Pulp Fishin
07/12/2008, 02:13 PM
My last 36hrs have tested me greatly but now the worse seems to be over I have the time to sit down and tell you all about it. Get comfey this may take awhile....
Lucky for me I had Thursday & Friday off work this week so I decided to finally oder a CUC that would do the job on my 135FOWLR and some other goodies I'd been after for a long time. I called the week before and placed my order to arrive Thursday. Sure as there are fish in the sea, Thursday 13:34 I'm down at London airport only to find out they have nothing for me. :roll: They said they close at 7 and they would have my order for me by then for sure. So 6:45 I fill my car up at $1.34/l and take another long drive to the airport. I get down there too see the guy leaving for the day with no package for me. I'm starting to worry. So I go home after they say that if it come in before midnight I'll get a call from a girl at the airport. I think not too worry since there wasn't much I could do.
I get home to find the landlady putting a note on my door saying that because the people who live above me put fat & coffey grinds down their sink I had to pay $229 because their old central system backed up in my sink. Even the plumber said that it wasn't our fault but apparently we have to pay for it.
I got home and went to my tank and gave it their dinner of Cyclop-eeze & Mysis mix. I took the skim cup of my Deltec and after cleaning put it back. Trust me, that at this point everything in my tank/sump was fine!
I went to sit down and had a smoke while I checked a few things on the internet. I'm not sure but I'd say about 30min passed since I fed my tank so I knew the food would be gone so I went back and was about to turn off the lights when I noticed my feet were wet! :cry:
I couldn't see where the problem was comming from but I knew my acrylic sump I just got last January had sprung a leak. I out of a bit of luck had 3 empty pails and a juice jug right there so I cut the power & started bailing like I was on a sinking ship! Out of hysteria I fogot to reach up and lift my return abover the waterline so before I realised it another few gallons had syphoned back into my sump.
Not sure how long I was draining my sump for mabby 15-20min, but after getting all the water out with the jug & towels to sop up the last of it I sat back for a much needed smoke to calm my nerves. I was thinking dammage control. I have a QT tank thats 30x12x14 not sure how big that is I think 23gal, I have this curing baserock with tap/saltwater. So I drained the small tank of the bad water and used 100% of the water from the 135 and rock as well so I pray for no cycle. I left the powerheads on for flow and figured that for the night I had done all I could do.
By the way no word on the shipment as of this point.
I decided that after a day like that I needed a strong drink. I thought tequila wasn't gona be strong enough to help the day I had. 2 shots of Absinthe later a lot of things felt better!
I set all the house fans on the carpet which too my amaisment had only taken in about 5-15gal max.
Since my tank is 135 and there is 150gal in the system, this could of been so much worse then it was.
I set all the fans in the house on my wet carpet and went to bed.
9am I'm just waking up when I get a call that my shipment came in. 20hrs after it was supose to be here(oh and what a 20hrs it was). So I run out for more smokes(yes I smoke a lot) and got my order and raced home too acclimate what I could to my QT tank.
The 2 slabs of frozen food I got arrived like Jelly but other then that the livestock seemed fine.
I started aclimating but there was no way I would be able to get a CUC ment for a 135into a 23gallon tank. I called my friend Darren(HABS#1) and he knew my situation and has a 75gallon that reacently had its CUC depleated so I figured who better to unload my snails on then him! :D
I also know that I want to get the final things ready to get my 65gallon diamond corner tank going if possible. So we decided too meet at our LFS, lucky for me I had left my coral beauty & blond naso tang I had bought 2 weeks before there to stay QT'd for a few weeks. They found the peace I needed to hook up my 65 since it was used and a bit dirty he was nice enough to give it me free of charge!
