captbunzo's 47g tank log

Sounds like fun. I might be able to do that about 3:00 on the day of the next COMAS meeting. I am working a schedule up for that day. Looks like I might be doing between 3-4 reefer houses before the meeting. Adam's tanks (papagimp) are on my list as well....

(And the status update - Doors mounted, now I need to remove them, mortise out spots for the hinged so they will fit better, and proceed with the application of wood putty. If all goes well, I'll be applying a first coat of stain before the night is over.)
 
Stands Stained

Stands Stained

All happy & stained....


Panoramic view (ok, not really) of all the stands (2 for me, one for my older brother)...


25g tank stand


29g tank stand
 
Looks great Paul. Still might have to take you up on building a stand for me (I guess the shipping to Charleston, SC might not be worth it though :D ).

Things look like they're moving right along with your tanks. How are the tanks at home in OK?
 
Paul, first off the pictures look even better than the first time I saw them lol, and second, I cant wait to see this system all running together.

Hey by the way could you point me to pictures of your tank up north with the t5s on it ?? pleasee ?????? lol

-Tim Baron
 
Paul - Beautiful pics and a 55 you have there. While looking thru the pics it looks like you created a fuge out of a 5 gal water container? Do you have any additional pics or information regarding that setup?

Thanks for all the advise you've passed on not only in this thread but some of the others as well :thumbsup:
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8458176#post8458176 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Divetime
Paul - Beautiful pics and a 55 you have there. While looking thru the pics it looks like you created a fuge out of a 5 gal water container? Do you have any additional pics or information regarding that setup?
Click to expand...
And that fuge is actually what is referred to as a RDSB - Remote Deep Sand Bed. The idea is to plumb in a large body of sand and then flow water across the surface fast enough to avoid any solids from settling out. This creates a large anaerobic area in which Natural Nitrate Reduction (NNR) can occur.

Here is a link which discusses this concept in detail. Check out the detailed pictures I have about it in the first couple pages.

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic20039-13-1.aspx
 
Well, I am officially depressed... Ok, not really, but at least about my tank in Dallas...

I woke up one morning earlier this week to find my hawkfish dead. I was astonished - what could have happened. But I was late for work, as usual, and only had time to pull it out of the tank.

When I got home from work that day, I examined the tank closely for some kind of problem. After a little bit I discovered that a moonlight on the tank had fallen into the water. Oh no!!! Horribleness! So I pulled it out, noting that all the shiny reflector had dissolved off (great).

And then I ate dinner and worked on my fish tank stands and watched the tank. Did I do a big water change? No, and I have no idea why the heck not.

And a couple of days pass and the snowflake eel continues to look a little stressed. The corals in the tank have looked fine, but the eel was still looky unhappy and is not eating.

And I do a water change yesterday morning. And then I notice this morning that the eel is sitting on top of a powerhead near the top of the day, still alive, but looking really limp and not real good. In short, I fully expect to arrive home today and find him a goner. Darn.

Also, I noticed that a nice big Galaxea archelia that I have in that tank has a section where the tissue has disappeared and the white skeleton beneath is exposed. In short, this all sucks.

So I'll have to assess the situation when I get off work today. I think I need to do like a 50% water change. However, that's going to be pretty tough right now for a number or reasons.

Ho, humm, whatcha yall think?
 
I would do a big water change, add lots of fresh carbon, and also some fresh GFO. The GFO is supposed to remove heavy metals right? Do you have a QT set up to save the eel if he makes it today?
 
I have some GFO in there. Over lunch I am going to add some polyfilter and change in fresh carbon & GFO.

I also am wondering if it might not be a good idea to move the eel to another system (maybe my LFS or something) until I get things cleaned up. The same goes, perhaps, for some of my corals.

Does that sound like a good idea?
 
Man...sorry to hear that Paul. That really stinks about the hawkfish and sorry to hear that the eel doesn't look so hot as well. Hopefully the waterchange helped out a bit and everything will look a little better when you get home (at least I'm crossing my fingers).

Since you know that I'm still a newbie on these things and ask you all sorts of questions, I can't comment on what to do although changing the carbon and GFO sounds like a good idea to me.

