Iphis
New member
Hi RC,
A new tank thread, no questions looking to be answered, just saying hi and sharing my reboot.
After my AC unit died in the middle of a Phoenix summer and killed my 30 gallon while I was on vacation a number of years ago, I finally restarted it. Lost the heart after that accident caused so much death at my hands, but am finally bringing myself back into it. Complete, this time, with several systems used to alert me to mechanical failures to hopefully prevent this sort of thing in the future.
From that incident, I had three survivors. A huma picasso trigger, a black clownfish, and a green chromis. I have had these three fish for nine years now.
So much has changed in these past couple of years, it is amazing. LED lights coming into their own, controllers being more than egg-timer looking things on power strips, and all of this web-controlled tank stuff.
I started with my old thirty gallon cube. I wanted something small to work from, something that would be manageable with excessive plans for additional, much larger tanks in the future (who doesn't).
I have never done a sump before, so I went with one. Frankly, such a small tank scares me so I went a little overboard. First I hooked up the thirty to the twenty gallon sump, which made me feel better, then I grabbed one of my twelve gallon tanks and attached that too. I feel like the Borg, grabbing anything I could find and attaching it to my tank.
So I was taking it slow, slowly building the plumbing for the tank. Standing in ACE hardware with the PVC pipes and putting them together right there in the store like they were Legos only to get a very strange look from one of the employees who turned the corner to see me with this built out pipe in my hands, PVC pipes between my legs, under my arms and yes, even in my mouth. (It was a ball valve, I was going to buy it regardless, but I was out of places to put it.)
I put it all together and started mixing my tank, but it smelled weird. I couldn't figure it out. When I pulled my arm would of the tank and went and did something else, my arm still smelled like this chemical. It drove me nuts because it was so familiar and yet and I could not place it until...
I walked into the hardware store, it was the same smell as the PVC piping. I don't know what it was, but something leeched into the water. I had even bought a pool tester and determined it was not chlorine, which I was certain it was.
I wasn't going to take a chance. I siphoned out the water, dumped it, cleaned those pipes thoroughly and re-set up the tank. A month of work down the drain (well, actually dumped out into my lawn).
I had my tank set up again, filled with water, mixed and running. Two weeks had passed when I noticed my clown was hiding. She never hid, she was an attention... well, she loved getting attention. She was hiding in the very back away from the trigger, who usually hid from her!
Something was up. I take a closer look at her, her fin is peeling, or something, and she is acting weird. I look at my other tank and figure she must be stressed. Fin damage like that usually seems to happen when someone is stressed, water conditions are bad, etc so I yank her out of the tank. She was so easy to catch, I just pushed a clear measuring cup near her and she went right in.
After three hours of slowly, cautiously drip acclimating her, I moved her to the new tank. I moved the chromis to the twelve gallon and the trigger to the sump (for now). This was well before I was comfortable putting life in the tank, but something was wrong with the other tank and I quickly found out what it was.
Despite water changes and all, something had gone horribly wrong. To compound the problem in my big tank, apparently my test kit was registering incorrectly. After I bought another test kit, the nitrates were around 80+ppm. I was beside myself, but they looked so much happier in the new system.
I've been in the process of tearing my big tank apart to make renovations to it, so my trigger can move back into it and be happy (I feel so bad cooping him up in the 20, but it is for his own good right now. He doesn't seem to complain either since most of the time he just likes peeking out of the rock work at me. He did this in the old system, too.)
After a month, my clown fish of nine years is completely healed (with a minor notch in her fin) and her normal, hungry, territorial self, always coming up to say hi when I come near the tank.
So another month later, making sure she was fine and healthy, I finally put new life into my tank. A couple of snails, two shrimp, two emerald crabs and an orchid dottyback.
It is so wonderful seeing the tank alive again, but still so much work needs to be done.
Just thought I would share, as so many of you do. I'm not good at this sort of thing so hopefully it isn't in bad form.
Thanks for reading,
30 Gallon Cube
Ecotech Radion Pro
Vortech MP10
Eshopps HOB Overflow
20 gallon Sump
65G rated Coralife Skimmer
Apex Controller, temperature inside and outside of the tank
A new tank thread, no questions looking to be answered, just saying hi and sharing my reboot.
