Hey all.
This past weekend was not a good one.
On Saturday I woke up to find one of my cleaner shrimp on its back on the sand, not looking very hot. It would twitch a bit as fish or other critters would come near it to inspect/pick on it, but other than that it wouldn't move. About a half hour later it was dead. I tested my water; my results were: PH 8.0, ammonia between 0.00 and 0.25 PPM, nitrites 0.00, and nitrates 5 PPM. I did a 10-15% water change. I do this usually about twice a week. Not sure if it died from old age (I hadn't had it that long, but not sure how long the store had had it), trouble molting, or what.
On Sunday I found that one of my clownfish (the female in a pair) had jumped out of my tank. :sad
I don't have a huge opening at the top/back of my tank, but it was evidently big enough. I quickly constructed a makeshift cover for the opening out of leftover eggcrate, so hopefully I should not have to suffer any more senseless losses from jumping fish.
As for the re-cycling question...
About a month/month and a half ago I tore down my set-up to do several things. One, I wanted to replace half my DSB. Half of it when originally laid down was silica-based sand, the other [top] half was aragonite sand. When it was dry it looked all the same; wet it looked like a two-layered cake with grey and white. I had never liked the silica sand anyway, and it hadn't mixed all together, so it was a simple matter to scoop out the top half of aragonite and dump the silica sand.
My tank also had to be moved to a different area of the apartment.
Also, I had a plan for my LR. I had ordered and received some LR from TBS, and I wanted to take all my existing rock and re-arriange it with the new stuff. Before my rock was just sitting on top of the sandbed, as well, which as I found out is not the most stable thing in the world, so when I removed my sand I laid out a layer of eggcrate on the bottom glass of the tank, placed the base rock on top of that, poured in the new aragonite sand, then the old aragonite sand, then the remainder of my rock on top of the base rock.
All in all it was quite a project. The sand I was saving never dried out; I had it in a big plastic bin where it stayed wet; the LR was in a huge bin with a heater and pump to keep everything healthy and alive; the fish/corals/everything else was in yet another bin with a heater and pump (and lights overhead) while I worked. I did it all in a day, without major complications. Water in the tank was 50-50% old/new when all was done and said. Weekly to bi-weekly water changes, as mentioned above. Have been monitoring parameters ever since, but noticed a few things that seem to be off in the new setup.
Before, my copepod population seemed to be through the roof. Now I never notice any on the glass. Also, I've been experiencing some diatom blooming and cynobacteria on the surface of the sand in spots as when I first set up my tank. I know I have plenty of current, and sufficient cleaner crew, so is my tank just re-cycling after the move?
Sorry; I know it's long... Thanks everyone who made it to this point for reading it all, and for any advice/experience with this.
This past weekend was not a good one.
On Saturday I woke up to find one of my cleaner shrimp on its back on the sand, not looking very hot. It would twitch a bit as fish or other critters would come near it to inspect/pick on it, but other than that it wouldn't move. About a half hour later it was dead. I tested my water; my results were: PH 8.0, ammonia between 0.00 and 0.25 PPM, nitrites 0.00, and nitrates 5 PPM. I did a 10-15% water change. I do this usually about twice a week. Not sure if it died from old age (I hadn't had it that long, but not sure how long the store had had it), trouble molting, or what.
On Sunday I found that one of my clownfish (the female in a pair) had jumped out of my tank. :sad
I don't have a huge opening at the top/back of my tank, but it was evidently big enough. I quickly constructed a makeshift cover for the opening out of leftover eggcrate, so hopefully I should not have to suffer any more senseless losses from jumping fish.
As for the re-cycling question...
About a month/month and a half ago I tore down my set-up to do several things. One, I wanted to replace half my DSB. Half of it when originally laid down was silica-based sand, the other [top] half was aragonite sand. When it was dry it looked all the same; wet it looked like a two-layered cake with grey and white. I had never liked the silica sand anyway, and it hadn't mixed all together, so it was a simple matter to scoop out the top half of aragonite and dump the silica sand.
My tank also had to be moved to a different area of the apartment.
Also, I had a plan for my LR. I had ordered and received some LR from TBS, and I wanted to take all my existing rock and re-arriange it with the new stuff. Before my rock was just sitting on top of the sandbed, as well, which as I found out is not the most stable thing in the world, so when I removed my sand I laid out a layer of eggcrate on the bottom glass of the tank, placed the base rock on top of that, poured in the new aragonite sand, then the old aragonite sand, then the remainder of my rock on top of the base rock.
All in all it was quite a project. The sand I was saving never dried out; I had it in a big plastic bin where it stayed wet; the LR was in a huge bin with a heater and pump to keep everything healthy and alive; the fish/corals/everything else was in yet another bin with a heater and pump (and lights overhead) while I worked. I did it all in a day, without major complications. Water in the tank was 50-50% old/new when all was done and said. Weekly to bi-weekly water changes, as mentioned above. Have been monitoring parameters ever since, but noticed a few things that seem to be off in the new setup.
Before, my copepod population seemed to be through the roof. Now I never notice any on the glass. Also, I've been experiencing some diatom blooming and cynobacteria on the surface of the sand in spots as when I first set up my tank. I know I have plenty of current, and sufficient cleaner crew, so is my tank just re-cycling after the move?
Sorry; I know it's long... Thanks everyone who made it to this point for reading it all, and for any advice/experience with this.
