Tank Journal Archive

Dean Lovett

Member
Apr 11, 2015
377
146
Penrith
Sad Day In The Tank, Thankful For The Forum And Marine Boutique.
(Long update)

Yesterday (Thursday) I woke up and out beloved blenny (Kenny) had died over night, as well as one of the thieves (peppermint shrimps [suitably named]). The scientist in me came out, quite quickly – overlooking the deaths initially in order to investigate, who, what, when, where and how.

It was quickly established the tank must have gotten too hot in combination with high nitrates and potentially low quality NSW (Sitting in my car for 2 days). The pH was low as a result of the increase in temperature and I straight away took the air stone from my skimmer and placed it into the tank to increase the amount of dissolved oxygen. This made the remaining fish – the clowns – gasp a lot less (poor little things). I then put the ice probe in and it took the tank down a few degrees. Once the LFS opened I went straight there had the water tested again, Ammonia and nitrites undetectable, but pH low. So I got some fresh NSW and purigen (to increase the quality of filtration).

I went home, did a 30% water change and placed the purigen in the filter. By about 1:00 there was a marked increase in the appearance of the fish and inverts. Everything seemed fine.

I then went to the gym and I came back and noticed the ice probe wasn’t working. After some crude electronics work I noticed it was the power supply that had failed. I was so annoyed, after all of this and now my power supply wasn’t working – ARGH.

So keeping in mind this was 9:30pm at this stage, I thought I’d take a risk and call Marine Boutique, in particular Rod Duckworth. He answered. He told me it is VERY strange for a power supply to fail this early and it will be covered by warranty. He told me he had another one in stock and that I could pick it up tomorrow (Now today). I asked him if I could come now, he said… SURE. In the meantime I cooled the tank with a fan and it worked well!

So here I was, driving from Penrith to Killarney Heights to meet Rob at 11pm to give me a new power supply free of charge. There he was, had the power supply ready to go, already had stripped the wires for me to then connect to an Australian power plug and everything.

From the get go, Rod has shown impeccable customer service, incredible customer service. I whole-heartedly recommend him and his products to EVERY single person – In particular the Ice Probe.

In a few weeks his shop, Marine Boutique is moving, from its retail location to a ware house location and more of an online store, and I want to use this opportunity to express my sincere thanks as well as best wishes for his move and the transition of his store.

The tank is now steady, and everything seems fine. I still need to tackle the nitrate and I will be doing that progressively throughout the next three weeks.

But my partner and I are using this wakeup call as a way to ensure that everything that is essential to the tank has a suitable back up. We are using this lesson to get a better thermometer, one that alarms me to increases in temperature and decreases that I deem to be too extreme. Further I will be installing power plugs that I can control remotely by my phone if need be. I will also be using this time to overhaul the filtration, get a new heater (I have a cheap one at the moment – it worries me), also a new skimmer, one not driven by air as well as preparing our tank for the arrival of an anemone in the coming months. But before that we have a long way to go, I am excited as ever for the journey, but markedly remorseful for what has happened. But I know that we gave Kenny and the thief the best life, wonderful conditions and caring owners constantly flaunting them to the world of instagram by means on continuous exposure to the camera (without the flash of course).



Thank you too everyone on reefuge for the constant advice and guidance! It has been indefatigable and I am sure it will continue along that analogous path into the future!
 

daveH

Team Leader
Nov 24, 2011
2,958
1,475
Brisbane Northside
That's the trouble . . when shit happens in a marine tank its becomes diarrhea so quickly.
But congratulations, it looks like you handled the situation well and have a plan to get things back on track.
The loss of fish really hurts, and I think (hope) we all learn a bit more about this hobby (?) with each downturn.
Keep posting your progress guys.
 

Pierre

Member
Aug 6, 2015
23
8
Sad to hear Dean. I have to admit that you handled the crisis quite impressively tho.
I feel you right now as my tank is also new (so am I) and the temperature rising is a scary thing. (My tank is fluctuating between 27ºC and 30ºC right now).
But I agree, whatever it takes to prevent this to happen again. It's quite annoying that the cost of an Apex controller is so high for a nano.
Best of luck tho, I'm following.
 

jart

Member
Apr 10, 2015
207
106
Dean, sorry to hear about your recent losses.

I'll second the STC-1000 temperature controller as a great bit of kit. Basically consists of a temperature probe, the controller and two power sockets. Each power socket is on a different channel - the cool and heat channels. You plug the controller into a power point, then plug a heater(s) into the heat channel and your chiller/fan into the cool channel. Set the temp and the STC-1000 will switch your heating/cooling devices on/off as appropriate based on the measured temp in your tank.

Sam Parker here can supply you with one fully made up. Another excellent guy to deal with.
 

Dean Lovett

Member
Apr 11, 2015
377
146
Penrith
Dean, sorry to hear about your recent losses.

I'll second the STC-1000 temperature controller as a great bit of kit. Basically consists of a temperature probe, the controller and two power sockets. Each power socket is on a different channel - the cool and heat channels. You plug the controller into a power point, then plug a heater(s) into the heat channel and your chiller/fan into the cool channel. Set the temp and the STC-1000 will switch your heating/cooling devices on/off as appropriate based on the measured temp in your tank.

Sam Parker here can supply you with one fully made up. Another excellent guy to deal with.
Oh that sounds damn near wonderful, I believe Sam might be getting a message from me soon!