Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!

[Jim Cannon]

I have had my 12G up for about a month. Started adding livestock two weeks ago. It was looking great.

This morning my 3 yr old grandson did me a favor...he fed the fish...about a half container of dry food.

I couldn't get it all vacuumed out without taking all the water out.

So I siphoned the water to a large tub. I added some fresh SW that I had around, enough to put all my rock and animals in. I added a small pump. Carefully I removed the LR, the xenia, the mushrooms, the brand new green star polyp, the clown, the scooter blenny, and the hermits and snails.

I then scooped out as much of the food as possible. I have 2 inch base of white live sand. I removed the sponge filters and rinsed them in fresh water to remove the excess of food trapped in them.

I then went to the LFS and bought 10G of SW and refilled the tank. I replaced the foam filters and ran the pump for a good hour and half. I then replaced all the LR and livestock.

I will test water daily to see how its going.

Is there anything else I could have done? What can I expect to lose over the next few days?

The water is a tad cloudy now, not awful, but certainly not as nice and clear as it was last night when I went to bed.

This happened at 8 this morning. It is now 8:00 pm.

 

[digitaledge]

Sounds like you did everthing rite, I would stick to frozen food

 

[binaryterror]

Dry foods are fine. I feed a mixture of dry and frozen foods. But yes, you did everything right. And the worste that could really happen is a nitrate spike, and some algea growth. And the nitrates are easily taken care of with water changes, and algea is taken care of with water changes also! Good luck!

 

[Agu]

If you have granular activated carbon (GAC) use it to remove dissolved organic compounds (DOCs).

If the water doesn't clear up by morning I predict another waterchange.

Hide the food and have a talk with the three year old. I have a young friend who knows that touching the tank or anything involved with the tank is a no no.

Good luck,

 

[Sk8r]

No-no is a good word to learn. The youngster has probably picked up that he made you very upset. A frank talk, forgiveness in due time, and a promise never, ever, ever to touch the tank when you're not there may make an indelible impression. Even 3 year olds have an acute sense of self-preservation.

 

[Jim Cannon]

WHEW! Thanks everyone for your remarks. It looks good this morning. I turned on the lights for a bit to see, and the water is pretty clear actually. Heck, even the new green star polyps started coming out. I'll test the water in bit.

As for the 3 yr old, we had that talk when I first got it. And he's been so good about it. When I had the tank emptied and everything was in the ugly big bucket, he kept telling me to hurry and fix it cuz they would die in there.

We had another talk last night after all was done.

I have put all the food etc out of his reach.

Again, thanks for your quick replies.

 

[Jim Cannon]

Just did a water test and I couldn't be happier. All 0's except PH of course. My previous tests were 8.3 - 8.4.
Today was 7.8

Not sure why that is. The saltwater I bought said it would be 8.3.

Looks like I dodged the proverbial bullet.

Thanks again all.

Jim

 

[Jim Cannon]

Lost my Scooter blenny though...*frown*

Lost my Scooter blenny though...*frown*

Too much food? Too much stress? Any guesses?

 

[Agu]

Re: Lost my Scooter blenny though...*frown*

Re: Lost my Scooter blenny though...*frown*

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8071621#post8071621 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jim Cannon
Too much food? Too much stress? Any guesses?

Any response would be a guess.

My condolences to you and the blenny........

 

[Sk8r]

Can't figure re the scooter---they're usually pretty tough. Must have been a brief ammonia spike.

But so glad to know everything else made it, and your youngster has grown an inch or so today.

 

[jdieck]

Re: Lost my Scooter blenny though...*frown*

Re: Lost my Scooter blenny though...*frown*

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8071621#post8071621 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jim Cannon
Too much food? Too much stress? Any guesses?

My best guess is aclimation.
While in the tub temperature might have changed then back to new water parameters and temeprature might have been the problem.
7.8 PH may indicate high dissolved CO2 and low oxygen which might have been evel lower during the night.

If you have not done so I would test for Calcium and Alkalinity and double check the salinity.
Improved aereation may help with the low PH just insure you have the right level of Alkalinity (3 to 3.5 meq/lt) that helps keep PH stable

 

[jjmg]

I think you did things well after the food overdose, I'm not so sure about the rest of the setup.

If I read correctly you started adding livestock 2 weeks after setup which may be alright if you were using well cycled rock and sand. Still pushing it by at least 2 weeks IMHO.

You may want to read a bit more before picking your livestock--scooter blennys are actually dragonets, in the same family as mandarins. They feed almost exclusively on pods found in a well established tank and a large tank. I've been wanting one but I don't feel I have enough pods in my almost 1 year old 110 gal tank.

I'm not sure what killed your fish, all the shocks added up probably. I'm sorry for your loss and the loss of the fish.

 

[Drewpdog]

i like a dry frozen mix as well every morning i give the tank some zoe soaked frozen food and then 4 time trough out the day my auto feeder dumps a very small amount of a flake pellet mix in to the tank