baloo6969
Member
Ok first I’m apologizing for being long winded, cut a very long story short, I was away for awhile and left my tank to a “friend” for 2.5 weeks. I left detailed instructions to follow, to sum it up, how to feed, and what not to do…# 1 was DON’T TOUCH ANTHING INCLUDING THE ANYTHING IN THE APPARTMENT, (the appt’s temp is always at 68, once a day ¼ gallon of RO water is enough to keep up with evap I’ve found)…those were on the instructions, along with “if the water level goes below this line in the sump call me” needless to say I think he skipped that part and everything else.
When I came back the apartment’s temp was over 75degrees, there was a ton of evaporation, so the salinity was waaayyy off. The can filter was running, but the inlet and outlet were closed (his reasoning was “well Monday (2 days after I left) it was spraying water and making a lot of bubbles” I think this is when it all started.). The 2 sea clone 100’s were both off (his reasoning was “well there was a ton of bubbles in the tank” it was sucking air). And the sump wasn’t getting any water since the water level was below the skimmer. So basically there was no filtration for >~2 weeks.
Anyway the nitrates and nitrites were off the chart, so I got the salinity in range…let it sit for 2 hours. In the mean time I got RO water….
Needless to say, it was Sunday night at 8pm when I returned. All the pet stores were closed, all I have is the “bear necessities” a few filter pads, some carbon, ammonia, and nitrate chips, and enough salt, but only 80% RO water, an even longer story why I couldn’t get to my RO filter
I replaced all the filter pads, added new carbon and added ammonia and nitrate chips (not sure what there names are) and I removed both the sea clones and put in a Prizm pro deluxe skimmer, which was delivered while I was away... Bucketed all fish and inverts, bagged corals. Then removed 100% of the water (oh yes this was a very bad idea, I will soon find out, since I only had 80% RO water)
Added the mixed water…Temp acclimated the fish, and got the pumps running (the can filter still worked even after it was closed up for 2 weeks, WOW!) then dripped the fish and inverts with 2 five gallons buckets started with ~2 gallons in each, then dripped in a full bucket over a hour and a half in each, then removed ~3 gallons of water from each, then dripped in a full bucket in one hour. Then added them to the tank…
As for the corals, I temp acclimated them for 20mins, then doubled the original water volume every 20 mins 5 times.
Corals were obviously closed, inverts were calm, but did there normal things(except my cleaner was “playing king of the mountain”, never saw that before…and the fish looked a bit drained, almost looked like they were missing color, my yellow tang was looking a bit white, the grass mower was missing spots, the velvet damsel is missing his vertical stripe, but my blue tang looks normal but agitated. The rest just seamed chilled, but lively…all things considered to this point. There breathing was normal and they didn’t exhibit any strange behavior.
And if your really reading along AND PAYING ATTTENTION, you’d know that I’m still missing +20% water (since I dripped those fish, and to compensate for the filters and skimmers to fill…Well I think I made a bigger mistake now than leaving my tank with my friend, I used town water…only ~15% was used, just so the filters and skimmers could GET IN ON IT…I added some “de-clore” to each bucket.
At any rate, well that was yesterday, this morning I haven’t lost anything (I won’t get back to my apartment till 6 tonite)…but I’ve heard that poisoning can take weeks. What do you guys suggest? Here’s what I was going to do.
1.Replace the can filter’s pads daily for a 2 week, then start replacing them every 3 days for 2 weeks,
2.Add new carbon every 2~3 days, stop this after 2 weeks
3.Do a 50% water change tonight and tomorrow evening, then everyday for a week 30% or until levels are nominal.
4.Keep PS and UV running full bore for at least 2 weeks.
5.Keep the lighting on for a smaller amount of time during the day than normal for the next few days.
Any suggestions as to what I should do now, additives, water change %/day changes? And in the next few weeks? Except for the obvious statements like “Don’t leave your friend to take care of you tank when you go on business trips.” And “NEVER USE TOWN WATER! THERE’S Chlorine and chloramines in the water + metals and other bad things…”
Yes I’m very aware, but desperate times do call for desperate measures. Plus once I got all this done, it was 1am last night, and I had just got off a 5 hour flight, and had to be back to work at 6am…I’m one angry monkey.
When I came back the apartment’s temp was over 75degrees, there was a ton of evaporation, so the salinity was waaayyy off. The can filter was running, but the inlet and outlet were closed (his reasoning was “well Monday (2 days after I left) it was spraying water and making a lot of bubbles” I think this is when it all started.). The 2 sea clone 100’s were both off (his reasoning was “well there was a ton of bubbles in the tank” it was sucking air). And the sump wasn’t getting any water since the water level was below the skimmer. So basically there was no filtration for >~2 weeks.
Anyway the nitrates and nitrites were off the chart, so I got the salinity in range…let it sit for 2 hours. In the mean time I got RO water….
Needless to say, it was Sunday night at 8pm when I returned. All the pet stores were closed, all I have is the “bear necessities” a few filter pads, some carbon, ammonia, and nitrate chips, and enough salt, but only 80% RO water, an even longer story why I couldn’t get to my RO filter
I replaced all the filter pads, added new carbon and added ammonia and nitrate chips (not sure what there names are) and I removed both the sea clones and put in a Prizm pro deluxe skimmer, which was delivered while I was away... Bucketed all fish and inverts, bagged corals. Then removed 100% of the water (oh yes this was a very bad idea, I will soon find out, since I only had 80% RO water)
Added the mixed water…Temp acclimated the fish, and got the pumps running (the can filter still worked even after it was closed up for 2 weeks, WOW!) then dripped the fish and inverts with 2 five gallons buckets started with ~2 gallons in each, then dripped in a full bucket over a hour and a half in each, then removed ~3 gallons of water from each, then dripped in a full bucket in one hour. Then added them to the tank…
As for the corals, I temp acclimated them for 20mins, then doubled the original water volume every 20 mins 5 times.
Corals were obviously closed, inverts were calm, but did there normal things(except my cleaner was “playing king of the mountain”, never saw that before…and the fish looked a bit drained, almost looked like they were missing color, my yellow tang was looking a bit white, the grass mower was missing spots, the velvet damsel is missing his vertical stripe, but my blue tang looks normal but agitated. The rest just seamed chilled, but lively…all things considered to this point. There breathing was normal and they didn’t exhibit any strange behavior.
And if your really reading along AND PAYING ATTTENTION, you’d know that I’m still missing +20% water (since I dripped those fish, and to compensate for the filters and skimmers to fill…Well I think I made a bigger mistake now than leaving my tank with my friend, I used town water…only ~15% was used, just so the filters and skimmers could GET IN ON IT…I added some “de-clore” to each bucket.
At any rate, well that was yesterday, this morning I haven’t lost anything (I won’t get back to my apartment till 6 tonite)…but I’ve heard that poisoning can take weeks. What do you guys suggest? Here’s what I was going to do.
1.Replace the can filter’s pads daily for a 2 week, then start replacing them every 3 days for 2 weeks,
2.Add new carbon every 2~3 days, stop this after 2 weeks
3.Do a 50% water change tonight and tomorrow evening, then everyday for a week 30% or until levels are nominal.
4.Keep PS and UV running full bore for at least 2 weeks.
5.Keep the lighting on for a smaller amount of time during the day than normal for the next few days.
Any suggestions as to what I should do now, additives, water change %/day changes? And in the next few weeks? Except for the obvious statements like “Don’t leave your friend to take care of you tank when you go on business trips.” And “NEVER USE TOWN WATER! THERE’S Chlorine and chloramines in the water + metals and other bad things…”
Yes I’m very aware, but desperate times do call for desperate measures. Plus once I got all this done, it was 1am last night, and I had just got off a 5 hour flight, and had to be back to work at 6am…I’m one angry monkey.
