Lesson learnt the hard way

Ok so I am finally in the mood to share my experience here.

Last week I went away for a week on holidays. I was worried about what was going to happen to the new fish in my new marine tank. As I didnt want them to starve to death I decided to buy a automated feeder, the same one I have in my freshwater aquarium which works great.

Tested it for a week with small doses and seemed to be working great.

The morning before the flight I did a water change, check the levels and left. A friend of my wife popped over to check on the cats, I asked her to have a look at the aquarium (i didnt trust her to feed the fish as I was afraid she might overfeed them), she mentioned that one of the shrimps was very pale and belly up, I thought it was just the skin of the shrimp, so I didnt worry then. The next day she said the could only see one of the clown fish and that the other was not around, I started to have a bad feeling. It was thursday.

Nothing could prepare me for what I say When on my return on saturday. The feeder slide (what doses the amount of food) had opened and spilled ALL the food inside the aquarium. The tank was covered with algae and no fish no shrimps to be found. I was absolutely gutted, havent felt so bad nor sad for a long long time. And the problem is not the few hundred euros wasted but just thinking of what the fish must have gone through for 2 or 3 days what makes me so angry and sad.

I loved those little fish, specially the little jawfish, cutest thing I have ever seen. No going back now. So many things went wrong, starting with me using a food dispenser when I could have asked someone else to do the trick and even ask the guys at seahorse to call over mid week for a holiday check. Too late now. My tiny snowflakes clowns, Bernardo (yellow headed jawfish), Philippe and Cossette (skunk shrimps) were long gone. Also my pom pom crab and my stomatella snail were dead.

Most of the corals were dead too, the only coral who seems to have survived (so far) was the elegance. In fact he is even bigger (almost double the size)of what he was.. at first I thought it was dead but when I moved it, it quickly contracted so I think it might make it. The nassarius, the hermits and a couple of snails survived too.

And of course a black crab that I have been trying to get rid off off weeks (he came with the live rock is still alive).

Anyway I moved the elegance and hermits to a bucket I put my algae in with a powerhead, a heater, a hang on filter and some T5s. It should be ok for a few days.

In the meanwhile, I have emptied the aquarium, cleaned it thoroughly (it was covered with detritus and food) and gave the sand a good clean. Removed all the live rock (located the crab in the process) and added more live sand to the aquarium and increase the depth to 5 inches, I also bought coarser sand and added some tiny shells I got during my holidays (for the new jawfish when I find the strength to get more fish).

Then I rearranged the rocks and added 70% of the old water. Hopefully this will not alter the cycle very much.

I am doing 20% water changes, tomorrow I will do a 25-30 and on thursday a 30%. I am hoping this will bring the ammonia down.

When I tested the water for ammonia I used the RedSea tests, the color range goes from yellow (ok) to dark green. Mine was Dark blue.

I couldn't even find the strength to take a picture of the tank, it was like a scene taken from on of those apocalyptic movies. It was dantesque. The smell of the place...

So apologies for the sad story but I felt I had to get it out of my system... rebuilding the aquarium is the only thing keeping me from throwing everything out of the window.


here is the coral, it was double the size when it was inside the tank. The picture was taken 20 minutes after I moved him from the aquarium. he seems happy in the bucket, as it is still growing.



And this is the bucket... dont have a spare tank so this is the best I can do!



This is the aquarium almost empty and almost cleaned. Originally the surface was brown/red and the clase was covered in brown and green algae.



I moved the water into several buckets to try to disrupt the cycle as little as possible (i know I already have done it but I couldn't leave the tank covered in filth)

https://plus.google.com/photos/118359808684743111028/albums/5919042830257553153/5919043094405649186?banner=pwa&authkey=CMi52ZHzspTv3gE&pid=5919043094405649186&oid=118359808684743111028

And this is the mithrax (black emerald crab), he will be going in the sump as soon as the sump is finished



I will take more pictures later today, the water was a bit cloudy yesterday.

