Jan
10-11-2008, 07:13 PM
I am confessing to causing the death of Nemo's girlfriend and another friend Mr. Flame Angel.I did this on Friday....
I have been having an issue with algae(greeny,brown,hairy),even though I do regular water changes.This is in my 90 gal which has been set up for 22 years.It still has an undergravel filter.Anyway I decided to scrape it off as much as possible when I did my water change.I shut off the 3 main power heads and skimmer(which I always do). I still had the small hagen 301's on the lift tubes of UGF going as well as the power filter with chemipure elite,polyfilter and floss.The fish normally go and hide ...I was going merrily along..scrubbing,scraping,catching excess algae in a net when I discovered Nemo's girlfriend up at the top of the tank behind a powerhead..."what the H...!"She was not looking good...unable to swim,lying on her side..I glanced around...saw Nemo was on the bottom..breathing heavy....flame angel was in the rocks breathing heavy,coral beauty was also at the top looking like he was taking his last breath.Big Green Wrasse and sixline...nowhere to be seen.Oh Man!What is happening.!!!
I grabbed the clown and threw her into my small quarantine.Easily caught Nemo and put him in as well.Was able to get the coral beauty and put him into my other(25 gal)quarantine.I fished around in the sand and found Mr. Green.....he seemed to be alright....maybe cause he was under the sand.It took me at least 10-15 mins. to get the Flame out....it was too late.Nemo's girlfiend took her last breath shortly after.
Today..the two wrasse are still in the 90...abit spooked..the coral beauty is doing well,has eaten abit and wants out. Nemo has also had abit to eat but is wondering where his girlfriend is...
Now..what the heck happened????There wasn't "that"much algae....
As I am trying to figure this out...perhaps it was just the last straw for this old tank..I did have new windows and doors replaced on Mon/Tues and there was a strong silicone odor..A few days previous my old(10+)yellow tang died.I did notice the last couple of days that the clowns were swimming in a strong current at the bottom of the tank rather than in their frogspawn...then i have been having this increasing problem with the algae.
I did a ton of water tests,ammonia..0,nitite..0,nitate..25,ph....8.3,mg ..1100,alk..7,calcium..325,.I even did a dissolved Oxygen test..8(normal is 7-10)..I did discover that my phosphate levels were very high at .5 .This would be causing the algae.
So what now?I've been thinking for awhile that I really need to completely clean out that 90,get that UGF out of there.So this episode has made me decide ....it needs to be done.I will start in a couple of weeks when everything has settled down.I am thinking I might need to get new rock..that old stuff must be polluted by now...and for sure throw out the crushed oyster shell....
Well that should keep me busy....
Any suggestions?
I have been having an issue with algae(greeny,brown,hairy),even though I do regular water changes.This is in my 90 gal which has been set up for 22 years.It still has an undergravel filter.Anyway I decided to scrape it off as much as possible when I did my water change.I shut off the 3 main power heads and skimmer(which I always do). I still had the small hagen 301's on the lift tubes of UGF going as well as the power filter with chemipure elite,polyfilter and floss.The fish normally go and hide ...I was going merrily along..scrubbing,scraping,catching excess algae in a net when I discovered Nemo's girlfriend up at the top of the tank behind a powerhead..."what the H...!"She was not looking good...unable to swim,lying on her side..I glanced around...saw Nemo was on the bottom..breathing heavy....flame angel was in the rocks breathing heavy,coral beauty was also at the top looking like he was taking his last breath.Big Green Wrasse and sixline...nowhere to be seen.Oh Man!What is happening.!!!
I grabbed the clown and threw her into my small quarantine.Easily caught Nemo and put him in as well.Was able to get the coral beauty and put him into my other(25 gal)quarantine.I fished around in the sand and found Mr. Green.....he seemed to be alright....maybe cause he was under the sand.It took me at least 10-15 mins. to get the Flame out....it was too late.Nemo's girlfiend took her last breath shortly after.
Today..the two wrasse are still in the 90...abit spooked..the coral beauty is doing well,has eaten abit and wants out. Nemo has also had abit to eat but is wondering where his girlfriend is...
Now..what the heck happened????There wasn't "that"much algae....
As I am trying to figure this out...perhaps it was just the last straw for this old tank..I did have new windows and doors replaced on Mon/Tues and there was a strong silicone odor..A few days previous my old(10+)yellow tang died.I did notice the last couple of days that the clowns were swimming in a strong current at the bottom of the tank rather than in their frogspawn...then i have been having this increasing problem with the algae.
I did a ton of water tests,ammonia..0,nitite..0,nitate..25,ph....8.3,mg ..1100,alk..7,calcium..325,.I even did a dissolved Oxygen test..8(normal is 7-10)..I did discover that my phosphate levels were very high at .5 .This would be causing the algae.
So what now?I've been thinking for awhile that I really need to completely clean out that 90,get that UGF out of there.So this episode has made me decide ....it needs to be done.I will start in a couple of weeks when everything has settled down.I am thinking I might need to get new rock..that old stuff must be polluted by now...and for sure throw out the crushed oyster shell....
Well that should keep me busy....
Any suggestions?