I sent Darren off with a few bags with about 35snails and a green clown goby. I'm sure they will be better off with him right now. I raced back home to take over aclimating dutys from my girlfriend(what a amaising girl I have that can acclimate inverts) and arround 2:30pm 4.5hrs after I started the process I got the first fish/shrimp into my tank! After I got my order in I 1/3 filled my 5.5gal tank and started catching the livestock that was in my 135(T-24hrs since the sump broke and nothing but powerheads going). I even mannaged to find my Emerald Crab I hadn't seen in three weeks, and for the first time since I got them I had all 3 of my fighting conches in the same place. In total I spent from 10am-8:00pm acclimating the whole lot but it was done! One of my green Chromis had a small red spot on his side so I decided to leave him in the 135 with powerheads and just hope for the best for him.
Right now I have a big day of setting my 65g up tomorow. Hopefully using used water/rock/sand from the 135 will cut a cycle down on it because the sooner I have another tank going the better. Sadly because the stand lets the filter go in though the top the entire tank has to be broken down and when it is I'll be taking the sump back to the store, I would hope that since its less then a year old I'm at least good for in store credit for it. Another thing I'm glad I got it from a place here in London so its not far to take back.
There is now a overpacked 23gallon tank to deal with. Its currently home to 2 clowns, 1 chromis, a green clown goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 fire shrimp, 6 sexy shrimp, 2 harlequin shrimp, a linkia starfish(which is harleqin shrimp food), a emerald crab, 3 fighting coches and about 40-60 assorted snails.
I'm sad that just as my 135 was really getting going that its has to go back to square 1!
Still I see that I must had the best luck possible for the situation. Yes good luck, not only was I home when it broke but I walked to my tank and found out probbly less then 4 or 5min after the break happened or a lot more then 10gallons would be lost.
Also my livestock concidered they were at least 48hrs in trasit I didn't lose much just about 7-10 Mexican Turbo snails and 2 cerith snails and things don't look good for one of my chromis. Other then that everything seems happy(except for the blue linkia starfish, hes probbly mad I cut off one of his arms for the harlequin shrimp).
I must say my sprits for the hobby has been beaten after this ordeal but its not broken!
I will take this as a experiance to learn from, overall I think I handled it very well.
It won't happen overnight but I'm already looking forward to returning my 135FOWLR to its former glory!
Lucky for me I had Thursday & Friday off work this week so I decided to finally oder a CUC that would do the job on my 135FOWLR and some other goodies I'd been after for a long time. I called the week before and placed my order to arrive Thursday. Sure as there are fish in the sea, Thursday 13:34 I'm down at London airport only to find out they have nothing for me. :roll: They said they close at 7 and they would have my order for me by then for sure. So 6:45 I fill my car up at $1.34/l and take another long drive to the airport. I get down there too see the guy leaving for the day with no package for me. I'm starting to worry. So I go home after they say that if it come in before midnight I'll get a call from a girl at the airport. I think not too worry since there wasn't much I could do.
I get home to find the landlady putting a note on my door saying that because the people who live above me put fat & coffey grinds down their sink I had to pay $229 because their old central system backed up in my sink. Even the plumber said that it wasn't our fault but apparently we have to pay for it.
I got home and went to my tank and gave it their dinner of Cyclop-eeze & Mysis mix. I took the skim cup of my Deltec and after cleaning put it back. Trust me, that at this point everything in my tank/sump was fine!
I went to sit down and had a smoke while I checked a few things on the internet. I'm not sure but I'd say about 30min passed since I fed my tank so I knew the food would be gone so I went back and was about to turn off the lights when I noticed my feet were wet! :cry:
I couldn't see where the problem was comming from but I knew my acrylic sump I just got last January had sprung a leak. I out of a bit of luck had 3 empty pails and a juice jug right there so I cut the power & started bailing like I was on a sinking ship! Out of hysteria I fogot to reach up and lift my return abover the waterline so before I realised it another few gallons had syphoned back into my sump.
