Tank Journal Archive

[Andrew B]

Tanks has been rocking along well. Had lots of aptasia so bought a margin Butterfly fish to combat this and it worked a treat but more on this later... I have been getting more ontop of maintance to get the tank ready for some sps and the plan was to put some in next week end. I ahve also made a switch form my LEDs to 2 250w radiums and the tank looks so much nicer!! Also the duncan and leather that looked pretty much dead seem to be making a recovery which is amazing to see. However, on Thursday night i was doing the regular maintanence with the phospahte minus and didn't adjust my downpipe levels correctly and this caused a rise in the water level. This has caused large amount of water to spill over the edge and onto electronics. So far only notice damage to the circut board and both my powerheads. I am currently running without powerheads. Should this be ok short term? Plan is to now keep the tank going a bit longer untill i put Coral in. Tank is now not looking as flash but here is a recent fts. Current stock is blenny that is hiding somewhere, a dotted wrasse (juvi colours) and a scopas. There was a lineatus wrasse that passed away this morning due to a suspected worm infection. The Margin also died last night, thinking a combination of stress and food. Will finish off with a FTS under the radiums! (crappy phone pic)

 

[shaidas]

I would get a large airpump till you get the powerheads sorted. If your return pump big enough to generate some flow then it should not be a major issue. You did not mention what your measurements are like but again with what you have in the tank, not a very major issue. The backwall seems to have a fair bit of algae which would mean nitrates and/or phosphates are highish but that would have been before your incident.

 

[Andrew B]

I would get a large airpump till you get the powerheads sorted. If your return pump big enough to generate some flow then it should not be a major issue. You did not mention what your measurements are like but again with what you have in the tank, not a very major issue. The backwall seems to have a fair bit of algae which would mean nitrates and/or phosphates are highish but that would have been before your incident.

Thanks for the reply, have cranked the main return up to max. My nitrates have been undectable for a while, phospahtes are high. However they have been decreasing with the Phos minus and cheato. Will do a test tommorow after school and post results :)

 

[macca_75]

I would get hold of at least 1 cheap powerhead to keep oxygen levels up - good for a spare later anyway.

 

[Andrew B]

I would get hold of at least 1 cheap powerhead to keep oxygen levels up - good for a spare later anyway.

I managed to get one of the jabeo's going again so hopefully that holds up till i can get everything sorted.

 

[Mattres]

That sucks about the water overflowing!
I agree, a cheap powerhead would be a good idea and then keep as a backup. I have an old nanostream that has actually come in handy plenty of times.
If i was nearby I could've lent you something.

 

[Mattres]

I managed to get one of the jabeo's going again so hopefully that holds up till i can get everything sorted.

Sorry missed this, hopefully it will hold up!

 

[Andrew B]

That sucks about the water overflowing!
I agree, a cheap powerhead would be a good idea and then keep as a backup. I have an old nanostream that has actually come in handy plenty of times.
If i was nearby I could've lent you something.

It is making me stressed about just having the one down pipe... wish i could change it without taking the whole tank apart...

 

[macca_75]

I don't know the exact design, but could you use the 1 pipe that's there as an emergency and setup a syphon/durso "over the back"?

 

[Andrew B]

I don't know the exact design, but could you use the 1 pipe that's there as an emergency and setup a syphon/durso "over the back"?

There is a single pipe in the overflow. Like this one (from internet)

 

[Mattres]

It is making me stressed about just having the one down pipe... wish i could change it without taking the whole tank apart...

Lots of people run just a single durso, it should remain safe as long as nothing can block it. And of course if it can drain as much water that's coming into the tank. So I think that's your biggest worry now that it's just happened. What return pump do you run and how do you throttle it back?

 

[Andrew B]

Lots of people run just a single durso, it should remain safe as long as nothing can block it. And of course if it can drain as much water that's coming into the tank. So I think that's your biggest worry now that it's just happened. What return pump do you run and how do you throttle it back?

Definitely, I run a Jabeo DC10,000 it has a controller on it to control speed.

 

[macca_75]

There is a single pipe in the overflow. Like this one (from internet)
View attachment 56659

I would run a durso over the top/back of the tank and have this as a "backup". That would mean you will need another type of wier for the durso (to remove surface scum) unless you can get the durso into that weir over the top and back....

 

[Mattres]

@macca_75 idea would be the safest if you can do that.
I know it's a pain to get another pump, but having a return that you know can't pump enough water in to overload the durso would remove that problem.

 

[Andrew B]

@macca_75 idea would be the safest if you can do that.
I know it's a pain to get another pump, but having a return that you know can't pump enough water in to overload the durso would remove that problem.

I do have the durso turned to reduce bubbles coming out the bottom, so i could open it up a bit.

I would run a durso over the top/back of the tank and have this as a "backup". That would mean you will need another type of wier for the durso (to remove surface scum) unless you can get the durso into that weir over the top and back....

What kind of overflow would you say?