Leopardshark´s new tank project (finally!)

[Leopardshark]

Hello all,
Well yesterday, at 11:50 pm I suddenly woke up, go figure why and then, 1 minute later the ground started to move. As in many other times I just wait for it to pass and then I continue sleeping, I´ve done that many times.
But this time was different, the quake wouldn´t stop and in fact it was getting worse, much worse.
So after realizing this was turning into something really worse I got up and went to the fish tank room (where else would I go? ) only to realize that water was coming from the tank and the quake wouldn´t stop!
Fortunately the GFCI tripped so there was no risk of electrocution and I could walk over the water.
By the time I could place a wood board on top of the tank, the quake had passed.
After drying floor and equipment for 2 hours, everything went back to normal.
Hope this never happens again.
Regards

[James404]

Wow, sorry to hear that! So the water loss was from the top of the tank sloshing around? Sounds like you got lucky!

[reefmutt]

Wow. I heard about that quake in Mexico 8.1 or 8.2. And many aftershocks.
I hope everything does ok and I hope the damage isn't too severe.
Good luck!

[Leopardshark]

Originally Posted by James404

Wow, sorry to hear that! So the water loss was from the top of the tank sloshing around? Sounds like you got lucky!

Exactly! the water was exiting the tank from the top even with the eurobrace!

[Leopardshark]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Wow. I heard about that quake in Mexico 8.1 or 8.2. And many aftershocks.
I hope everything does ok and I hope the damage isn't too severe.
Good luck!

Thank you, 8.4 more precisely. What is going on with our planet? but it´s our fault for poisoning it.

[premilove]

Nice! What are the dimensions of the tank?

[Leopardshark]

It is 150 x 50 x 55 cms (60x20x22 inches). I would have gne bigger if it could onlu fit in the room it's in

[Leopardshark]

As you probably know, on September 19, exactly 32 years after September 19 1985 when an earthquake devastated Mexico City... we had another huge earthquake which destroyed many buildings and damaged hundreds more, and 4 days after we had another one but this last one was a medium one.

So for the one of Sept 19th, I was at the office so I came home as fast as I could to find that aprox 10 gallons went out of the tank, and instead of going to the drain located 9 feet from the tank, the water went into the wood floor of the living room (damn engineers who build my building! )

Anyway, after moping the wood floor for more than one hour, I went to the tank room to continue cleaning. To my surprise, all 3 Radions, 12" above the tank were dripping water! I cannot imagine how strong the earthquake was to push the water upwards!

Result: 3 Radions after being cleaned and dryed with a fan, worked to perfection the next day. Also Vortechs were working like a charm, skimmer OK... but APEX dead.

After cleaning the APEX and drying the 832 Module, it was dead and main unit couldn´t be calibrated and disconnected from wifi.

So the APEX is on its way to Neptune to get fixed and the tank is doing great.

Lesson learned, I´m taking out all electrical devices from below the tank, including the APEX and pumps controllers.

Attached some pics of the calcium reactor, a GEO 618 which was very easy to install.

Kind regards to all

[Leopardshark]

And some acros. BTW for those with LED lighting, how do you manage to make pics represent the real colour?I hate all my pics look purple even at 10K

[James404]

Usually people shoot the images in "RAW" format and then adjust the white balance in photoshop (or similar) after the fact. Some cameras come with pre-sets that you may be able to get better color out of though.

[Wrangy]

What a sh!t run of luck with earthquakes! I hope all your family and friends and safe and healthy mate

I think moving your equipment is an excellent idea and it's good to hear you only lost the apex and everything else was fine Also, solid choice on the Geo! I don't think you'll regret it at all!!

Are you taking your picture with a camera or your phone?? If it's your phone get the app called Snapseed, it's fantastic! And if you're using a camera there's a program called "paint.net" that is a basic photoshop and it's what I use for all my pictures!

[Leopardshark]

Ok, thank you for your info, I will try to take better pics from now on.

About the Geo reactor, my previous one was a Lifereef and this one is so much better built and you can see that it exudes quality. Lifereef was good but too much trouble to keep it working.

Regards!

[Leopardshark]

I just wanted to share a pic of the tank.
It´s doing very good.

