Tank Emergency!

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Petland Discounts should have 58 Gal tanks in stock. (At a very low price)

I would recommend you pick up a reef ready tank. If you can not do the work yourself I would recommend hiring Tim to do it. His prices are very fair and he does a good job. (He does my tank maintenance.)

Otherwise I am sure you can find a few MR regulars to help out for a decent price (if not for beer and pizza from what I hear) ;-)

I would help, but I have a fractured foot and have to stay off it, tomorrow they put on the cast. :-(

-Alfred

 

[menschems]

Welcome to you brother, and your wife our newest sister!

Wait ... does this mean that my wife is now my sister?????

Thanks for everything. I will keep you all posted on what happens.

 

[House of Laughter]

Menschems,

I would limit your losses by putting only a few rocks that have corals on them with the fish, inverts and any other living thing you want to save into a 20g rubbermaid with a powerhead and a heater.

As for the aptasia and bubble rock - I would take that out immediately and let it dry out or bake in water as hot as your heaters can make it with a very very low specific gravity if not only pure RO/DI water and just kill that rock. once that is done, you'll have the tank situation figured out and moving forward. yes you'll be starting with new base rock again, but hey, at least you'll know it's clean and aptasia and bubble algae free. At least that's for certain.

If you are leary about your fish, I will offer to house them in our holding system until you get yourself back in the groove - at least this way they'll have other similar tank mates and will be in a regular reef situation until you figure out what you're doing.

I know you've had a few offers, but wanted to throw this out there.

LMK

House

 

[menschems]

Menschems,

I would limit your losses by putting only a few rocks that have corals on them with the fish, inverts and any other living thing you want to save into a 20g rubbermaid with a powerhead and a heater.

As for the aptasia and bubble rock - I would take that out immediately and let it dry out or bake in water as hot as your heaters can make it with a very very low specific gravity if not only pure RO/DI water and just kill that rock. once that is done, you'll have the tank situation figured out and moving forward. yes you'll be starting with new base rock again, but hey, at least you'll know it's clean and aptasia and bubble algae free. At least that's for certain.

If you are leary about your fish, I will offer to house them in our holding system until you get yourself back in the groove - at least this way they'll have other similar tank mates and will be in a regular reef situation until you figure out what you're doing.

I know you've had a few offers, but wanted to throw this out there.

LMK

House

Thank you. Part of the problem is that the rocks on which the corals and inverts currently live are also infested with the algae and aiptasia. Cleaning the base rocks is a good idea, but I will have the same infestation problem once I put the coral-hosting rocks back in any tank.

I think I am OK holding on to my fish right now, but I will see what happens once I get things re-distributed.

 

[House of Laughter]

Thank you. Part of the problem is that the rocks on which the corals and inverts currently live are also infested with the algae and aiptasia. Cleaning the base rocks is a good idea, but I will have the same infestation problem once I put the coral-hosting rocks back in any tank.

I think I am OK holding on to my fish right now, but I will see what happens once I get things re-distributed.

true, BUT, once you get the new tank set up with the freshly baked rock, you can select the corals you want, frag them into the newly cycled tank, then bake the other rocks and be completely pest and algae free and be finally done with it takes time, but that's what i did to 200lbs of rock

House

 

[jrodjordan]

---------

I would clean up the tank, remove and reseal the corners with new silicone, put everything back in two days later. Thats just what I would do if I was in the same situation..

agreed!:approve:

 

[menschems]

Hi, everyone. We are now past the 24-hour mark and things have stabilized nicely. I have the coral and the fish in big, clear plastic containers - with power-heads moving the water and the lights set up above them. The rest of the rocks are in my 20-gal fuge, awaiting their next home.

After talking it over with my wife, I think we have come up with a plan. I am going to use my 20 gal fuge as the main tank. In it I will put the corals and 1 or 2 of the fish. Probably a few of the base rocks, but no sand. I will keep the royal gramma and the yellow tang. If anyone wants a maroon clown and/or a red-lipped blennie, let me know.

Someome here has expressed interest in the rest of my rocks, so he can have them. I am not sure how much is there, but I will have a better idea in a few days when it has all been moved around.

As for the 60-gal tank, I will hold on to it for now. I may try to reseal it (as has been suggested above) or I may just unload it (with full disclosure, of course).

