RollaJase's 30G Custom Cube - Tank Torn Down

[Illuiix]

That sucks about the mp10, hope they ship you a new one..

 

That crab looks like a quick grabber.

[jack1978]

That sucks on the MP10. Talk about a kick to the nuts ......after all that waiting. I hope they take care of you man.

But as mentioned before, at least you caught that damn crab!

[RollaJase]

That sucks about the mp10, hope they ship you a new one.. That crab looks like a quick grabber.

Thanks man, I'll be calling Ecotech's local importer on Monday to give them a kick in the pants, I want this sorted ASAP. From what I saw the crab was indeed a quick grabber, was snatching frozen brine from the water collumn.

 

That sucks on the MP10. Talk about a kick to the nuts ......after all that waiting. I hope they take care of you man.

But as mentioned before, at least you caught that damn crab!

Yeah I know, seems things haven't been going my way lately as well so I'll just add this to the list of recent dissapointment haha. But yes, I did catch that damn crab .

 

Thanks for stopping by guys .

[jack1978]

Good luck on Monday!

BTW, I like that cable system you're working on. My next build will have something similar.... I hope.

[RollaJase]

Thanks buddy. The cable system should work well, fairly cheap as well. That single unit cost me $15 and they are easy to stack if need be. I barely have room for the single one so it will have to do .

[RollaJase]

Well I came home from work today and something just wasn't right with the tank The water was slightly cloudy, the corals were pissed and everything was faded out. My first though was 'holy crap, something has died!'. I haven't been home until well after light out the last 2 nights so haven't really noticed anything out of place. The lights were on when I got home tonight though and I almost died when I saw the state of the tank. I had a quick look around the tank, couldn't see anything out of place so I decided I'd feed the fish while I grabbed a quick bite to eat before tackling this mess. It wasn't until I dunked my hand in the tank to fill a cup with water did I realise what was wrong, the tank was ice cold, about 19.5c (usually 26-27c). I quickly found that the heater plug was loose and the tank was at the ambient temp of the room, also explains why my ATO reservoir is still almost full from me filling it up Saturday.

 

Heater is back on now and the tank is slowly warming up, just about to do an ammonia, nitrate and nitrite test and hope all is well. I hope enough of the bacteria in the rocks are still alive to combat any rising levels. I hope everything pulls through but by the looks of things the tank could have been this cold for nearly 2-3 days. Things aren't looking good right now .

[markalot]

Oh damn I hope everything is OK.

[Sunar357]

Oh man that sucks! Hope things pull through.

[RollaJase]

Oh damn I hope everything is OK.

 

Oh man that sucks! Hope things pull through.

 

Thanks guys, I had a quick look this morning when I woke up. Things were looking a little better but I'm not going to jump to conclusions. The temp had risen back up to 24c overnight and should be back to normal (26-27c) by the time I get home. I didn't want to rappidly raise the temp back to normal as I didn't want to stress everythign out even more.

[ninjamyst]

that sucks! hope things bounce back soon

[RollaJase]

that sucks! hope things bounce back soon

Thanks ninja, so do I.

[markalot]

Slow correction is good, hopefully the corals will survive, even if they look ugly for a while.

[Rehype]

Really sorry to hear that jase...hope everything bounces back. I have 3 heaters since something similar happened to me.

[RollaJase]

Slow correction is good, hopefully the corals will survive, even if they look ugly for a while.

Thanks mate, a lot of the corals are bouncing back well (mushies and zoas have pepped up) but a few are really struggling. I'm hoping over the next week or so things go back to normal.

 

Really sorry to hear that jase...hope everything bounces back. I have 3 heaters since something similar happened to me.

Thanks buddy, looks like things are starting to recover already. Funnily enough I picked up a 200W version of my 150W Fluval heater from a friend who no longer needs it. I was going to use my 150W as a spare but I think I might put it in as well to be safe. The 150W is more than capable of heating my system so 2 heaters would be a good fail safe. I am also looking into a digital thermometer that will make an alarm if temps drop below a certain threshold.

