Narrowly avoided DISASTER :(

[muppet]

Today while I was sitting on the couch with my girls watching some Disney cartoons, we heard a very loud POP from the direction of my quarantine tank.

Luckily, the front glass panel DID NOT explode outward in a shower of broken glass, salt water, and venomous fish.

Instead, the center brace simply snapped, the tank shuddered, and the front bowed outward.

My oldest and I jumped up and quickly bailed the tank out, catching the fish (with care taken near the foxface) as we went.

It seems I'm fated never to complete a proper fallow period in my tank for ich... Worse, the foxface has only been here ONE DAY and he's now in my DT, so hopefully that will turn out all right.

Under the lights I can see that the face and gills of my Flame Angel are badly eroded... even though Cupramine is supposed to be safe for Flame Angels, maybe a month at 1.0ppm was too much for her.

Everybody's in the main tank, and the QT has about a half inch of water left in it that I'm going to get later, my arms are tired.

So, that was the excitement portion of my week off. Good thing I was home.

 

[muppet]

On the plus side, my new chromis and foxface look AMAZING under my new t5 bulbs...

 

[Aperture.pcs]

Ouchies tank is no longer usable?

 

[muppet]

I wouldn't risk it in MY living room.

 

[BubbaBoBobBrain]

That definitely sucks and its your luck too, lol. Hopefully all will be ich free and happy and hopefully your angel will recover quickly.

 

[Trump]

Is there enogh of the brace left that you can mod a new brace on it? Iam actually looking at removing mine and using a clear piece of acrylic with nylon bolts.

 

[muppet]

The tank is getting old and the silicone is shedding and there's a scratch in one of the long sides. I think it's just not worth trying to refurbish it, but anybody in the club who wanted to try is welcome to have it and the solid wood stand it's on. Keeping in mind that it was used for copper treatment.

 

[firstlight10]

Is there enogh of the brace left that you can mod a new brace on it? Iam actually looking at removing mine and using a clear piece of acrylic with nylon bolts.

I did that on my 55 when the center brace failed. Mine was an emergency repair so my method wasn't the best. I ended up draining the tank halfway and used a bar clamp to hold the tank from bowing out while doing the repair. I also used silicone between the acrylic and tank lip followed by a bead of silicone over the nylon hardware to give it a smooth finish. It held up fine for almost a year until I sold the tank.

 

[triggreef]

Muppet, so how long did you actually get for the fallow period?

 

[Stepho725]

This is my worst nightmare! What size tank was it and whyyyy would that happen ever?!?!

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[muppet]

It was a 55 gallon standard. I think it was just old, at 6-7 years. I'm the second owner. The silicone was pretty shed around the edges (although the silicone held). The tank wasn't completely level front to back, so maybe that caused unequal stress on the center support.

triggreef - It ended up being almost exactly 5 weeks, just like the last (failed) attempt. Spooky.

Right now everybody looks good but the foxface has a few nits on him and is a little pale. He's been skittish around the cleaner shrimp but finally let one work on him for a few seconds yesterday, so hopefully he'll get more comfortable with them.

My flame angel spent almost an hour with a cleaner digging around in her mouth and gills right after being reintroduced to the tank.

 

[Stepho725]

Lol very cool.
How unlevel was the tank? Mine is about a quarter to half inch off from the left to right. I'm hoping that since mine is a 29g and brand new this isn't gonna be an issue for us....ever!!!! Ahhhh!

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[muppet]

It was about 1/4" from front to back, I think.

My new 75 is 1/4" off from left to right, which I think I may now address sooner than later...

 

[muppet]

Well, predictably, my e-goby is starting to look a little wrong (it's hard to tell, though, he's got scars from the ich and he's in the substrate all day). If he gets sick with the ich parasite again, then I'm days away from a rage quit out of the hobby, I think.

My Foxface is actually looking AWESOME after he finally let the cleaners remove the few nits he had on him. He's fully colored most of the time (but still spooks easily, he doesn't like it when we all come in the living room after dinner) and eating like crazy, nice and fat.

If the e-goby gets sick I guess I'll offer up my livestock to people willing to QT and treat them. My QT is toast and I don't have the scratch to set another one up until mid-Summer.

Hoping for the best but not super optimistic at present. :/

 

[muppet]

So last night, I suddenly hear a bunch of whooshing from my tank and look over and see bubbles pouring out of the return. Obviously, my return chamber in the sump got low by a couple of inches.

Turns out, I had installed the filter sock on my overflow incorrectly and it was causing a slow drip out of my tank. I lost 4 gallons of water and the return started sucking air, luckily while I was home.

I think maybe the reefing gods are trying to tell me something about this whole project...

 

[Stepho725]

Man, sounds like things.have.been going rough for you. I am going to have my boyfriend level off our tank after your frightening story. I'm shocked that that could happen from a 1/4 inch difference. Very scary!
I really hope things begin improving for you soon. I can imagine how frustrating it must be for you after all of your hard work.
Good luck!

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[muppet]

I'm not sure that the difference was the culprit, but it may not have helped. The tank was pretty old and used and I had zip tied plumbing to that center brace in the past. I also filled the tank a little past where I usually did that day because I overcompensated for evaporation, and my daughter was jumping up and down and shaking the floor a couple hours before...

...who knows. Most likely, just an old tank that was all done.

 

[muppet]

Knock on wood, 2 and a half weeks out and no sign in the tank whatsoever of ich. If I get past the 3 week mark, I think I can safely declare success.

My foxface from PC is fat and happy and looking awesome. He's still slightly stress colored for parts of the day, though. I think the chromis are picking on him. They may need to go.

 

[saltychick]

Good to hear!

 

[muppet]

Now my biggest livestock related issue is that my blue leg hermits are massacring my snails and scarlet hermits. I've already sentenced two to the fuge and one to the mantis tank. :furious: