Randy Holmes-Farley
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My Tank Thread
So as usually happens, the worst occurred while I was 3,000 miles from home on a business trip.
I spent an hour in an airport on the phone with one of my daughters trying to understand what happened to the tank and how to fix it.
FWIW, my tank system is rather complicated. One reefer described it as a Rube Goldberg system.
Anyway, the main return pump was off and the level had dropped in the display. Not sure how long that had been going on. The sump water level was quite low, low enough to trip the main pump shut off.
The creatures were all apparently OK, but no heat was available to the tank (aside from the room temp) and no treatment of the water was happening.
So I had her add all of the available RO/DI to the sump, then a gallon of limewater and the pump restarted, but then shut down again when the sump level dropped as the display level rose. So I had her add a few gallons of untreated tap water to the sump (out of a system volume over 250 gallons). Things seemed to be running OK.
Next day I was out of cell contact for most of the day, but finally get an email that there was a fish problem and I should call immediately.
Turns out two big fish (a copperband butterfly and a one-spot foxface) were both dead and the family couldn't get them out since they were deep down in the rocks. The tank was also very cloudy.
I got home another day later and the whole house smelled. I immediately removed the dead fish, but otherwise the system seemed normal except the sump level was still low until I restarted the ATO which. Not sure why it ever went off.
Anyway, I'm still not sure what happened, but my best guess is that one of the rock-filled refugia went without circulating water for a number of days and may have become stagnant with H2S produced. Restarting the system may have sent that to the main tank, and knocked off two of the three big fish (leaving a yellow tank, three clowns, and three yellow tail damsels seemingly OK. I doubt the small amount of raw tap water was the problem, but I could be wrong.
Very disappointing event.
Now I have to decide whether to replace them (they are critical to keep aiptasia and caulerpa in check) or to break down this stem, which has been around a long time already.
I spent an hour in an airport on the phone with one of my daughters trying to understand what happened to the tank and how to fix it.
FWIW, my tank system is rather complicated. One reefer described it as a Rube Goldberg system.
Anyway, the main return pump was off and the level had dropped in the display. Not sure how long that had been going on. The sump water level was quite low, low enough to trip the main pump shut off.
The creatures were all apparently OK, but no heat was available to the tank (aside from the room temp) and no treatment of the water was happening.
So I had her add all of the available RO/DI to the sump, then a gallon of limewater and the pump restarted, but then shut down again when the sump level dropped as the display level rose. So I had her add a few gallons of untreated tap water to the sump (out of a system volume over 250 gallons). Things seemed to be running OK.
Next day I was out of cell contact for most of the day, but finally get an email that there was a fish problem and I should call immediately.
Turns out two big fish (a copperband butterfly and a one-spot foxface) were both dead and the family couldn't get them out since they were deep down in the rocks. The tank was also very cloudy.
I got home another day later and the whole house smelled. I immediately removed the dead fish, but otherwise the system seemed normal except the sump level was still low until I restarted the ATO which. Not sure why it ever went off.
Anyway, I'm still not sure what happened, but my best guess is that one of the rock-filled refugia went without circulating water for a number of days and may have become stagnant with H2S produced. Restarting the system may have sent that to the main tank, and knocked off two of the three big fish (leaving a yellow tank, three clowns, and three yellow tail damsels seemingly OK. I doubt the small amount of raw tap water was the problem, but I could be wrong.
Very disappointing event.
Now I have to decide whether to replace them (they are critical to keep aiptasia and caulerpa in check) or to break down this stem, which has been around a long time already.