 

Tank was back up to 26c when I got home from work today which was good, the fish seemed much happier as well. Most of the corals are still pissed and my garf bonzai is completely brown with no polyps visible. I have had my first loss though, my torch coral had pretty much disintegrated by the time I got home. It looked bad last night (a bit of oozing) but went completely down hill during the day, there are pieces of torn tentacles littering the tank and my skimmer half filled the cup overnight. I hope that's the extent of my losses . I have had my eye on a aussie gold torch for a while now, maybe this is a sign from the gods that purchasing one wouldn't be such a bad thing?

[Nano sapiens]

Yikes, sorry to hear about he big chill, but cold corals are generally a bit better than fried ones. I've had corals arrive ice cold from less than stellar suppliers and most still pulled through after a few days to a week of normal reef tank temps.

 

I've used a backup heater in my tank since day one set 2-3 degrees lower than my primary heater for just this reason.

 

Hope your loses are few...

[RollaJase]

Thanks for the reassurance Nano. I like your idea of having the backup heater set at a lower temp, I think I'll end up doing the same.

[RollaJase]

Just thought I'd fill you in on how the tank is fairing after the big chill. The only casualty was my torch coral, everything else is starting to look pretty much as it was. The SPS have still lost a bit of colour but they are much better then they were last week. I have also purchased two new pieces to console myself for the loss of my torch .

 

On the sump side of things pretty much everything is ready to go. I picked up my glass on saturday, my acrylic arrived today and I'll be picking up some more silicon tonight. The only thing left for me to buy is all my PVC bits and pieces, a lot of which I can get at wholesale pricing from a friend who is a plumber. Once I put the sumps main body together I can start to do the internal stand modificaations before finishing off the sump and hard plumbing the stand. It's going to be a busy next few weeks I think .

 

An update on my MP10. It has quietened down even more but is still making an odd rattling sound. I was told that they wouldn't send me a repalcement wet side and I would have to send back the entire pump. I told them there was no way I wouldn be sending it back to them at this time of the year and agreed to deal with RMA early January.

[markalot]

Sorry about the torch, but great news about the remaining corals!

[RollaJase]

Thanks Mark, yeah a shame, I really liked that piece. I ended up replacing it with a short tentacled branching torch that I got for a steal, 7 heads for $35. I'll be splitting it in half and am planning on getting an aussie gold torch to go with it on the LPS island.

[Sunar357]

Hot dang! Great price on the new torch! I'm looking at Aussie Golds also. Hopefully they are cheaper there. LOL

[RollaJase]

Yeah a really good price on the torch, similar colour to my original bar the fluro green mouth. Medium sized aussie golds sell for between $55-$75 here, hopefully you can get yourself a bargain .

[Sunar357]

Yes, dang, that is good. Seems like here small aussie golds are $75+.

[RollaJase]

Yes, dang, that is good. Seems like here small aussie golds are $75+.

That's still not that bad though considering, not too aften I can get something cheaper then you guys in the US haha.

[daletu]

Good to know most of the corals are doing fine now.

[RollaJase]

It's sump time!

 

After work today I decided to make the basis of my sump. Once I have the actual sump together I can start to do some of the more serious work to the stand. I started with this pile of goodness:

And so far I ended up with this:

And did a pretty sloppy silicon job if I do say so myself haha. I always tend to be a bit liberal with the application of the silicon on the seams. Once it is set I'll tidy it up with a razor blade and it will look a lot better. 'scuse the phone pics.

 

On a sadder note, I got home today and my black clown goby had about 10 bristle worms crawling through him, not sure why he passed away but I don't think it was the bristle worms that got him. My other Cynarina coral is also starting to pop off it's socket, I'm not sure why. I have moved it into an ultra low flow corner of my tank for now. To be honest I have more dead spots in the tank now with the MP10 then I did while using the Tunze 6015. Once I get the sump in and my return flow dialed in I'll experiment with the MP10 in different locations of the tank. I definitely think I'd benefit from having a second one but there is no way in hell I'll be buying another one now. To much money to by a wES and an RF module for my ES.

 

Last day of work tomorrow until Jan 6th! Can't wait !!!!