I am adding some bacteria to help combat the ammonia. Its still quite high (around 1 ppm) but it will get down eventually (hopefully).

So lesson learnt next time I will ask someone to feed the fish, how much worse can it be?

I am buying the Seneye kit from a friend. I dont want this to happen again. I will take it easy now, the sump is being built now, it will be fitted into the bookshelf below the main aquarium. I already have a deltec MC500 skimmer, I will be building a refugium and that's it. I needed the sump mostly because I need to remove as much stuff off the aquarium as possible and also because I want to add a skimmer as my nitrates are quite high.

Anyway thanks for listening!

Any suggestions?

Gutted for you too! all I can suggest is that maybe we could make a list of people on the forum that could be trusted, like a free reciprocal Fish sitting service?

H.

That's terrible. Had something like that years ago but it was only one goldfish not a whole marine setup. Gutted for you. Whereabouts are you as will donate a gorgonian frag when you are back up and running

For my hols I made up a couple of bags for the neighbours for a feed every four days. Note I have only a 2 footer so the 'bag' was made up of a quarter/half cube of frozen food and a pice of starfish leg for the Harley.
Left them at the front of the freezer for the neighbour and all was well when I got back. Phew

Rabbit went to the kennels for €2 per night

Thanks for your empathy guys, I live in sandyford, thanks for the donation, much appreciated, I have no money left now!

I thought about that. Seahorse offer a holiday service that might suit most. 50 euro for 1 week visit and to do water changes etc... that would have been perfect for me, I would have fed the fish on a saturday, ask them to come in on a tuesday/wednesday and thats it as I was returning on saturday.

Problem with giving the key to someone you dont really know is that well, you dont really know them and you never know whats gonna happen. But I wouldnt mind trying.

From now on, specially on such small tanks, Iwill ask the same person who looks after the cats to feed the fish a tiny amount of food and that's it.

New tank is looking better today, I have placed a temporary powerhead to clean the surface of the tank, I am getting the new smaller ones this week



These lads are happier than ever, I thought corals and things like these whatever they are were very sensitive to ammonia?

Homer wrote:

Gutted for you too! all I can suggest is that maybe we could make a list of people on the forum that could be trusted, like a free reciprocal Fish sitting service?

H.

Great Idea Homer

So sorry to read about this Bohrio. Gutted just reading your post.

Really sorry to hear and gutted for you. The same thing happened to me a few years back with my discus tank. Jewel feeder emptied entire contents into tank and I rem the smell just being putrid. Got a call from my neighbour to tell me my fish were all dead or dying. I just don't feed them while away now and if possible i get a neighbour to drop in and fed them pre measured food amounts. Keep the head up!!

Feel terrible for you man. Seen a suggestion here that seemed like a good plan, use those daily tablet boxes with a days food in each section then anyone can feed the fish assuming it is some kind of dry food.

A bit stable door I know but may help someone.

Thanks guys

See, the worst thing is that I have that. I have a tablet thingie that patients use to dose their daily medicine intake. Which makes things even worst. I decided to go with the automated feeder because I didnt want to bother anyone and also because I didnt really trust anyone to feed the fish as as the feeder had worked so well on my freshwater well, I thought, what could go wrong?

I feed the marine very little food, probably 1 pinch of NLS twice/three times a day. So it would have been pretty easy to ask the same person who came to mind the cats to feed the fish too.

I could have done so many things and I made the worst choice... and that's what really bothering me. I really miss them, and that's weird cause I never thought I could miss a fish. I lost my betta 2 weeks ago and then these.