We are pretty happy with this plan. We do not want to be without a fish tank, and the 20-gal will do nicely until we can afford to get a bigger one.

Thank you all again for your help. I look forward to getting to know you all a little better when I am not in "emergency mode."

 

[scarf_ace1981]

i wouldn't plan on keeping the tang in the twenty for long. sell the rocks and fish you want to get rid of, sell the tank and buy another one as soon as possible.

 

[menschems]

i wouldn't plan on keeping the tang in the twenty for long. sell the rocks and fish you want to get rid of, sell the tank and buy another one as soon as possible.

Hmmm ... maybe I will keep just the gramma and sell everything else. We definitely want to get a bigger tank - reef-ready this time.

 

[menschems]

Another question

You all told me to get rid of the sand from my old tank, and that is fine with me. However, I live in an apartment in SW Yonkers. ANyone have any suggestions for what I should do with it? It is quite a bit of sand.

kjiiiiiiiiiiiiolpu (sorry, that was my cat walking on the keyboard)

Thanks.

 

[Deanos]

ANyone have any suggestions for what I should do with it? It is quite a bit of sand.

Send a PM to WingoAgency. He's Manhattan Reefs unofficial collector of used sand.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Or just throw it out. No big deal.

 

[menschems]

Update

Hi, everyone. I wanted to give you an update on the status of our situation, and ask some advice as well.

The nicest corals and the fish are now living in the 20-gallon tank that used to be our fuge. I had wanted to put only the Royal Gramma and the Yellow Tang in there, but the Maroon Clown and the Red-Lip Blennie stowed away inside some pieces of rock and I did not notice it until they were already in the tank. I have lights set up and the tank is OK for now. We are worried about the stability since we no longer have live sand. I know that the live rock has a lot of bacteria and microorganisms, but we are missing a big part of our population (the waste-eaters).

The rest of the rocks (including some mushroom coral) are in a large rubbermaid bucket - under lights and with circulation. This is the quantity that we are willing to sell, but we still have some issues.

As I am sure you can all understand, my wife is extremely upset by all of this. We had this tank for more than 4 years and it was very stable. She is absolutely heartbroken now. What makes everything worse is that we do not have the money to start over with a big new setup right now. We have nowhere to keep our old tank, so it is in our dining room. Every time she sees it, she gets very sad. I don't even have room to properly clean it out and attempt to re-seal it.

[BTW - the tank is for sale. See my thread in the classified section of this forum.]

We also have a large bucket full of the saltwater that was left over from the original tank. Is this worth keeping? It is not being aerated or anything. Is that bad or will it keep for a while? SHould I just dump it?

As I said above, I want to sell the majority of the rock from the old tank. I am waiting for my wife to decide which pieces she wants to keep. We will also probably get rid of the maroon clown and the blennie. She is very sad that I got rid of all of the live-sand, even though you all said it was the right thing to do.

I will try to post pictures of our current setup. It is not at all an ideal setup, but we are doing the best that we can.

If you know anyone who wants to buy the old tank, please have them contact me. I am selling the tank, stand and light fixture together. Alternatively, if anyone has room to store it for us for a while (and/or so that it can be cleaned and repaired), please let me know.

Thanks for your support. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

- Eric

 

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Hey Eric:

Dont worry about the water, you can just dump it and mix more up when you need it.

As for your other questions- live sand is not a requirement and your setup should be fine as long as you dont overfeed and/or your rock is good live rock. Livesand helps, but there are many people with thriving tanks that are sand free. (Bare bottom tanks)

You may be able to pick up the actual tank for cheap from Petland or check out Aquarium Warehouse in NJ, they have a bunch of used tanks. If you PM me I will dig up their telephone number. The tank itself should not be too expensive.

-Alfred

 

[masterswimmer]

Eric, your ability to keep all your livestock alive, under these adverse conditions, is a great testament to your reefing abilities. 'Grats to you.

That being said, I'm sorry to hear about the emergency in the first place.
It sounds as if your 20 gallon tank is now stocked to the gills (pun intended). I would recommend doing frequent 10%-20% water changes (at least once, possibly twice per week).

As everyone before me has said, tossing the live sand after four years, then totally 'disturbing' it, was a good thing, so don't fret.

Alfred mentioned dumping the water from the old tank. I agree.....unless you've been aerating it and heating it to 78-79 degrees.

Good luck and feel free to ask for any help you may need.

Russ