One of those weeks

[tank o tang]

My queen conch is missing in my reef tank. Had her since she was 3/4" and is now about 5". I can't find her or her shell and I have never seen her climb the rocks, mainly stays in the sand. Although she would bulldoze everything on my sandbed I love watching her hump around the tank. Hope she appears soon.

One of the 0-rings on my external skimmer started to leak so I had to baffle up a 33 gal tank so I can put the bigger sump under the tank. This will allow me to use it in sump and not to have to worry about a little drip since it will be dripping into the sump till I can fix it. Only thing is I have to do the old knock out a stand support to get it under while my tank is full on the stand. Silicone should be dry and hope to have it done saturday.

Then with the temps so high in the beginning of the week I was worried as the temp in the reef went up to 83. None of the ac's are in windows yet. Dosen't sound like much but it has just been one of those pita weeks.

 

[Wheel of Time]

sorry to hear that. Im really concerned to what Im going to come back to -- Im in WA right now, flying back to CT tomorrow. Been out of town for a while for work and wondering what state my tank will be in when I get back...sure hope the evap didnt go nutz due t the high temps and run the ato dry / pumps burn out...that is my fear. Im sure overblown, but wont know til tomorrow night when I get back.

 

[scolley]

Re: One of those weeks

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14926459#post14926459 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tank o tang
Dosen't sound like much but it has just been one of those pita weeks.

Sorry to hear about your trouble - especially your conch. Would hate to hear of a loss there.

And Wheel-of-Time, travel is trouble with high-tech gear - not that you don't know. And for me to say provide cautions about going high-tech when business travel is required would absolutely be "the pot calling the kettle black". Though I can detect a lot of problems over the web with my AC III, I don't even bother. If the tanks going belly up while I'm gone, the spouse is not going to be a big help. It's a risk.

Nope, it's been one of those weeks for me too, with technology inexplicably failing. And while my first reef is not yet up, the frustrations are the same.

In my case, my tank was leaking. Not fast, but a slow leak that made it's way out of the stand and onto the wood floor. Maybe a 1/2 gallon or so. And the leak was NOT evident. But after WAY too much time sleuthing, I decided to unbolt my Pentair units from the horizontal board their bases were mounted to - they all lay horizontally on the Pentair horizontal hardware. But their bases are all bolted to a 1" thick plank for additional stability. And to my AMAZEMENT all three of the heater units are leaking out of the bottom of their bases. How the HECK does that happen?

The leaks are slow, and Lifegard is helping. A PVC repair job seems imminent this weekend. But that sort of crap is just not supposed ot happen. Go figure.

Yes - it has been one of those weeks.

 

[LISound]

Wheel,
if you need someone to check in on your tanks while you travel, just drop me a line.
I work in Norwalk and pass through daily.
same goes for anyone locally.

Scott

 

[Wheel of Time]

Scott, thanks so much for the offer, that's awesome! Im normally not away for this long, but this turned into a marathon trip. I just may take you up on it!

Scolley -- I bet you are up to your arms in pvc parts re-plumbing at the moment! Ive never heard of three units failing / leaking at the same time after working succesfully. that stinks -- but good thing you caught it with less than a gallon on the floor!

I have about a 25g container with top off water in it -- it was bone dry when I got home last night (the peristallic pump was just pushing air-- no big deal). Luckily there was still enough water in the sump to avoid running the pumps dry or damaging them...whew! I normally dont have any real algae on my tank front day to day, but after being away for so long this time there is a nice haze build-up Im going to have to work on cleaning up today (think Ill do a 30g water change too).

Tank -- how did you knock out the stand support while your tank was full? Any luck gettgin a ordering a new o-ring for the skimmer? what a pain to have to put in a whole new sump to catch the drip..real pita.

Here is to a great week kicking off today!!!

-- Seth

 

[tank o tang]

Glad to hear all was well.

Hope the pvc went easy. Are they on seperate unions?

All went well. I ended up having to knock out both center braces to fit the sump. To knock them out I built a brace for one side and used a hi-lift jack from a jeep on the other side. Then just give em a good smack with a large mallet. I'm sure I could have just replaced the o-ring but I am to hard headed for that. I'd rather reseal the sump tank, baffle it, rip apart my stand, and create a whole project. But now I am happy I did because I have alot more room to work in the sump. Went from a 24" acrylic to a 48" 33gal long for a sump.

Still haven't found the conch which has me baffled because how can a shell that big disappear? My wife keeps saying shes seen her but we all know how that is.

 

[tank o tang]

Looks like I need to kick myself in the rear and listen to my wife more. My conch is back out humping around my sand bed buldozing everything in its path.

 

[scolley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14942647#post14942647 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tank o tang
My wife keeps saying shes seen her but we all know how that is.

Maybe some of us just THINK we know how that is.

Glad you found it!



And no, I deliberately reduced the possible number of unions between the Pentairs in a space saving design compromise. The assumption was that NOTHING will ever go wrong with a Pentair heating unit that a replacing the heater in it won't fix. Aparently a bad assumption.

Fortunately it did not matter. I just ordered a sheet of 1/4" PVC, cut some 2.5" squares off it, primered 'em up, generously globbed on PVC cement, and slapped one on the bottom of each pentair unit. Now my stand is as dry as the Sahara. Again.