Refugium collapsed

Thanks guys, great info. I drained pretty much all the water out of the sump. Gonna get all the sand out. I dont have a cool vacuum so I will have to take the sump out. I am gonna rig something up while I redo the fuge.

I am so mad, my tank was running perfectly. The fuge was about a year old and really kept my tank in great shape. I had about a 5 inch sand bed. So I am sure that sand is useless now. I have a piece of chaeto the size of a football too.

 

Do you have one of them small plastic shovels like kids use on the beach? I stole.. oops borrowed mine from my little girl. It works really well for this.

 

For the short term I would move your heater to the DT, shut off the return pump and do a small water change to help combat anything that may have been released in the sand. Then it's just a matter of getting the sump cleaned up and fixed. I would drain it and used new sand while your at it.

 

Yeah the shovel is what I am using lol. This is so not fun!! I think I am gonna stick to Happy Aquarium on Facebook, it is alot easier

 

Where in florida are you at? If your close I have a wet/dry you could use until you get yours back up and running.

 

trust me you'll be suprised how filthy it will get in a day or two dependent on the flow through youre tank....watch how fast you cope population goes up....you can pick em off the filter and drop em back in when you swap for a new piece....i cut it twice as tall as it needs to be so rather than make a mess i can just flip it over when one side is dirty, cuts the amount of times i have to change out complete new piece in half..
I emailed back and forth with a rep at PolyFill, he insured me there is no difference whatsoever except the chemical they add for the filter to change color when chems are high in your tank....ive been using it for about 3 years for now and have no problems except cleaner water and WAY less disolved waste, cuts back on skimmer cleanings too.

 

not trying to hijack this thread but where do you find it at walmart? im gonna get some next time i go

 

I'm near Tampa. Thanks for the offer Yamaharider. I have a wet dry too in my garage that will work. Problem is I redid the plumbing for this sump and it doesn't line up with my wet dry. So I am gonna have to figure it out.

Well last night I looked at the sump, my old wet dry and the plumbing and decided not to get into it. It would have taken all night. So I drained nearly all the water out of the sump. Got 95% of the sand out. Put new water back in the sump so it was like a 25g water change. Hooked pump and skimmer back up and let it run. This morning the tank is completely clear, rocks are covered in sand. So now I will have to figure out how to get the sump out for a good 24 hours. And this time I am gonna seal the crap out of the baffles with silicone!!! I should have went with glass baffles!!

 

if the baffles failed because of the silicone, i dont think glass baffles would have made much of a difference....

 

Well I think the adhesion would have been better as the silicone would have been 2 pieces of glass. But in any case. I didn't secure it enough. I should have made bigger beads and spread it out over more area. It was my bad