THE BACKGROUND
I had my tank up and running for ten years. This
was a big deal to me as I had many failures to get this far. Now my 250 gal with two 29gal sumps under tank. Saltwater reef about 70% of tank filled with live rock. Pink, red, and purple coral growing on all tank hard surfaces. As far as live stuff: 40 fish of different sizes and types. 20 shrimp diff types and sizes. Live leather corals, bubble corals, pulsing zenia, brain coral, moon coral, Hundreds on snails. Many star fish all diff types. Some reproducing. 2 large Clams. Lights over one of sumps with live rock and live sand. Bioballs too. Main lights two metal halide400 watts each. Eight sets of HO power compact daylight and 5000k compacts. I added water about once per week when the new water sump was down. We had a three time a week squedule of adding calcium to the tank. Once in a while I had to add buffer. It was never a surprise - it seemed to be on a schedule. I knew from the daily tests that I did what the tank needs were. Daily I would test and document on computer with resulting graphs and other visual aids that would help me identify outliers to the data that were collected.
I was happy to know these techniques that I learned in my education at the University of Illinois where I earned BS in Biology, BS in Environmental Chemistry, and a BA in psychology
That helped me develop tools to deal with my wife as this tank was becoming a neighborhood attraction and "required" much money for all the new toys that the industry was producing. Ya know, the computer mediated chemistry test probes, etc.
The story:
I moved to a New house and moved tank myself. This was my first time moving a tank. I did so with 50 gal trash cans. All new. Unfortunately I rented a 24 foot truck to move these tanks. Unfortunately I put all the tanks on one side of the truck. To make a long story short- the suspension and frame did not survive the trip. Lesson learned. BUT THE TANK AMD ALL LIFE WAS SPARED AND GENERALLY LOOKED UNPHASED.
I placed the tank in the basement and used new hoses to move all water back to tank. I ended up building a wall around tank so I could work on tank from behind and nobody would see the mess. It looked great
Now three weeks into the project I felt good. I added a drop ceiling with power compacts to the 1500 sq ft basement.
I even added a media room with two projectors facing opposite walls that allowed primary and secondary showings - more often the kids could watch and play their video games while my wife and I watched the movies.
So I was proud of my new setup. It looked better than ever.
So I called the carpet folks to install carpet in the basement. This was the last part of our basement before I could have the new furniture delivered. This was a magical time. We were newly married by this time and excited to start a family.
But soon we noticed the tank having issues. We would gather in front of tank to have drinks when I came home from work. We noticed that we were having more and more issues. The daily water tests were augmented by a computerized 14 count chemistry test panel. It was not the computer that let us know there was an issue. It was the visual representation of the data that were obtained on the daily testing.
The pH was raising regularly and dramatically over time. I had no idea why this was happening or what I had done or missed on my care. As an ICU RN I was treating the tank as one of my patients. It was sick. Real sick. Finally everything was dead. I was crushed. I kept testing. I kept looking. I finally found out what happened.
IT WAS THE CARPET. I had no recollection that carpet was packed in formeldahyde. I went back and spoke with my professors. The did let me know that this was a point that we did cover when talking about leaching on chemicals around trash hills and dumps around the world. Chemicals we're leaching from the carpet and collecting in dirt, streams and rivers of our beloved Earth.
I was crushed. It was my fault. It was something that I learned and I should have recalled the data from the lectures. It must have been one of those days that I missed when courting my now wife.
I was crushed. I turned off the lights of the basement and did not go back there for two freaking years. I just could not face my tank. It was so many of my friends in the tank that I failed. They died because of me. I killed them with my failure.
Ok so two years later I go back to the basement to find that when I turned off this lights I forgot to drain the tank.
The tank was full of water with lots of little skeletons floating around. Ok no longer floating. Now the water was so toxic that it was a pH of 9.6 that's almost a pH of bleach.
I find this frightening that my carpet from Luna flooring was leaching toxic VOCs into our air. It was time to spend some of that money, that I saved from not having a tank to support, on the air quality of my home.
I missed my tank. I loved my tank. This is a real story that is accurate and precise in it's content and delivery.
