I killed my tank...

S

ShawnJones

Super Fiber Optic Dude
Jan 22, 2007
43
0
0
Tampa, FL
Last night my canopy slipped off of it's supports and shattered X4 46.5" VHO bulbs into my tank. The only livestock is a clown and anemone. Well I rescued the fish to a spare 30 I had, but now I am draining my tank, removing all the substrate, and redoing everything. It is actually a good thing though.

I rushed into my marine aquarium and there were a few things that I wish I would have done different. Once the tank is empty(tonight) I want to paint the back glass, and rearrange some plumbing, change the substrate, etc.

My questions are as follows:

1. If I put new substrate and fresh saltwater into the tank, will the tank have to go through a cycle again?

2. What would you change if you were in my position (rebuilding a tank, with more education on the subject)?

3. Any other ideas?

My goal is to have the tank back up asap to get my livestock in a decent environment, and since the slate is clean, I wish to start a reef aquarium.
My tank specs are as follows.

100Gallon S/W
Wet/Dry Filter system
AquaC Skimmer
IceCap 660 w/ X4 VHO lamps
X2 MaxiJet 1200

I am sitting at home tonight putting together a list of ideas and ordering materials so any idea welcome.

Thanks a lot,
Shawn
 
To answer a couple of your questions:

1. With all new sand, and water, yes, your tank will have to go through another cycle. You can speed up the process by using a few cups of sand from your old setup (assuming that you are able to get sand without any glass fragments in it). Also, I'm assuming you have LR in the old setup as well ... that too will help with speeding up the cycle. Just make sure you have rinsed the LR pretty well to get rid of any glass fragments.

2. As far as changing things go, you might want to tell us what you think you did wrong the first time around, or what you didn't like about the setup ... that way we can give you some thoughts/ideas on how you could do those things differently. You mentioned rearranding the plumbing and getting new substrate ... how do you have it set up currently?

3. I guess as a word of caution/advice, I would be VERY careful when taking apart your existing tank and cleaning it ... you don't want glass gettting into your hands.

Sorry to hear about the accident. But looks like it was sort of a blessing in disguise for ya!

Cheers!
Yash
 
Put in an acrylic or plexiglass shield for your lights... this way there's no way glass is getting into your tank.

Your going to need more flow... Aim for atleast 20x turnover for a reef. A few tunze nanostreams should fit the bill.
 
Thanks Yash,

Well, here are some pictures of my tank about a week ago. No I didn't have any live rock in the tank, that was actually what I was going after this weekend. One of the biggest that I want to redo is that I used silica sand on the bottom of the tank. There was L/S on the top but the silica was still there and it looked nasty, packed down too hard, and was most likely the reason that my water was such a pain to maintain. As far as plumbing, the sump worked fine, although I want to design some type of filters to protect the pumps, remove the skimmer from the sump to allow more volume, and redo the pressure and return lines for the tank. I am already working on the electrical system and the mods for that. This tank was given to me as was all of the equipment. I'm sure it worked for the previous owner but I have different things in mind.

Hind sight 20/20. I was so excited to get the system up and running that I just skipped too many steps I believe. The tank was fine, and it worked, but I want to do it right, like I should have the first time.

Atnixon, the anemone is doing okay in my temp tank right now, it misses it's light, and I need to get the real tank back up and running asap to get him back in his home. Luckely the bulbs only broke on one end of the tank, and at the time I was also feeding so no pumps were on, hopefully I can salvage enough of the top layer of L/S on the other side to keep the cycle to a min. My goals now are to reconfig the tank for ease of maintenance, good looks, and the health of my livestock, and to raise corals in my living room. If there happens to be anyone from around Tampa, who would like to keep an eye on my condy and clown for me just let me know.


Thanks for the input,
Shawn
 
Yes I am going to reuse the rock that was in the tank, I washed all of the glass off of it and it's sitting in a tub of water waiting for this weekend. Thanks for the look though.

Shawn
 
Couple more things ... as far as the sand goes, I'd suggest using aragonite sand ... that usually works real well with a SW/reef setup and will not put a strain on your water params.

As far as painting the back glass goes, is there a reason why you want to paint the glass instead of using a background? I personally don't like painting the glass since its relatively permanent/hard to get out if you would like to down the road. You could easily get a solid colored background paper, and line the back of the tank from the outside ... that way, if it gets damaged, or you want to change colors, its real easy to do so.

With little or no LR in your tank, and only a little "live sand" you'll be looking at at least a couple of weeks to get the cycle completed. Read through the cycling procedures sticky and Niko and I have put together HERE ... you can use either of Method 1 or 2 to get the cycle completed relatively quickly.

How long have you had your tank up and running so we can get an idea on where the sand is in the bacterial cycle stage? Also, if feasible, you might want to consider getting a new home (at least temporarily) for your nem ... they're really sensitive to water params, which will be a little unsettled after your new cycle.

Regarding your plumbing, I have little to no DIY skills ... so someone else will have to chime in on that .... you might also consider posting that in the DIY section to get some quicker replies to your plans.

Anything else, just ask away :)

Regards,
Yash
 
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