[Leopardshark]

BTW I added a deep water (I guess) acro and with 40% of light intensity on the AB+ program on the Radions... it got fried

[James404]

Originally Posted by Leopardshark

BTW I added a deep water (I guess) acro and with 40% of light intensity on the AB+ program on the Radions... it got fried

Sorry to hear that!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Leopardshark]

Hello all, just to share a pic of the tank, which is doing great, except for 2 milleporas, which for some reason have necrosis on the base. Do you know if milleporas are high light/flow acros? because I´ve that idea and they seem not doing ok with those conditions.
regards

[Leopardshark]

Another 2 more.

[Leopardshark]

Today is one month after the earthquake and so many things have occured with the tank, so here I go:

1. AEFW: Yes, I got them. In my previous post I was wondering why a pair of milleporas were "suffering", and I thought it was the flow or lights. Well I decided to dip them in Coral Dip rx and AEFW came out.
I have no idea how they survived the Rx and Bayer dip when I bought them!
So even I fragged both of them, only the frags of one of the milles survived. I´m also dipping another colony which had evidence of more AEFW. sigh, well at least all other acros look ok.

2. Fish/ich. I have a yellow tang with ich problems since day 1, also a majestic angel which seems to do fine for some days and not so for others. They eat like champs but I hope with ozone (which I installed yesterday) those problems will go away. I bought a powder blue tang, which died of ich

The funny thing is the quarintine tank, in which I have a purple tang, a blue face angel and a regal tang, the fishes are incredible, so I´m not transfering them to the main tank until the ich is gone.


3. After the earthquake actions:

a. Apex. So I sent the Apex base unit and 832 module back to Neptune for repair. Due to the water spill, several components on both units were blown, they were very very very good with their customer service, but given they can´t ship internationally, they sent it to the online vendor, which sent it to me. The only problem was that the online vendor included an invoice for the APEX as if it was sold to me as brand new (rather than stating it was a repair), so I had to pay import duties for the second time for this APEX. ($100 to send it to Neptune + $100 to get it sent to Mexico once again + $200 of import duties= $400 bucks! ).
But it is with me at least and it is working ok, except for the conductivity probe which I need to recalibrate once again

b. Tank. The fact that caused all the problems in the tank (apart from the earthquake of course) was that 10 gallons of water came out of the tank even do it has eurobracing. So I installed a 5" tall crystal rim on top of the tank, which will prvent that in the event of another earthquake, water coming out of the tank, falling into the equipment/floor. Attached is a picture of the final result and it is sealed with silicone to the tank.

Equipment. I installed now the APEX, ozone generator next to the tank, not below it and I fixed to the wall all power lines of the Radions and pumps. I will also cover with plastic all power outlets and cables running behind the sump.

Ok, this is it for now.

Have a good day.

PD. Oh, I have an algae outbreak, which I hope will diminish with some PO4 adsorbing balls (don´t recall the brand but the same manufacturer of the NO3 bricks) and ozone which decomposes the organics.

[James404]

So sorry to hear about your AEFW. I battled them fiercely on one of my last tanks. I ended up losing everything and starting over. Usually they don't go after millies from my experience, so that's kind of odd.

Just an FYI but the ozone isn't going to cure your ich, the only guaranteed way is to pull all the fish and leave the tank empty for a minimum of 72 days, while treating the fish in either Hyposalinity, Copper or using the Tank Transfer Method.

[Leopardshark]

Originally Posted by James404

Just an FYI but the ozone isn't going to cure your ich, the only guaranteed way is to pull all the fish and leave the tank empty for a minimum of 72 days, while treating the fish in either Hyposalinity, Copper or using the Tank Transfer Method.

I already have a 60 gal tank set up as qt tank, will start medicating today
I´m starting to remember why I quit this hobby 10 years ago

[James404]

How’s the tank doing?


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[Leopardshark]

Hello James,

Well, I have let the tank to stabilice after the ich outbreak. By that time, the LFS gave me for free a blue tang, which had massive lateral line disease. So he went into the qt for a while, then I introduced him to the tank and a fungus killed him, the yellow tang and my majestic angel. Man this hobby is tough sometimes.

So for more than one month I haven´t added any livestock to the tank.
The gobies and wrasses weren´t affected at all.

Then, hair algae, lots of it but I treated with fluconazole and in 1 week 90% of it went to hell.

It´s been 3 weeks now since adding it and my tank looks awesome.

I will post some pics tonight