Not sure how long I was draining my sump for mabby 15-20min, but after getting all the water out with the jug & towels to sop up the last of it I sat back for a much needed smoke to calm my nerves. I was thinking dammage control. I have a QT tank thats 30x12x14 not sure how big that is I think 23gal, I have this curing baserock with tap/saltwater. So I drained the small tank of the bad water and used 100% of the water from the 135 and rock as well so I pray for no cycle. I left the powerheads on for flow and figured that for the night I had done all I could do.
By the way no word on the shipment as of this point.
I decided that after a day like that I needed a strong drink. I thought tequila wasn't gona be strong enough to help the day I had. 2 shots of Absinthe later a lot of things felt better!
I set all the house fans on the carpet which too my amaisment had only taken in about 5-15gal max.
Since my tank is 135 and there is 150gal in the system, this could of been so much worse then it was.
I set all the fans in the house on my wet carpet and went to bed.
9am I'm just waking up when I get a call that my shipment came in. 20hrs after it was supose to be here(oh and what a 20hrs it was). So I run out for more smokes(yes I smoke a lot) and got my order and raced home too acclimate what I could to my QT tank.
The 2 slabs of frozen food I got arrived like Jelly but other then that the livestock seemed fine.
I started aclimating but there was no way I would be able to get a CUC ment for a 135into a 23gallon tank. I called my friend Darren(HABS#1) and he knew my situation and has a 75gallon that reacently had its CUC depleated so I figured who better to unload my snails on then him! :D
I also know that I want to get the final things ready to get my 65gallon diamond corner tank going if possible. So we decided too meet at our LFS, lucky for me I had left my coral beauty & blond naso tang I had bought 2 weeks before there to stay QT'd for a few weeks. They found the peace I needed to hook up my 65 since it was used and a bit dirty he was nice enough to give it me free of charge!
I sent Darren off with a few bags with about 35snails and a green clown goby. I'm sure they will be better off with him right now. I raced back home to take over aclimating dutys from my girlfriend(what a amaising girl I have that can acclimate inverts) and arround 2:30pm 4.5hrs after I started the process I got the first fish/shrimp into my tank! After I got my order in I 1/3 filled my 5.5gal tank and started catching the livestock that was in my 135(T-24hrs since the sump broke and nothing but powerheads going). I even mannaged to find my Emerald Crab I hadn't seen in three weeks, and for the first time since I got them I had all 3 of my fighting conches in the same place. In total I spent from 10am-8:00pm acclimating the whole lot but it was done! One of my green Chromis had a small red spot on his side so I decided to leave him in the 135 with powerheads and just hope for the best for him.
Right now I have a big day of setting my 65g up tomorow. Hopefully using used water/rock/sand from the 135 will cut a cycle down on it because the sooner I have another tank going the better. Sadly because the stand lets the filter go in though the top the entire tank has to be broken down and when it is I'll be taking the sump back to the store, I would hope that since its less then a year old I'm at least good for in store credit for it. Another thing I'm glad I got it from a place here in London so its not far to take back.
There is now a overpacked 23gallon tank to deal with. Its currently home to 2 clowns, 1 chromis, a green clown goby, 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 fire shrimp, 6 sexy shrimp, 2 harlequin shrimp, a linkia starfish(which is harleqin shrimp food), a emerald crab, 3 fighting coches and about 40-60 assorted snails.
I'm sad that just as my 135 was really getting going that its has to go back to square 1!
Still I see that I must had the best luck possible for the situation. Yes good luck, not only was I home when it broke but I walked to my tank and found out probbly less then 4 or 5min after the break happened or a lot more then 10gallons would be lost.
Also my livestock concidered they were at least 48hrs in trasit I didn't lose much just about 7-10 Mexican Turbo snails and 2 cerith snails and things don't look good for one of my chromis. Other then that everything seems happy(except for the blue linkia starfish, hes probbly mad I cut off one of his arms for the harlequin shrimp).
I must say my sprits for the hobby has been beaten after this ordeal but its not broken!
I will take this as a experiance to learn from, overall I think I handled it very well.
It won't happen overnight but I'm already looking forward to returning my 135FOWLR to its former glory!