Hopefully we hear some good news when you get home :(

Adam
 
Paul can you add some live food for the eel. I use to go by the bait & tackle shop to pick up a dozen or so live shrimp. I didn't have a snowflake but a green eel and it grew like wildfire...He also ate everything in the tank.
 
Well, I appreciate that too! :)

The good news of my lunch visit to the tank is that the eel looks better. The bad news is that there are a number of corals that look horrible.

And the good news about the plan is that a friend from my LFS (Tim for those that have been down here) is going to help me out. We are going to bag up ALL of my livestock this evening for a move to his system. And we are going to do about a 25g water change.

So that makes me feel a lot better. And this all allows me to empathize with those who have had something like this happen.... :)
 
We need to determine what exactly melted off of that light if we can, so we know what we're dealing with. Was it reflective material for the light? If so, it should be a mixture of silver and brass, with lord only knows what as a bonding agent. Maybe call or email the manufacturer. I would think though, if you get fresh carbon and GFO in there, it should get most of it pretty quick. I would report this to the manufacturer anyway, just so they may make this not a problem in the future, by using something that doesn't melt in saltwater. May not hurt to vacume the rocks incase some of it has just dropped down there and is melting slowly.
 
Well, it was a cheap moonlight and I had it precariously balanced on the tank frame. It was stupid. Even when Brook & Chris were here earlier in the week I knocked it in in front of them.

Oh well, we live and learn.

I am not sure what it was that came off. Basically, it was standard plastic that had sort of that paint on chrome shiny kind of stuff on it. And basically the shiny part dissolved off.
 
LOL, i just watched an episode of How it's made last weekend on mirrors. That chrome stuff was silver and brass.

The not so funny part is that brass contains copper i believe. If you can find a test kit for copper it might not hurt to check, but i believe there are too many types of copper to have to test for so a test kit may not tell you anything. We will all keep our fingers crossed that you don't have copper in there.

I think i may be inclined to take the whole system down and clean the rocks and disspose of the sand if it were me. I know that's a lot of work, and some money, but may save the rock if there is copper contamination. I would see if i could get a response from the manufacturer first though, it may not have copper at all.
 
I agree that this is a serious problem, Dugg. My first plan is going to be to first remove all of the livestock that I can tonight and do the water change.

As for the future plan...

SAND: I might change out the sand as I really haven't liked the color of my pavestone anyhow. The bags I got seem to have a LOT of black colored stuff, which is sloppy looking. And I am a perfectionist, so it bugs me a lot.

ROCK: As for the rock, I don't think I can bare to get rid of it - I just love my pillar too much! I think I will just have to accept the fact that I need to keep on top of my carbon & GFO, changing them about twice as frequently as normal. And I think I might run polyfilter for a couple months or so, and then maybe once a week every month for the next 6 or so. I might also look into other chemical filtration media - I have heard that chemi-pure is decent for purifying these sorts of toxins as well.

Oh well, guess I am sort of starting over. At least I will likely keep my corals alive, and maybe the eel. That would be a nice consolation prize. :)

Also, now that I have the stands almost complete for the 25g secondary display tank and the 29g sump, and that our COMAS group buy of haitian lettuce rock is about to come in, I might just go ahead and cure the new rock in the full system. That would make it easier to do water changes while curing, etc. That might be bad on the current rock, however. That also might be bad on the new rock as the old rock still has more of the toxins in it.

So I suppose I should just setup the 29 & 25 together (for curing some of that rock) and then plumb them into the 47g tank after 3-4 weeks when thiings have stabilized a little with the main tank.

Hmmmnnn................
 
Yeah, i deffinately wouldn't mix the new rock in until you find out just what you have in the old stuff. I didn't mean to discard the rock, just wash it real good before it is saturated with whatever the shiney stuff is. You may find when you remove the rock, that the silver stuff is in a slow melting lump caught under the rock, kind of like my blue goo episode. I'm just thankful mine wasn't a metal contamination, although i still have not figured out what that stuff was.

I does sound like this stuff actually dissolved into the water collum, but you never know, it may have just released from the light and fallen to the bottom. The time it has taken to effect the corals makes me think it may still be melting slowly though.
 
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