BIg Whisky
Community Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2016
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 16
- Location
- Covington, WA
- What state or country do you live in
- Washington
Hello,
New to the forum. This is my first post.
A little about myself:
I live near Seattle, WA. I have been a reefer for about 5 years. I have a 75 gallon DT which has been using canister filtration for some time. I had to move the tank about 2 years ago and made a terrible rookie mistake in that I didn't get new substrate before setting up the tank in my new house. Pretty much killed off all of my corals. Most of the fish made it, though and a few mushroom corals. Since then, I have pretty much just been running a FOWLR tank, with the exception of the 'shrooms. A little while ago, A friend gave me a 75 gal tank that is drilled and has an overflow box. I just never got around to switching tanks over. I have a pre-made acrylic sump/refugium for the new tank as well.
Here's where the plot sickens. Last week, over Thanksgiving, my wife & I left the house to spend the holiday with her parents. When we got back on Sunday, I found that the circuit breaker to the outlet powering my tank had tripped while we were out. My wife turned the furnace way down before we left. The tank water was frigid. I had lost pretty much all of my livestock. Upon further inspection (and running an extension cord from an outlet that works to my tank), I found that my yellow tang was clinging to life. I have a pretty powerful heater in the tank (300W) and he was hanging on. I prayed that he would make it. As I was removing the casualties, (an ocellaris clown, a royal gramma, a six-line wrasse, a gorgeous marine beta, and a few chromis), I noticed that my coral beauty was also barely breathing. I tried to get him moving a bit and he seemed to respond. I thought about turning off my circulation, but I was afraid that the heater wouldn't be as effective if there was no circulation. I needed that tank to warm up as quickly as possible. He kept sticking to the powerhead intake. As the water warmed up, he was showing signs of improvement, but I just couldnt keep him from sticking to the powerhead.
Yesterday, the tang was looking much better and the CB was also looking quite a bit better. I figured now was the time to get my tank switched over. I bought a used 10g tank and set it up as a hospital/quarantine tank. I'm using the canister filter from the old DT and filled the QT tank with water from the DT. The tang is looking great, but the CB has some whitish spots that look lie abrasions. I also threw in all of the turbo snails that survived the chill. The QT tank has no substrate or anything like that, but I did throw in a small piece of live rock in the hope that it will combat ammonia and maybe give the turbos something to graze on.
I guess my question is this: What's the best way to treat the injured coral beauty? I figure I should keep the tang in the QT as well. (I'm in the process of tearing down the old tank and doing the switch. I have a heater in the QT and the water is holding at 75.6 degrees. I also added 10ml of water conditioner to the QT.
I plan to plumb the new tank tomorrow, do the aquascaping, put in new live sand and aragonite substrate (about 1.5") and fill the tank with RO/DT water from the LFS. I figure the injured/stressed fish will be fine in the hospital tank until the new one is all set up. Am I wrong in this? I need to get a new cleanup crew, etc., and set up the refugium in the new sump as well. Also, I think there was some sort of power surge or something that caused the electrical issue. My lighting system is fried. I ordered a new SB Reef 32" Timer light unit that will hopefully be here soon. I have a thin 48" 50/50 white/actinic LED strip that I can use for now, its pretty low powered, but should be enough until the new LED unit gets here.
Man. What a mess. Any and all advice willl be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
-Breck
New to the forum. This is my first post.
A little about myself:
I live near Seattle, WA. I have been a reefer for about 5 years. I have a 75 gallon DT which has been using canister filtration for some time. I had to move the tank about 2 years ago and made a terrible rookie mistake in that I didn't get new substrate before setting up the tank in my new house. Pretty much killed off all of my corals. Most of the fish made it, though and a few mushroom corals. Since then, I have pretty much just been running a FOWLR tank, with the exception of the 'shrooms. A little while ago, A friend gave me a 75 gal tank that is drilled and has an overflow box. I just never got around to switching tanks over. I have a pre-made acrylic sump/refugium for the new tank as well.
Here's where the plot sickens. Last week, over Thanksgiving, my wife & I left the house to spend the holiday with her parents. When we got back on Sunday, I found that the circuit breaker to the outlet powering my tank had tripped while we were out. My wife turned the furnace way down before we left. The tank water was frigid. I had lost pretty much all of my livestock. Upon further inspection (and running an extension cord from an outlet that works to my tank), I found that my yellow tang was clinging to life. I have a pretty powerful heater in the tank (300W) and he was hanging on. I prayed that he would make it. As I was removing the casualties, (an ocellaris clown, a royal gramma, a six-line wrasse, a gorgeous marine beta, and a few chromis), I noticed that my coral beauty was also barely breathing. I tried to get him moving a bit and he seemed to respond. I thought about turning off my circulation, but I was afraid that the heater wouldn't be as effective if there was no circulation. I needed that tank to warm up as quickly as possible. He kept sticking to the powerhead intake. As the water warmed up, he was showing signs of improvement, but I just couldnt keep him from sticking to the powerhead.
Yesterday, the tang was looking much better and the CB was also looking quite a bit better. I figured now was the time to get my tank switched over. I bought a used 10g tank and set it up as a hospital/quarantine tank. I'm using the canister filter from the old DT and filled the QT tank with water from the DT. The tang is looking great, but the CB has some whitish spots that look lie abrasions. I also threw in all of the turbo snails that survived the chill. The QT tank has no substrate or anything like that, but I did throw in a small piece of live rock in the hope that it will combat ammonia and maybe give the turbos something to graze on.
I guess my question is this: What's the best way to treat the injured coral beauty? I figure I should keep the tang in the QT as well. (I'm in the process of tearing down the old tank and doing the switch. I have a heater in the QT and the water is holding at 75.6 degrees. I also added 10ml of water conditioner to the QT.
I plan to plumb the new tank tomorrow, do the aquascaping, put in new live sand and aragonite substrate (about 1.5") and fill the tank with RO/DT water from the LFS. I figure the injured/stressed fish will be fine in the hospital tank until the new one is all set up. Am I wrong in this? I need to get a new cleanup crew, etc., and set up the refugium in the new sump as well. Also, I think there was some sort of power surge or something that caused the electrical issue. My lighting system is fried. I ordered a new SB Reef 32" Timer light unit that will hopefully be here soon. I have a thin 48" 50/50 white/actinic LED strip that I can use for now, its pretty low powered, but should be enough until the new LED unit gets here.
Man. What a mess. Any and all advice willl be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
-Breck
