hotshot619 Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 So I', breaking the cardinal rule of go slow but for good reason. Today I rescued 3 Blue Blue Damselfish in what can only be compared to Chernobyl the fish version....I have never felt so disgusted at someone and felt so bad for these poor animals as today. I will explain more when I get a chance, for now I finally got this sticky stench off me and I'm going to bed. Here is a preview of the horror, Salt creep actually fixed (like with cement) the tank to the stand, covered the back like a white backing, 1.031 salt level, filter was so clogged it looked like someone just dumped in dirt to it, Algae that could be smelt from 10 feet away outside!, Needed a razor blade to get all the algae off ( which came off in ribbons of filth)gross!!!, salt creep COVERING all the electrical wires, no power head, and three fish that looked about 2 days from death. I dropped in a heater and power head in the original tank water in a 30 gallon tonight while I let the now cleaned tank sit with new salt water in it and tomorrow I'll transfer they live rock and Fish to the tank. I'm hopping since they were this hardy already they will make it through the night and I'll be measuring the water quality to try and avoid this new tank from cycling to hard on the fish. Tomorrow I'm almost afraid to see what the levels are in the old water, I'm thinking its going to be more nitrate then water.... I wanted to ring the neck of these people as I took this tank, (For free) which was nice but I spent all day cleaning so I feel like I just did an ASPCA raid or something. 1.031 I cant believe these fish could breath!!! The people told me their son left it and they just have been feeding it every day for the past 2 months.....No WATER CHANGES OR EVEN TOP OFFS. If I come back as a fish and don't get the pleasure of living in the ocean I hope my owner will at least sell me back to the LFS rather then let be suffocate in my own filth! #%$% ok, done ranting for now...bed :-P Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 1, 2011 Author Share Posted August 1, 2011 So, the live rock in in the tank as well as the 4 hermits and 3 Damselfish. I temp matched them as well as drip acclimated them, thought I'm sure if was like going from the Sahara to a comfortable air conditioned room for them. After swimming around and finding some hiding places in the rock work they all immediately came out and seem very happy (not surprising) and even stopped swimming to a hiding spot when I come to check on them. I stopped by Pet Smart to exchange the Stealth heater for a new heater, took literally less than 2 minutes and they were very helpful, picked up a Aqueon Plastic heater. The heater looks well enough, not sure if I would use it in my Flu-val but fine for these guys. After transferring the fish I picked out the shells so I could drop them in the now clean tank, assuming these all had creatures living in them there were 4 Mexican turbo snails, 6 banded trochus, 8 margarita snails, 4 small red or blue leg hermits , and 3 cerith snails that all died in this tank. In other words this was an animal graveyard where only 4 "Diesel" hermits and 3 fish made it out alive. Oh, and the turbo snails were still decomposing in their shells so when i picked one out, plop...black and junk....GROSS! I'll post some pics up later, I wish I took some before shots but I was in to much of a rush to care about that, I just wanted these fish out of that hell hole. Link to comment
henryc524 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 hey adam wanted to let you know I officially started my cycle! Wooh Hoo! Question.. when does the water start to clear up? I have all this foam stuff floating on top of the tank. pretty gross Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 There are a ton of factor on how long it takes to cycle your tank, mine barley cycled at all and some peoples goes for over a month. I would look up all the info on cycling as its been a while since I have read it, but for the most part if your hard cycling you just need to wait it out, if your soft cycling you should be on the tank making sure you have the levels set and water changes at the ready. Link to comment
henryc524 Posted August 2, 2011 Share Posted August 2, 2011 Using live rock and live sand so it shouldn't take too long to cycle. Just wondering whats up with the foam when you first dump the sand in. Been a day and water is still cloudy Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 2, 2011 Author Share Posted August 2, 2011 Using live rock and live sand so it shouldn't take too long to cycle. Just wondering whats up with the foam when you first dump the sand in. Been a day and water is still cloudy Yeah I had that too, stupid mistakes :-P you should always put the sand down first then put a bowl on top of the sand and then slowly pour water into the bowl that way you keep the sand from cratering and you dont get the sand all up in the water column. Foam will go away and the sand will eventually settle, look back on page one to see my mistakes :-P might prove useful Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 7, 2011 Author Share Posted August 7, 2011 I tried feeding my torch some brine, and when I can back my Nass was inside of it stealing the brine. The new and improved (cleaned 18 gallon) Filter at work. IF I keep this Ill prob split this into chambers for poli, pura pad and then chemipure elite The two PC 50/50 bulbs are bright This hermit can climb Hermit getting a good work out Close-ups Look at how great this looks with only one day of elbow grease and a razor blade Damselfish They surprisingly are not to aggressive with each other I named them, Brick, Stick switch branch twig, and stray hay I love the rainbow bridge :-P (also in Mario Cart N64) New heater installed and Yellow Tail at full color Poor guy looked so bad in this cloudy water. The worst water quality I have ever heard of, EVER This isn't blurry, that's actually how bad the water was. The dirty water, live rock, and livestock while I was waiting to finish the 20 gallons of new water. 30 gallon long holding tank. I was lucky my roommate had this laying around. The tank looks like New! :-) The poor frogspawn :-( (Jynx is even making a sad face) Such a sad coral Nass. looks massive and clovers pop so much. The Candy Cane started to split The only xenia that made it G.S.P. The horror >.< My 90 freshwater FTS just cause :-P Link to comment
DK_Reef Posted August 9, 2011 Share Posted August 9, 2011 Nass. looks massive and clovers pop so much. Nice pics! What is the blue coral in that pic? Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 10, 2011 Author Share Posted August 10, 2011 They are Blue Clove Polyps and Thank you. Link to comment
