Sancho's old ass Solana sprung a leak

[Sancho]

Nice to see another old ass tank around. Looks good, man. Hope the chemistry has evened out. I know it can feel daunting to bring back something from the brink, but it looks like you're doing great. Love those acans.

Thanks. You dont see a lot of older small tanks around. Some of the tanks I love on these forums are usually torn down around the 5 year mark or less. As for the water issue I dont think the wrasse is gonna make it. He's been at the bottom of the tank all day. Ammonia is a bit elevated today added some Prime and continued with the Stability. I really dont want to do another large WC as I think it needs to work itself out. I dont believe just tossing new water in everyday is gonna do any good.

[Slowtwitch]

Unlike.

Hope the wrasse pulls through for you.

Got any Amquel on hand?

[jedimasterben]

I really dont want to do another large WC as I think it needs to work itself out. I dont believe just tossing new water in everyday is gonna do any good.

[Sancho]

This new skimmer is awesome! Dead silent, making lots o bubbles and no micro bubbles in the tank after I removed the foam ring. The adjustment is really sensitive. You just rotate the body a bit to adjust the the level. Cant wait till this thing breaks in. Anyone looking for a inexpensive skimmer should look at these. http://www.fish-street.com/coral_box_s150_protein_skimmerThey also have larger skimmers with DC pumps you cant beat the price for the quality. Shipping was about 14 days. so if you need it tomorrow they are a bit higher on ebay.

[Sancho]

Pretty sure the wrase is now worm and hermit crab food. Haven't seen him in 2 days. The clowns are doing fine and so is the watchman. Ammonia is now barely detectable. This was a strange occurrence. My fish usually live long happy lives in my tanks. Asides from the jumpers. Kinda bummed to lose this guy. The only thing I can think of that could cause the spike was the death of a huge mexican turbo snail. My RO/DI was running 24/7 as the ASO had a small tear in one of the diaphragms. My water bill was outrageous so its been broke for at least a month, maybe 3 as we are billed every 3 months. This may have also contributed to the issue. Both my TDS meters are broken. so this just kinda cascaded. New ASO new filters including membrane and DI resin were done last week. GHA is now pretty much gone.

[yoshii]

Sorry to hear about the wrasse That ammonia spike is pretty weird. Even with the dead turbo

[Sancho]

Sorry to hear about the wrasse That ammonia spike is pretty weird. Even with the dead turbo

Seems odd to me also. I tested the water 3 times that day all 3 times went straight to dark green. Just finished testing the water tonight everything is back to normal.

 

The new skimmer has been a PITA to dial in but I am liking it. Once its broke in I am sure it will work just fine. My only complaint is the way its adjusted. A gate valve would be nice but for $60 Its way better than what the tank came with.

[CronicReefer]

Sorry to hear about your ammonia spike and loss of the wrasse. Your anemone is amazing BTW, I'm so impressed its over 10 years old. Just in case anything like this happens again, Brightwell Aquatics sells a product all Carbonit-X3. It is a special type of carbon that can remove and bind ammonia directly from the water and it will not release it back into the water, it is permanently gone . I keep it in case of emergencies as something unexpected can always happen, like one time my filter was accidentally turned off for over 12+ hours and the carbon removed all the excess ammonia in less than 4 hours. Good luck in the future .

[Sancho]

The new skimmer is finally dialed in and making nice somewhat dry poopy water. It has been quite wet skimmate the last week but I played with the water level a bit yesterday and think I found its sweet spot. Cup has some dark crap in the bottom and its now making nice dry foam. I toyed with the idea of hanging it lower in the rear chamber so it would be out of sight. There was problem I encountered with that plan. I would have to lower the water level in the rear chamber and that made the tank way to noisy. I really only have two complaints with this skimmer. The collection cup is a PITA to get off as it uses an o ring and makes it a really tight fit. The other is I get a bit of a hum noise. I hung it off one of the acrylic baffles and I dont think the acrylic is thick enough to dissipate the resonance. But it is 100 times more quiet then that noisy stock skimmer it came with. $60 very well spent.

 

Its been exactly a week since the nem spawned in the 34. Tonight the the nem is spawning in the 8 gallon. It is strange that they always spawn around the same time. They have done this since it split and I put one in the 8.

[Sancho]

Went to the LFS today to get 1 head of Frogspawn or a Hammer. They were out of hammers and all the Euphyllia started at $99. Even single heads? WTF same store had $40 to $60 multi head frags a few months ago. So I got a new cleaner shrimp. My 2 year old already called him Meat.

Carl made a rare appearance.