I was specially fond of the jawfish, hims and I had a routine, he will spend the whole day rebuilding his burrow, and at night, it will place a few rocks in front of entrance and close it. He had an great personality. For example, one day I saw a whole in front of his burrow, I decided to cover it with sand thinking it might bother him and right away he came out and started digging the same whole again, he got very angry, he kept hitting his head against the sand like saying, dont mess with my whole! Can't wait to get a new one... the new aquarium is designed to please him! lol

By the way, I contacted Eheim and a woman called Cindy (she is the UK Manager for Eheim) replied back right away apologizing. She said that the guy I bought it from on ebay uses american returns and that unfortunately its out of her control, however, she offer to replace it or asked me if there was anything else I wanted.

She was very apologetic I am actually surprised of their level of service so far.

With Eheim it's the whole package, and it's good when people like Cindy sort things out.

It is so nice to see someone so genuinely interested in their charges, you are obviously smitten and I applaud you. So many of us see the Aquarium as a whole rather than the individuals, a shoal of Cardinal tetras or such appeal by their aesthetics whereas something like your quirky Fish, Dwarf Cichlids or cichlids as a collection etc show amazing intelligence, bravery and sheer need to survive leading to amazing behaviour.

It is hard not to miss your fav Fish as you would a dog or any other pet.

Good for you.

H.

Thanks again.

I am testing my water, ammonia is still around 1.2 ppm. I will do a 30% water change today, hopefully that will bring down the ammonia to less than 0.8.

However, the nitrites are very low (around 0.1) which it is bringing some concerns. I am adding bacteria brightwell microbacter 7, I have added 8 ml so far, I was going to stop but I think I need to treat the aquarium as a new aquarium. This means adding 4 ml per day for 2 weeks until the bacteria colony has been fully populated. What do you think?

I dont think my coral and my hermits are going to last long inside my bucket...

For emergencies such as this, you should/must get some Polyfilter,
it will very quickly reduce your Ammonia level

H.

Heart goes out to you sir
I feel your pain,nothing worse than losing fish!
Chin up and take it as a lesson learned(a hard one at that)

I don't even have my first tank yet, but I just wanted to add my support, I'd hate to come home to a disaster like that. It's always so tough to lose a family pet, whatever its size. Hope you can save the rest and get your tank back up and running as soon as possible...

J.

Yes, I have polyfilter in the tank already. I rinsed it after the incident in some old aquarium water.

I started using Microbacter7 on Sunday. It made my water crystal clear a few hours after use.

My water parameters are a bit off. Ph is 7.7, kH 13, ammonia 1.2, nitrite 0.1. Havent tested the nitrate yet but I suspect they will be high, i will do it later. What worries me is that ammonia was original way over 2, it has gone down again so I would have expected the nitrites to increase but they are only 0.1 (probably even less).

Lets see what happens today when I get home.

Jasus man sorry for your loss that's devastating News

Can I ask you In the New rebuild why are you having the sand so deep it's not really a good idea

Hi Jeff

Its for the jawfish. In theory it requires at least 5-7 inches of sandbed to dig their burrow.

Why do you say is not a good idea? It is because of the bubbles and toxic buildup, etc?

Mine is around 3.5 - 4 inches

ta

Sorry to hear what happened hope you get it back to its former glory soon

Bohrio wrote:

Hi Jeff

Its for the jawfish. In theory it requires at least 5-7 inches of sandbed to dig their burrow.

Why do you say is not a good idea? It is because of the bubbles and toxic buildup, etc?

Mine is around 3.5 - 4 inches

ta

Yeah pretty much and the build up of detritus which will lead to high phosphates and if their parts of the sand that is not turned over these dead deep dead spots can get anoxic zones and if that's disturbed it can release sulfide, don't know how active that fish is but he'd want to be digging everywhere I would not like to chance it but that's only my opinion maybe few of the other salty heads can add to this

hey Jeff

yes I read about that. I think the picture is a bit deceiving. I measured it and my sandbed is only 2.5 inches think 3 max.

I think that as long as you clean the substrate DSB should be fine. I have heard that this type of toxins generate after a long time, 1 year minimum, and I know that this aquarium wont last that long as soon I will be moving to a bigger one!