After my AC unit died in the middle of a Phoenix summer and killed my 30 gallon while I was on vacation a number of years ago, I finally restarted it. Lost the heart after that accident caused so much death at my hands, but am finally bringing myself back into it. Complete, this time, with several systems used to alert me to mechanical failures to hopefully prevent this sort of thing in the future.
From that incident, I had three survivors. A huma picasso trigger, a black clownfish, and a green chromis. I have had these three fish for nine years now.
So much has changed in these past couple of years, it is amazing. LED lights coming into their own, controllers being more than egg-timer looking things on power strips, and all of this web-controlled tank stuff.
I started with my old thirty gallon cube. I wanted something small to work from, something that would be manageable with excessive plans for additional, much larger tanks in the future (who doesn't).
I have never done a sump before, so I went with one. Frankly, such a small tank scares me so I went a little overboard. First I hooked up the thirty to the twenty gallon sump, which made me feel better, then I grabbed one of my twelve gallon tanks and attached that too. I feel like the Borg, grabbing anything I could find and attaching it to my tank.
So I was taking it slow, slowly building the plumbing for the tank. Standing in ACE hardware with the PVC pipes and putting them together right there in the store like they were Legos only to get a very strange look from one of the employees who turned the corner to see me with this built out pipe in my hands, PVC pipes between my legs, under my arms and yes, even in my mouth. (It was a ball valve, I was going to buy it regardless, but I was out of places to put it.)
I put it all together and started mixing my tank, but it smelled weird. I couldn't figure it out. When I pulled my arm would of the tank and went and did something else, my arm still smelled like this chemical. It drove me nuts because it was so familiar and yet and I could not place it until...
I walked into the hardware store, it was the same smell as the PVC piping. I don't know what it was, but something leeched into the water. I had even bought a pool tester and determined it was not chlorine, which I was certain it was.
I wasn't going to take a chance. I siphoned out the water, dumped it, cleaned those pipes thoroughly and re-set up the tank. A month of work down the drain (well, actually dumped out into my lawn).
I had my tank set up again, filled with water, mixed and running. Two weeks had passed when I noticed my clown was hiding. She never hid, she was an attention... well, she loved getting attention. She was hiding in the very back away from the trigger, who usually hid from her!
Something was up. I take a closer look at her, her fin is peeling, or something, and she is acting weird. I look at my other tank and figure she must be stressed. Fin damage like that usually seems to happen when someone is stressed, water conditions are bad, etc so I yank her out of the tank. She was so easy to catch, I just pushed a clear measuring cup near her and she went right in.
After three hours of slowly, cautiously drip acclimating her, I moved her to the new tank. I moved the chromis to the twelve gallon and the trigger to the sump (for now). This was well before I was comfortable putting life in the tank, but something was wrong with the other tank and I quickly found out what it was.
Despite water changes and all, something had gone horribly wrong. To compound the problem in my big tank, apparently my test kit was registering incorrectly. After I bought another test kit, the nitrates were around 80+ppm. I was beside myself, but they looked so much happier in the new system.
I've been in the process of tearing my big tank apart to make renovations to it, so my trigger can move back into it and be happy (I feel so bad cooping him up in the 20, but it is for his own good right now. He doesn't seem to complain either since most of the time he just likes peeking out of the rock work at me. He did this in the old system, too.)
After a month, my clown fish of nine years is completely healed (with a minor notch in her fin) and her normal, hungry, territorial self, always coming up to say hi when I come near the tank.
So another month later, making sure she was fine and healthy, I finally put new life into my tank. A couple of snails, two shrimp, two emerald crabs and an orchid dottyback.
It is so wonderful seeing the tank alive again, but still so much work needs to be done.
Just thought I would share, as so many of you do. I'm not good at this sort of thing so hopefully it isn't in bad form.
Thanks for reading,
30 Gallon Cube
Ecotech Radion Pro
Vortech MP10
Eshopps HOB Overflow
20 gallon Sump
65G rated Coralife Skimmer
Apex Controller, temperature inside and outside of the tank
