glue and silicone I used. IM pretty sure I have used both in fresh/salt water tanks before without any ill effect. maybe using them together was the issue? This is what I used to make the basket. http://smg.photobucket.com/user/blankminded/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150128_121245.jpg.html'> Here is the corals look like now. I did the water change about 3-4 hours ago. http://smg.photobucket.com/user/blankminded/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20150128_121257.jpg.html'> Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 I think it's possible to have small reactions in a tank when changing things like the chemical filtration. I mean in your case it's a pretty small tank and depending on how much of each type you used the effects could be noticeable. That being said I can't say i've experienced your type of reaction due to this phenomenon, I'm just putting it out there... First things first, why don't you test your water? I would look at pH, temp, ALK for starters. I think typical acrylic (even the thin home depot stuff) is pretty safe, but I'm curious about if some of the adhesives you used either aren't reef safe or possibly didn't have enough time to fully cure before being added to the tank. One way you can tell if silicone is "reef safe" when cured is when you apply it there's a strong vinegar smell. If the smell is more sweet and burny it's probably a type of silicone that shouldn't be used in a reef tank. Note that this is just an observation from my research... It seems that all silicones used in aquarium making that have a FDA food safe rating are acetic acid cure, wheras silicones for construction and other non food-safe applications use different chemicals that I think smell less and IMO sweeter. Superglue is normally used in reefing, though you may want to give us the type of superglue used and the ingredients just to be sure. Either way I wouldn't get too worried just yet. Do your water changes and observe things for a little bit. I'm guessing things will improve but if they don't then let us know. Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 A little update. The octo's are still not happy but not getting worse. My bicolor frogspawn was doing good through his whole event. Over night something happen. I'm not sure what happen but after getting home from work today this is what I see. The octo's The bicolor that looked great yesterday. The only critters in the tank is 3 hermit crabs and a emerald crab. Link to comment
reefingrob Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 i've been out of reef tanks for a while but it seems like when i had frogspawn that were splitting branches they would withdraw a lot until the tissue was separated. looks like you may be going through that. Link to comment
D Z Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 i've been out of reef tanks for a while but it seems like when i had frogspawn that were splitting branches they would withdraw a lot until the tissue was separated. looks like you may be going through that. I highly doubt all 3 would do this at the same time, though. While that would be nice, it is highly unlikely. OP - have you checked any water parameters? Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Yes I checked the ph, nitrates, ammonia, Cal, Alk, and phos the day before this who thing went down. All parameters where great. After all this happen I checked the ph which was still good. I checked the nitrates which were still at 0 and I checked the ammonia which was a little above 0. Kinda weird that it went up a little in 1 day after adding the media basket and all the media. I don't have a Cal, Alk, or Phos test. I went to the LFS and had them tested but I have testers for all 3 coming in tomorrow so ill check them as soon as UPS drops off the kits. Link to comment
GokesReef Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Might have been too much chemical filtration added at once and the change in water chemistry shocked them.. now the ammo spike would be dying tissue decaying... which could start an awful chain reaction. I would say do a big water change ASAP and pull the media basket then add it one bit at a time, a few days apart. Going from nothing to purigen + chemipure (how big were the bags of each that you used?) in an 8 gal could be significant. Other possibility would be something questionable in the materials you used to construct the basket. Either way, they're not looking good and there's something with that water that is making them unhappy - get that water change going! Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 I did 2 water different water changes of 2 gallons each time 2 days ago when this all happen. I also took out the media basket and just placed the purigen and filter floss back in. I'm thinking about doing another 1 gallon water change today just to be safe. Should I do the 1 gallon or more water change today or should I just leave things alone and hope they recover? Link to comment
GokesReef Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 Test for ammonia again, and if you still have any, do a WC Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 I tested and my nitrates are at zero and my ammonia wasn't at zero but quite .25 ppm. I also checker my salinity and it was at 1.021. I then checked my salt water that I do my water changes with and it was 1.024. I'm not sure how it dropped. Just to days ago I did that 50% change with water that was at 1.024. Either way I did a 1 gallon water change and I will check them again in the morning. Link to comment
blankminded Posted January 31, 2015 Author Share Posted January 31, 2015 So I got 2 of the 3 testers I ordered in. I got the ALK and the Phoshorus test in. The Ocot's are a looking a little better every day so Im really hoping they make it. I tested my parameters again and this is what I got. Temp: 78 Salinity: 1.023 Nitrates: 0 ppm Ammonia: 0.15 ppm Phosphorus: 5 PPB or 0.02 PPM in Phosphates ALK 172 PPM = 9.63 CAL: Tester comes in on Tuesday so Ill get a definite answer then. I had it tested a week ago and it was at 500 PPM Link to comment
blankminded Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Quick little update. Both the orange and green ocyos are looking better. The orange is looking the best. The bicolor frogspawn is trying to make a come back but I dont think it will. I took a quick shot before leaving for work. Link to comment
pokerdobe Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I had a hammer that looked 10x worse than that and it made it through. Just keep trucking and I think they'll be fine. Link to comment
GokesReef Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Looking much better! Another water change soon would be a good idea just to knock out the last of that ammonia. Good work! Link to comment
blankminded Posted February 4, 2015 Author Share Posted February 4, 2015 Yes tomorrow morning I'm doing another small water change and then test everything again just to make sure. I'm going to a local frag swap this Saturday so I wanna make sure everything is good in case I find something I wanna get. Link to comment
blankminded Posted February 5, 2015 Author Share Posted February 5, 2015 So after do a 1 gallon water change this morning I did some tests. This is what I tested Temp: 78 PH: 8.1 Ammonia: 0.10 ppm Nitrate: 0 ppm Phos: 0 ppm ALK: 8.84 ppm Cal: 495 The octo's are looking better and better everyday. The bicolor frogspawn is still not looking good but has not gotten any worse so my fingers are crossed. Link to comment
jasonnau Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Silicon II is your issue. If I remember corectly Ge silicone 1 is what you want. Silicone 2 has anti-fungal. Silicone 1 is safe. 2 is Not reef safe. Link to comment
Wisenheimer Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 +1 on the silicone being the problem. GE Silicone II is listed on their website as being a "Mold Free" product. This plus whatever they're using to make it cure faster are probably your problem. +1 on the silicone being the problem. GE Silicone II is listed on their website as being a "Mold Free" product. This plus whatever they're using to make it cure faster are probably your problem. Link to comment
drexel Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 I agree with the silicon being the culprit, but why so much chemical filtration in such a small tank? Just curious? Link to comment
Sancho Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 This seems to settled. I personally think it was not enough cure time with the silicone no matter what silicone the OP used. Although why are you trying to bond acrylic with silicone and super glue in the first place? If your gonna attempt this again use Weld On 16, or Weld On 4. Weld on 16 is thicker more forgiving and has a slower bond time. Also thats overkill on the filtration for your tank. Filter floss and chemi pure nano is really all you need. #### this is a year old thread. Link to comment
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