Sand Catastrophe

[shesacharmer]

So I turned my lights out when I went to work today...an effort to combat cyano on the sand.

Imagine my shock and dismay when I got home after a full day and turned the lights on only to find my Koralia 1500 had come loose from the magnet and spent about 8 hours spinning loose inside my tank and sending sand inches deep throughout.

What a mess. It'll take me a week to get all my corals back in place as things were pitched all over the tank. Argh! :angryfire:

 

[Xavibear]

Sorry about your mishap, but that really made me laugh. Occasionally my 2 year will get behind my tank & pull a magnet. There have been a couple of times that I've walked in the room to see a powerhead swimming around.

 

[JMorris271]

That is scary! Sorry for your sand storm

 

[ReefPony]

Wow. That sounds no fun.

I had a similar mishap right after I set up my tank when my little Sicce Voyager decided to escape from its bracket. Fortunately, I had secured the power cable so that it didn't have enough "rope" to get down to the sand bed.

Fortunately, that little powerhead has been relegated to salt mixing duty since I got my Jebao RW-8. With that one, I only have to worry about someone pulling the magnet and I'm the only one that every acts like a child and has the opposable thumbs to do it in my household.

 

[Sk8r]

Use a turkey baster to try to get the sand off, and test your nitrate and ammonia every 12 hours, while preparing a no-cycle qt tank 'just in case.' The kick-up on that sandbed could destabilize the tank and create an ammonia spike that could do significant damage. Fish seem to be more in danger from a cycle than corals are, so your fish are the ones to get to qt, but also any coral that seems stressed. Run a filter sock to get as much dust out as possible.

 

[KAMIKAZE0214]

I always have massive nitrate spikes when something disturbs my sandbed. I think I'd be more worried about that than ammonia.

 

[shesacharmer]

Good point you guys. I'll do some testing this morning to see where things stand. My tank is running fallow thank goodness...never thought I'd say that! My fish are all safe in QT but I can't imagine how much they would have suffered had they been in there. I changed out my filter socks last night after I basted the rocks from the top down and the sand got a bit more settled. One more thing to add to my checklist of things to monitor...magnet alignment. You learn new things everyday with a reef tank! Looks like I won't need to vacuum the sandbed this month!

 

[shesacharmer]

Ammonia still zero (Salifert)
Nitrites undetectable (API)
Nitrates 10 (API)

I guess I'll do a 20% water change tomorrow to bring that back down. Thanks for suggesting the tests.

 

[KAMIKAZE0214]

Ammonia still zero (Salifert)
Nitrites undetectable (API)
Nitrates 10 (API)

I guess I'll do a 20% water change tomorrow to bring that back down. Thanks for suggesting the tests.

That's still not even that high for nitrates ;D You must run a pretty tight ship!

 

[Sk8r]

Reef. Reefs run way, way low nitrate, and a sandbed kickup is not a good thing.

The good thing is that corals, being filter feeders, help keep things that way. If FOWLRs could encourage that state of affairs as much as possible, the fish would be happier, IMHO.

 

[shesacharmer]

I have a mixed reef which as it grows will be quite a challenge I'm sure. No Acros here but lots of Monti, Pavona, Pachyserus, Seriatopora, and Pocillapora, along with lots of LPS, Softies, and Leather...I love a challenge!

 

[shesacharmer]

Well my rock work will still need more attention than I can give it today but it looks like nearly all my corals will be okay.

 

[1987]

I had the same thing happen, between that and dealing with various algae outbreaks I went bare bottom.

Have not had any algae since

 

[Silvergryphon]

With all that flow, I bet it took care of the Cyano.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

That's one thing I really like about my Vortech pumps. If the wet side falls off, it stops running.

 

[cloak]

If you haven't already, you might want to use some fishing line to secure that pump if it ever comes loose again.. Just run it through the pump, and then secure it to the canopy or frame with some duct tape or a tack. Here's a picture just to give you an idea. HTH.

 

[shesacharmer]

Now that's a very clever DYI Cloak, thanks!

 

[Big_Boss_77]

Not to sound presumptuous.... but couldn't you use the power head as an under water leaf blower of sorts to redistribute the bulk of the sand where you want it?

 

[cloak]

As long as the pump is not a monster, (gph) and the flow is more of a straight stream, you can do that.

 

[shesacharmer]

Well, the pump is a bit of a monster which is part of what caused all the problem (1500 gph). I have well over 50 corals in my tank so the kinder, gentler turkey baster approach seemed like the way to go. It took about an hour and a half to move the coral, baste the sand downward and get the corals approximately back in place. (none are glued down). Then I replaced the filter socks and fuge sponge block. The following day I moved all those frags again and re-stacked the top of my rockwork since I shook it up retrieving fallen frags. I'm much happier now as there are lots of caves and pass throughs and the stack is very solid.