There are Snails that burrow through the Sand, this would eliminate stagnation of your substrate.

H.

Hey Homer

I have a couple of nassarius snails, they survived the holocaust. I might get one or two different snails like a bumblebee and a fighting conch to help them with the aeration.

My water levels are back to normalish now. Ammonia is almost 0 (or 0.01), nitrites still 0.1 and nitrates are only 5.

I am still a bit suspicious though, I was expecting my nitrites to be much higher...

Anything over 1" is dodgy that's what I been told and seen in many tanks but it's totally up to you what you do????

Also, to help with aeration I have installed PVC tubes under the rocks. The Jawfish will need quite a bit of sandbed, minimum 2 inches so I have no choice! They also need sand of different thickness, dry coral and shells, have all that ready for him. Seahorse will have more jawfish in a couple of weeks, my aquarium will be ready.

I bought a quarantine tank for 20 euro and put what remains of my tank in it. Including the minthrax crab (he is going in my sump)

The coral is not looking very happy but at least he is still around, I think he is going to make it. (I just turned the lights on for this picture hence why is so small). Still, he seems to like being around people (didnt think they could notice). He also likes natural sunlight! He opens up as soon as he feels the early morning light)



In my main tank the ammonia is down to 0 now, I am still adding some bacteria just in case. I will be installing the sump probably during the weekend so I dont want to put anything else until then.

Should be ok for another couple of days

Hello lads

I thought I'd give you a wee update.


I think is safe to safe that the elegance has survived. Its looking much better now and so are the other two star polyps.



And I collected the sump during the weekend so I have been busy
all weekend



Its tiny, around 35 litres of real volumen. I am using it mostly with the purpose of using a skimmerand adding a refugium. Also to give me extra volumen so I can remove some live rock of my display tank.

The pump is going in there



Wasnt easy but I finally finished this morning. I had to modified the overflow box to give me a bit more height etc but I am quite please with the result (bear in mind I have very low standards) and considering is my first attempt. I might open a new thread, I will probably need advice anyway.

Ok guys to the sump is in and running!

I had an issue with my pH, it was 7.6-7.7. In the end it turned out to be a CO2 issue. With the help of the skimmer my pH is now 8.17 so I think the tank is ready!

Ammonia NH3 is 0.0001, NH4 is 11 and going down, salinity 1.025, KH 10, Mg ~1320, Ca ~440, nitrite 0, nitrate between 5 and 10 (before I turned on the skimmer).

I am picking up bernardo junior on thursday (my jawfish). I will start moving some of the corals as soon as the pH stabilizes (hoping it will not go much higher than 8.2). No more money for more fish though. The elegance is looking beautiful in the quarantine tank.



Sorry about the algae in that video

So back in business now

`
Ok.. last update

The tank is up and running now, water levels are stable so I added a couple of snails, skunks and my new jawfish.

He is much more shy than my previous one, I dont think he is going to build his burrow at the front like the other did, time will tell, he has only been in the tank for less than a day.

The corals are very happy, specially the elegance, he wasnt too pleased with his original position on the sandbed.



So I rearranged the corals and in less than an hour look at the difference



Anyway, this is it thanks everyone for your support!

Still missing my old jawfish, I hope this one becomes as social as the first one. Worst case scenario (and this is good in a way) if he decides to built his burrow on the side of the aquarium I can always get another one as it will leave plenty of space for him to create his own den away from the other jawfish! we will see

Best of luck with your New journey man don't forget to keep us updated, cheers

Thanks Jeff

Ok, so today I got a few frags. Also, yesterday my new clownfish finally arrived. I got another snowflake and a platinum. They are tiny so they should get along just fine.

I know this type of clownfish is not to everyone's liking but I find them adorable

They are in quarantine now and wont bring them home for another week



The jawfish is almost fully acclimatized too so happy days!

Getting there, slowly but surely!