Not 400ppm i doubt....
Tank is looking absolutly stunning indeed...great work so far....
Water Change long overdue?
- Thread starter noskimmer
- Start date
Tank is looking absolutly stunning indeed...great work so far....
Still looking good Noskimmer!!!! And is it me or are those snails absoutely massive, in the one photo it looks bigger than your tang:grinyes:
kress.. you’re so demanding! ; )
Actually I think I am just slack. I have answered your questions in the sump thread... I really do appreciate your curiosity. Here is the link.. http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1436472#post1436472
469 days and all is well..? sort of.
Well, sort of....
Somewhere a few months ago, a bit before having the house broken into and my camera stolen, and a few days into my parents staying with my wife and I, all hell breaks loose... What is it about the parents staying with you that makes the anxiety and stress levels fly through the roof? And why did they decide to stay with us to see their second grandchild (not ours, we're still practicing)? And what is it about all of that stuff and "Murphy's Law" that the morning after they arrive. The day they are going to see my new wrinkly nephew for the first time, that we wake up and I find my aquarium flooded?
I try and make excuses as to why I did the things I did at the time, try and justify my actions of what was to happen next. The parents totally non understanding that the puddle of water in the room with the aquarium overflowing was actually of major significance to me and a major problem. My trying to understate it as saying "Oh everything is ok, not a problem" and them saying "We are running late, your brother is expecting us half an hour ago we can't wait to see our little grandchild" (Imagine this in a really annoying voice that only your mother can possibly do as though you were still only 6 years old).
Well, yes it looks like I'm trying to make excuses and maybe I am, as anyone knows, hindsight is a wonderful thing. In reality I was the one who stuffed up. None of it was their fault, and looking back at it now I probably would of done things a little different.
What happened? Well, it started with the auto top off. This is how (take note of my use of past tense) it used to work... 20 Litre reservoir that contains RO which has an auto top off that turns on a solenoid valve to the RO unit when it gets below a certain level in the reservoir, and then turns it off when it reaches a set level. This is then connected to a very basic float valve in the sump, maintaining a very constant level particularly in the section that has the return pump. It is quite amazing but if you keep this level constant you are effectively controlling your “Head height” for your return pump, hence controlling the water level in your overflow in such a precise way that it does not make any sound and remains very constant. This its self doesn’t sound so bad, but for a reservoir to work with a float valve in your sump then gravity is a major factor, so you place your reservoir above your sump (or in my case on the back part of the glass and the wall). Now, I know what you are thinking, what happens if the auto top off in the reservoir fails, does not turn off the solenoid and continues to fill the reservoir and begins to overflow into the sump…? Dumb right! Yes! Well, I sort of thought about this and had a second shut off system if the first failed.. well the first failed and in this case the second failed, so through the night the sump began to fill with beautiful pure RO, for hours, and hours (probably at least 8 – 12 hours), causing the sump to fill up, lowing the head height for the pump and slowly overflowing the display.
This is now that part where I stuffed up!
I look back, and after taking a reading of the salinity to realise that it wasn’t the very very gradual lowering of the salinity (down to 1.012) that caused the problem, but my panicked response to what I did next, and that was try and bring it back up. At this stage everything surprisingly was doing well, the fish were not stressed, the coral all looked fine, the only thing that was wrong was me and my actions. I dumped a heap of half dissolved salt (or very high concentrated salt water) into the sump in an attempt to stop the “nagging” parents (not their fault!) saying “we are running late” and my stupid attempt to get the levels back to "right".
Surprisingly (I actually thought I was going to lose everything) I lost very little considering.. I lost Betty (the lipstick), two Chromis (I didn’t think they could die), my Niger Trigger, the Six Line and several corals.
More surprisingly I gained heaps… (Gordon, Mark, Bruno, Dotty and the others all survived as did the tank as a whole, the dilution to a certain extent was in some ways, well.. it was sort of a water change). What I gained is knowledge, and when it comes to Marine Aquariums, when you thought you had patience, you realise that sometimes you don’t, and sometimes just stopping, thinking, looking, and NOT reacting is the best thing you can do.
The tank is looking great! I have 4 new rescue jobs (some throw away coral). The father in law has given me a conductivity meter (he works with precision measuring equipment and stuff like that) that is used in things like dialysis machines and can remain permanently in fluid (even salt water), compensates for temperature, and will give a mS\cm reading to some ridiculous accuracy, connect to a data logger (a spare laptop) which graphs temp, salinity and also has an alarm which goes off (a horrible screeching noise, and I get it to send me an email as well) when it breaches set temp and conductivity thresholds. Here are the links to it http://www.aicpl.com.au/brochures/condtbth.pdf http://www.aicpl.com.au/brochures/pm4co.pdf http://www.aicpl.com.au/brochures/rm4co.pdf
I wish I could post some pic’s, I have some of the rescue jobs on my mobile (very bad quality) but haven’t got around to buying a new camera yet because rumour has it that Canon is releasing the replacement to the 5D, so will have to wait.