DK_Reef Posted August 10, 2011 Share Posted August 10, 2011 They are Blue Clove Polyps and Thank you. oh nice Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 28, 2011 Author Share Posted August 28, 2011 A fast Update.... Sold the 18 gallon Bought a 46 bow front, (sea apple, yellow tang, mated clowns, 4 eng. gobys...Which are SWEET!!! and a blood shrimp) going to be selling that off peice by piece to make some cash to buy a 30 that I want to start. Fluval now has Cracked!!! but not leaking. (knocks on wood) I want to get a 30 up and cycling NOW! so I can move my coral out of the cracked flu-val and try to get a replacement. IDK if this will be the end of my Edge experiment. I hope not cause its a beautiful tank, just not sure if its worth it now. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted August 31, 2011 Author Share Posted August 31, 2011 Called Hagen: They have GREAT costumer service, just emailed them my receipt and they are mailing me a replacement, no pictures, or need to send in the broken one. Really really easy, I decided I'm going to take the top off my Broken one and keep it and then maybe sell the Brand new one and hopefully get a nice light set up going on the topless Cube. Also still trying to figure out if I want to turn out 90 FW to a Reef tank or just sell it, and the 46 bow respectively and just pour all the profits into the Flu-val and a 30 long. Link to comment
darthvictor Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 OMG how did that happened? It just cracked on its own?! now I am worry... A fast Update....Sold the 18 gallon Bought a 46 bow front, (sea apple, yellow tang, mated clowns, 4 eng. gobys...Which are SWEET!!! and a blood shrimp) going to be selling that off peice by piece to make some cash to buy a 30 that I want to start. Fluval now has Cracked!!! but not leaking. (knocks on wood) I want to get a 30 up and cycling NOW! so I can move my coral out of the cracked flu-val and try to get a replacement. IDK if this will be the end of my Edge experiment. I hope not cause its a beautiful tank, just not sure if its worth it now. Link to comment
reefdummy Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 OP do your blue clove polyps fluoresce? Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted November 4, 2011 Author Share Posted November 4, 2011 Sorry I have not updated this in forever. I have been in the process of building my perfect reef tank. I got a 46 Bow and have slowly been putting it all together. Sooner or later I will start a new thread for that. My blue clove polyps do fluoresce but depending on how you look at them they can look either blue or purple. Also they are entrapped by GHA that I need to get out of there. My tank cracked randomly darth and I have no idea why. I assume just a random case as I have only heard of one other person who had the same problem. He has a thread called something like she is topless. Where I took his idea and cut off the top broken piece and now I just have a Topless edge with a PAr 38 bulb over it till I move all the coral I have to the large 46 tank. Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 So will most likely be my last post. I have to post up my last group of photos of the fluval but now I will be only checking my new tank page; its at http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=287904 Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 Here are the last set of pictures that I have taken from my Fluval. Some are old and some are from tonight. As you will see I cut the top off of the tank and I LOVE IT!!! Its so much easier to do everything, I tossed a spare Par 30 Bulb above it and it looks great in terms of light, and it was really easy. The way I held the bulb is well, you will see it looks a little rigged :-P but it works and since this is only holding my fish until I get my sump and skimmer in the 46 operational. Then after that I'm going to keep the tank up and running but not really have anything in it, just as a QT tank until I'm done buying corals for the new tank....SO never I guess :-P I would really recommend a Par38 bulb over a Flu-val which is what I had when all the coral was in it and it looked and worked AMAZING. I tosses an ancient filter on the tank too with Chemipur elite and filter floss and some lava rock and my tank had never had such clean and filtered water :-) Without further a due, here are the pics and please come take a look at my new tank as I took everything I have learned from this tank to create a new and improved slice of reef :-) In the random even anyone was wondering we sold the 90 Bow FW tank we set up to free up some funds for my new tank and my roommates new tank. These are the last 3 photos of it. Oh and Check out my roommates tank at http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=284037 HAHAHA I told you it was....rigged :-P These two were taken with the Par30 which is 4 Royal Blue LEDS and one Cool White LED (Oh and I got new coral) These were with the Par 38 Bulb but the color looks MUCH better in person. All Royal Blue Power Brites :-P SO MUCH GLOW!!! This is how I modified the old filter to keep filter floss... diffuser and rocks, so high tech right? Blurry shots :-P I need a new camera...with a Macro Lens This is the top pre-razor where that tiny crack kept going till the end thanks to the salt creep..just like pot holes >.< These are just what the crack looked like at one point The Before Shot This is me being super awesome and using a water change to my advantage and drip acclimating all my new corals like a pro! That's all of the photos I have for this tank and will probably ever post. I have a 2nd tank Hagen sent me as a replacement but I am pretty sure I'm just going to sell it and use the funds to buy coral for the new big girl in my life :-P deck her out in some sweet stuff maybe some GREEN stuff. Please come take a look as the new tank I spent a ton of time......(and money....shhh) on it. Thanks for following and as always fee free to ask me questions if you have any or are a NOOB, I'd love to give back to a community that has given me so much aftER all. Happy Reefing :-) Link to comment
mmcguffi Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Hagen sent me as a replacement but I am pretty sure I'm just going to sell it and use the funds to buy coral for the new big girl in my life :-P Im not into fat chicks Link to comment
hotshot619 Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 Well played sir...and no neither am I. Link to comment
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