I had my tank up and running for ten years. This
was a big deal to me as I had many failures to get this far. Now my 250 gal with two 29gal sumps under tank. Saltwater reef about 70% of tank filled with live rock. Pink, red, and purple coral growing on all tank hard surfaces. As far as live stuff: 40 fish of different sizes and types. 20 shrimp diff types and sizes. Live leather corals, bubble corals, pulsing zenia, brain coral, moon coral, Hundreds on snails. Many star fish all diff types. Some reproducing. 2 large Clams. Lights over one of sumps with live rock and live sand. Bioballs too. Main lights two metal halide400 watts each. Eight sets of HO power compact daylight and 5000k compacts. I added water about once per week when the new water sump was down. We had a three time a week squedule of adding calcium to the tank. Once in a while I had to add buffer. It was never a surprise - it seemed to be on a schedule. I knew from the daily tests that I did what the tank needs were. Daily I would test and document on computer with resulting graphs and other visual aids that would help me identify outliers to the data that were collected.
I was happy to know these techniques that I learned in my education at the University of Illinois where I earned BS in Biology, BS in Environmental Chemistry, and a BA in psychology
That helped me develop tools to deal with my wife as this tank was becoming a neighborhood attraction and "required" much money for all the new toys that the industry was producing. Ya know, the computer mediated chemistry test probes, etc.
The story:
I moved to a New house and moved tank myself. This was my first time moving a tank. I did so with 50 gal trash cans. All new. Unfortunately I rented a 24 foot truck to move these tanks. Unfortunately I put all the tanks on one side of the truck. To make a long story short- the suspension and frame did not survive the trip. Lesson learned. BUT THE TANK AMD ALL LIFE WAS SPARED AND GENERALLY LOOKED UNPHASED.
I placed the tank in the basement and used new hoses to move all water back to tank. I ended up building a wall around tank so I could work on tank from behind and nobody would see the mess. It looked great
Now three weeks into the project I felt good. I added a drop ceiling with power compacts to the 1500 sq ft basement.
I even added a media room with two projectors facing opposite walls that allowed primary and secondary showings - more often the kids could watch and play their video games while my wife and I watched the movies.
So I was proud of my new setup. It looked better than ever.
So I called the carpet folks to install carpet in the basement. This was the last part of our basement before I could have the new furniture delivered. This was a magical time. We were newly married by this time and excited to start a family.
But soon we noticed the tank having issues. We would gather in front of tank to have drinks when I came home from work. We noticed that we were having more and more issues. The daily water tests were augmented by a computerized 14 count chemistry test panel. It was not the computer that let us know there was an issue. It was the visual representation of the data that were obtained on the daily testing.
The pH was raising regularly and dramatically over time. I had no idea why this was happening or what I had done or missed on my care. As an ICU RN I was treating the tank as one of my patients. It was sick. Real sick. Finally everything was dead. I was crushed. I kept testing. I kept looking. I finally found out what happened.
IT WAS THE CARPET. I had no recollection that carpet was packed in formeldahyde. I went back and spoke with my professors. The did let me know that this was a point that we did cover when talking about leaching on chemicals around trash hills and dumps around the world. Chemicals we're leaching from the carpet and collecting in dirt, streams and rivers of our beloved Earth.
I was crushed. It was my fault. It was something that I learned and I should have recalled the data from the lectures. It must have been one of those days that I missed when courting my now wife.
I was crushed. I turned off the lights of the basement and did not go back there for two freaking years. I just could not face my tank. It was so many of my friends in the tank that I failed. They died because of me. I killed them with my failure.
Ok so two years later I go back to the basement to find that when I turned off this lights I forgot to drain the tank.
The tank was full of water with lots of little skeletons floating around. Ok no longer floating. Now the water was so toxic that it was a pH of 9.6 that's almost a pH of bleach.
I find this frightening that my carpet from Luna flooring was leaching toxic VOCs into our air. It was time to spend some of that money, that I saved from not having a tank to support, on the air quality of my home.
I missed my tank. I loved my tank. This is a real story that is accurate and precise in it's content and delivery.