Well, sort of....
Somewhere a few months ago, a bit before having the house broken into and my camera stolen, and a few days into my parents staying with my wife and I, all hell breaks loose... What is it about the parents staying with you that makes the anxiety and stress levels fly through the roof? And why did they decide to stay with us to see their second grandchild (not ours, we're still practicing)? And what is it about all of that stuff and "Murphy's Law" that the morning after they arrive. The day they are going to see my new wrinkly nephew for the first time, that we wake up and I find my aquarium flooded?
I try and make excuses as to why I did the things I did at the time, try and justify my actions of what was to happen next. The parents totally non understanding that the puddle of water in the room with the aquarium overflowing was actually of major significance to me and a major problem. My trying to understate it as saying "Oh everything is ok, not a problem" and them saying "We are running late, your brother is expecting us half an hour ago we can't wait to see our little grandchild" (Imagine this in a really annoying voice that only your mother can possibly do as though you were still only 6 years old).
Well, yes it looks like I'm trying to make excuses and maybe I am, as anyone knows, hindsight is a wonderful thing. In reality I was the one who stuffed up. None of it was their fault, and looking back at it now I probably would of done things a little different.
What happened? Well, it started with the auto top off. This is how (take note of my use of past tense) it used to work... 20 Litre reservoir that contains RO which has an auto top off that turns on a solenoid valve to the RO unit when it gets below a certain level in the reservoir, and then turns it off when it reaches a set level. This is then connected to a very basic float valve in the sump, maintaining a very constant level particularly in the section that has the return pump. It is quite amazing but if you keep this level constant you are effectively controlling your “Head height” for your return pump, hence controlling the water level in your overflow in such a precise way that it does not make any sound and remains very constant. This its self doesn’t sound so bad, but for a reservoir to work with a float valve in your sump then gravity is a major factor, so you place your reservoir above your sump (or in my case on the back part of the glass and the wall). Now, I know what you are thinking, what happens if the auto top off in the reservoir fails, does not turn off the solenoid and continues to fill the reservoir and begins to overflow into the sump…? Dumb right! Yes! Well, I sort of thought about this and had a second shut off system if the first failed.. well the first failed and in this case the second failed, so through the night the sump began to fill with beautiful pure RO, for hours, and hours (probably at least 8 – 12 hours), causing the sump to fill up, lowing the head height for the pump and slowly overflowing the display.
This is now that part where I stuffed up!
I look back, and after taking a reading of the salinity to realise that it wasn’t the very very gradual lowering of the salinity (down to 1.012) that caused the problem, but my panicked response to what I did next, and that was try and bring it back up. At this stage everything surprisingly was doing well, the fish were not stressed, the coral all looked fine, the only thing that was wrong was me and my actions. I dumped a heap of half dissolved salt (or very high concentrated salt water) into the sump in an attempt to stop the “nagging” parents (not their fault!) saying “we are running late” and my stupid attempt to get the levels back to "right".
Surprisingly (I actually thought I was going to lose everything) I lost very little considering.. I lost Betty (the lipstick), two Chromis (I didn’t think they could die), my Niger Trigger, the Six Line and several corals.
More surprisingly I gained heaps… (Gordon, Mark, Bruno, Dotty and the others all survived as did the tank as a whole, the dilution to a certain extent was in some ways, well.. it was sort of a water change). What I gained is knowledge, and when it comes to Marine Aquariums, when you thought you had patience, you realise that sometimes you don’t, and sometimes just stopping, thinking, looking, and NOT reacting is the best thing you can do.
The tank is looking great! I have 4 new rescue jobs (some throw away coral). The father in law has given me a conductivity meter (he works with precision measuring equipment and stuff like that) that is used in things like dialysis machines and can remain permanently in fluid (even salt water), compensates for temperature, and will give a mS\cm reading to some ridiculous accuracy, connect to a data logger (a spare laptop) which graphs temp, salinity and also has an alarm which goes off (a horrible screeching noise, and I get it to send me an email as well) when it breaches set temp and conductivity thresholds. Here are the links to it http://www.aicpl.com.au/brochures/condtbth.pdf http://www.aicpl.com.au/brochures/pm4co.pdf http://www.aicpl.com.au/brochures/rm4co.pdf
I wish I could post some pic’s, I have some of the rescue jobs on my mobile (very bad quality) but haven’t got around to buying a new camera yet because rumour has it that Canon is releasing the replacement to the 5D, so will have to wait.
That stinks, but I feel your pain. At least you didn't lose everything, so there's still plenty to be thankful for. A good water change is a great way to start things off, though .
.