And I will probably have twins in the morning. The nem is splitting

[Sancho]

Just as everything was looking good. Dino free for 2 years. I saw a couple things that caught my eye tonight. #### #### #### ####. shitty Iphone pics. Pretty sure its the return of the dinos.

####. Hoping its just some brown slime algae. But been down this road before. ####. I dosed some H202 tonight sucked out the strings in these pics. #### this sucks

[Clownfish2004]

Wow that really sucks man.

[Sancho]

Wow that really sucks man.

I really should have nuked the tank when the dinos appeared a couple years ago. Going to try some red slime remover tomorrow. As I cant confirm at this point that its dinos. But this was how my last outbreak happened.

[vlangel]

Sorry that you are having this trouble but hopefully it doesn't amount to anything serious.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Great looking tank. Love your acan collection. Hopefully that's not dino.

[Sancho]

Great looking tank. Love your acan collection. Hopefully that's not dino.

Thanks. I pulled a few brown bubbly stringy strands out again tonight. I dont have a microscope and cant confirm the that its dinos. Although the last time the dinos took over the tank in 72 hours. Hopefully its just cyano. Had an ammonia spike, my RODI was on the fritz added a new skimmer and lost a fish. So there is definitely an imbalance. It may take some time for the tank to recover from those changes.

 

In skimmer news this $60 coral box skimmer is freaking awesome. Its all broke in now and dont have to fiddle with it any more. It is pulling out all kinds of nasty dark crap. The stock skimmer never pulled this much out of the tank. Its super quiet. the O ring has given a bit and its not as tight as it was when new. Still a 2 hands operation to get the cup off. So far thats my only complaint. I just take the the the collection cup off with the body to empty it. and slide it back together when done.

[yoshii]

Fingers crossed it's not the beginnings of a dino outbreak!

 

That little skimmer seems like a great deal! How do you feel about the quality of construction?

[HarryPotter]

Nice skimmer! Like the PLS-50 I think

[Sancho]

Fingers crossed it's not the beginnings of a dino outbreak!

 

That little skimmer seems like a great deal! How do you feel about the quality of construction?

Its very well built. I have bought some janky shit from China in the past. This thing is very nice no micro bubbles in the bonds nice thick acrylic. I think its better made than the Cadlights version.

[Sancho]

I tried treatment for Cyano hoping that it was just brown slime. Had no affect on the bacteria. 99% sure its the resurgence of the dino's. So far it hasnt gotten out of control. I have been lights out for a few days now and have started dosing H2o2. It seems to be working so far. Its no longer full of bubbles and seems to be detaching from the rock. Gonna continue with the H2o2 as it hasn't seemed to have any adverse affect on anything else in the tank. I am not ready to tear this tank down. Gonna order a UV sterilizer tonight. Any one have any idea what wattage and pump I would need?

[jedimasterben]

Big and giant.

[jedimasterben]

But I'm beginning to think peroxide is a better long-term solution. I'm thinking of getting a Nanodoser to put in a drop or so of 35% every hour, just would have to figure out how to keep the peroxide from breaking down too quickly.

[Sancho]

Big and giant.

I had a feeling that would be your response. I dont have any room in the back for an additional pump and the 36watt seems overkill for this tank. So the pump will be in the display. My thinking was a 9 or 18watt with a lower flow rate pump to give it more contact time with the light.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Have you looked up carbon dosing. A shot of vodka to the tank maybe all you need to get/control the algae.

[Sancho]

The H2o2 dosing seems to have kinda kept the dinos from taking over. I have been sucking the long stringy snot bubbles out everyday. I got an 18watt UV sterilizer. Not quite big and giant but its what will fit into the stand. It seems to be doing something. The bubble algae is gone, the glass didnt need its daily scraping. Dinos are not as slimy and bubbly. But they are still there. I am continuing with the H2o2 dosing. Although I ran out of the 35% H2o2 and am now using i think 3% CVS brand h2o2. Also this pump I bought is the bomb digity. I dont know why the Jebao DC2000 is not readily available here. Pump is bad ass. Dead quiet and super small. Took 3 weeks to get it from China I was happy that it showed up with the proper power supply as fish street only list it with a 220v. I didnt want a pump in the display and had no room to add another pump to the AIO. I couldnt find a inline pump that made me happy. So this was my compromise. DC2000 with a Y and valve to control flow to the sterilizer. THIS PUMP IS AWESOME!!!!!!! I guess I just though a fish tank should vibrate and make noise. My bedroom is downstairs from the tank and it is strange not to hear the HMMMMMMMMM resinating through the floor.