% days in disney round two! dont get a fish sitter!

It wasent the feeding or the top off water it was the skimmer malfunctioned and he dident know what to do. the water was recycling into the sump and he dident realize it. He told me looked like god bubbles and I guess bubbling it did. When I got in about half my livestick was missing a few were dead and some hanging on for dear life covered in ick. i immidatily saw the skimmer malfunction fixed it. I then removed the dead fish and looked what to do there. Then as I watched I tested everything the salinity is 1.022 lower then I usually keep and the nitrates were 20ppm the ph is high im assuming due to the deather but maybe the skimmer malfunction i dunno. After the skimmer had been running about 30 minutes correctly I noticed the hippo start to move a bit more normal. He must have turned the power off because the powerhaeds were also off. Once that was going things slowelly were moving he also turned the lights off for 2 days because he dident understand the timers.

As for the equipment its not the money issue otty its the fact that I thought you can only use these off your ro unit and Its on the oppesite end of the house. I dont know if you can have them go off something under the cabinet?

Here is the worst part. I am friends with the lfs owner and he said if there is any question he is glad to take a trip over to the house and take a look! I thought my guy could read the directions I wrote and it doesent need to be toped off until 5 days later so grrrrr any way Its mostly the proble with the skimmer and the marineland pro 300 is that as the water level moves you need to adjust almost every day your adjusting and its a pain. I dont know if having one that is not an in sump might help this situation better?

Sorry for the rant I just needed to blow off steam last night after seeing this. The good news is that my hippo,2 yellows and brown are looking pretty good today and very active again. I think we are on the road to getting this back to normal .I lost my blenny my angel, my hawk, my sailfin a 6 line wrasse and a few corals. So I guess this could have been prevented with better equipment yes and I am still somewhat new to this hobby only being into it just about a year, I guess I should know about the top off unit. I am pretty optimistic today and just got in from the lfs and they wondered why he dident call me or them for help but he really just dident know. So while I was there I inquired on some new skimmers that arent so sensitive like an out of sump skimmer so it wont be prone to the overflow so easily(I do have a 2 gallon jug as a catch bin too that collected allot of the stuff too) Any info on top of unites I can use under the cabinet would also be great to hear from anyone. Thanks for the kind responses and otty you halped me think more about the top off again its not the money its the lack of my knowledge.

 

Sorry for your loss, but I'm glad to hear some of your fish are doing better.

We have a DIY TO system in our cabinet. I will post a picture of it tomorrow & provide info on how it was done....

julie

 

Well....lesson learned. At least you didn't loose everything. But I do agree with OTTY about taking things into your own hands. I know it's tough, and (don't tell my wife) I am scared to death of leaving my tank with anyone.....because these things happen. I have no LFS around that will check up on me. And no amount of intellegence can prepare you for that which you don't understand. The guy I will leave my tank with has an IQ if 154. Pretty good. He knows nothing about fish.....nor does he care. But at least I have a good chance that he will be able to think things through if something happens. Still.....gonna take a chance.

Perhaps we can band together....Locals helping locals. I know of three members in driving distance that I could help out with a biweekly visit to the tank. So if anyone lives near Shelton, Washington.....I am willing to drive.

 

Julie,

Thank you for that. I havent seen any and dont know allot about it. I mix my water in the basement and cant make a top off work otherwise and get the ro line to it. So I only have the option of in the cabinet to. k plus to you for the pics.

 

Here is the ones I make and i get my switch from Liquid Level and the pump from AQUA LIFTER VACUUM PUMP AW-20: Premium Aquatics
Hope you can see the print and make out what I done. I just mount it on the end of a piece of some PVC.

 

I'm getting ready to set up the same top off Otty is talking about... pretty sweet. I'm lucky in that I have 2 people (Kogle and Otty) that are close and willing to tank-sit while I am away. You might look into local reef clubs to try and find someone close that will look after the tank if you do the same for them. (Kogle has watched my tank and I watched his and noticed his temp problem)

 

If you get a chance take a picture of it Shehan.

 

Will do, and I will start a thread on it. Give me a couple days, I don't want to have to leave it half done!! Thanks again buddy!

 

Here is the DIY TO system that my husband made - he ordered a kit online (I think from Aquahub Homepage) that had the wiring, tubing, float switches, etc. The TO water container is on the right - it's just a small (3-4 gal) plastic trashcan. He put two float valves in the wet/dry - one as a backup. Hope this helps



julie