Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
I can't believe it's another screwed-up tank thread! Yes, that's right, my knack for zeroing in on completely screwed up saltwater tanks has led me to a 225 Acrylic FOWLR tank in a Japanese Steakhouse - you know, one of those where they make everything in front of you on the grill and put on a show?
A former local pet store employee told me about this tank, and he moved out of town recently, so I decided to hit them up. This tank looked fine when I walked in, except that here is only a 4-5" round Yellow Tang in it. After a brief conversation with the owner, I found out that there used to be more fish, and they all died. Red flag #1. He also said that they had taken all the rocks out and scrubbed the 'red growth' off of them just recently. Red flag #2.
I poked around the system, it have plenty of flow from 2 exterior pumps and 2 large powerheads, has a decent skimmer in a large acrylic sump (40g maybe) which was packed with bio-balls. Not very much lighting, 2 x 18" Coralife strips, just enough for show.
I put in a digital thermometer while I took a water sample and was shocked. 65.5 F. When I got home and tested the water, I was not surprised to find that I had to dilute the water sample 20 to 1 just to get a reading for Nitrates - putting those between 600 and 800 ppm - and 10 to 1 dilution for Phosphates - putting those between 8 and 10, roughly. KH was 4.5, pH was 7.9, Salinity 31. That was 2/26.
So I prepared a report, turned it in, and went back in a couple days ago to finally meet with the guy who had been maintaining the tank (an employee) for the last 2 years. He was just about to do his maintenance, which included topping off with RO water from the grocery store (good!) and cleaning the algae off the interior with a long handle tool with a swiffer-like head, which worked pretty well. The problem is this: that's all he has done in 2 years. When I asked him when that last time was that he did a water change, he looked at me kind of funny. I explained that you have to remove water and put in new saltwater every 2 weeks, 4 max, and he then confessed that he didn't know you had to do that.
Suddenly, everything became very clear.
So he signed on to a total tear down. I'm going to QT the Yellow Tang at my house for probably a week. I'm going to start the tear-down likely on Sunday morning, take everything apart, bring the fish and LR home, QT the fish, clean the LR (probably with bleach to kill the cyano, I've learned my lesson) salvage the bio-ball bio community so I don't have to cycle the tank, clean the pumps, sump, skimmer, replace all the return tubing, reassemble the tank, and fill-er up. I'm going to throw out the 3" of substrate (SINCE THEY'VE NEVER VACUUMED IT) and replace with a thin layer of Aragonite gravel (I would do sand, but I think it'll just blow around) and put a few heaters in the sump.
I've been running my RODI day and night. I'm running out of buckets. I've got 22, but 6 are in use for one reason or another, which leaves me with 80g in buckets right now, and 2 x 44g BRUTE cans 1/3 full each, so I have to go get MORE buckets. I need 250g by Sunday. I get about 80-90/day out of it, so I should be fine, and in a pinch, there's Wal-Mart Culligan water.
It's gonna be fun. He's paying me 1/2 cash 1/2 gift cards. $300+ in gift cards will last about 3 meals for the family in that place though. I think we'll take the kids there ones, then go in just the 2 of us and have a bunch of saki-bombs.
Pics and status over the weekend. Enjoy!!!
A former local pet store employee told me about this tank, and he moved out of town recently, so I decided to hit them up. This tank looked fine when I walked in, except that here is only a 4-5" round Yellow Tang in it. After a brief conversation with the owner, I found out that there used to be more fish, and they all died. Red flag #1. He also said that they had taken all the rocks out and scrubbed the 'red growth' off of them just recently. Red flag #2.
I poked around the system, it have plenty of flow from 2 exterior pumps and 2 large powerheads, has a decent skimmer in a large acrylic sump (40g maybe) which was packed with bio-balls. Not very much lighting, 2 x 18" Coralife strips, just enough for show.
I put in a digital thermometer while I took a water sample and was shocked. 65.5 F. When I got home and tested the water, I was not surprised to find that I had to dilute the water sample 20 to 1 just to get a reading for Nitrates - putting those between 600 and 800 ppm - and 10 to 1 dilution for Phosphates - putting those between 8 and 10, roughly. KH was 4.5, pH was 7.9, Salinity 31. That was 2/26.
So I prepared a report, turned it in, and went back in a couple days ago to finally meet with the guy who had been maintaining the tank (an employee) for the last 2 years. He was just about to do his maintenance, which included topping off with RO water from the grocery store (good!) and cleaning the algae off the interior with a long handle tool with a swiffer-like head, which worked pretty well. The problem is this: that's all he has done in 2 years. When I asked him when that last time was that he did a water change, he looked at me kind of funny. I explained that you have to remove water and put in new saltwater every 2 weeks, 4 max, and he then confessed that he didn't know you had to do that.
Suddenly, everything became very clear.
So he signed on to a total tear down. I'm going to QT the Yellow Tang at my house for probably a week. I'm going to start the tear-down likely on Sunday morning, take everything apart, bring the fish and LR home, QT the fish, clean the LR (probably with bleach to kill the cyano, I've learned my lesson) salvage the bio-ball bio community so I don't have to cycle the tank, clean the pumps, sump, skimmer, replace all the return tubing, reassemble the tank, and fill-er up. I'm going to throw out the 3" of substrate (SINCE THEY'VE NEVER VACUUMED IT) and replace with a thin layer of Aragonite gravel (I would do sand, but I think it'll just blow around) and put a few heaters in the sump.
I've been running my RODI day and night. I'm running out of buckets. I've got 22, but 6 are in use for one reason or another, which leaves me with 80g in buckets right now, and 2 x 44g BRUTE cans 1/3 full each, so I have to go get MORE buckets. I need 250g by Sunday. I get about 80-90/day out of it, so I should be fine, and in a pinch, there's Wal-Mart Culligan water.
It's gonna be fun. He's paying me 1/2 cash 1/2 gift cards. $300+ in gift cards will last about 3 meals for the family in that place though. I think we'll take the kids there ones, then go in just the 2 of us and have a bunch of saki-bombs.
Pics and status over the weekend. Enjoy!!!
