CyanoMagnet
08/26/2009, 09:06 AM
Ive had this guy for something like 4-5 years. A series of events has almost killed the poor guy and all my fault :(
A couple weeks I went on vacation, I had someone feed the fish for me. The day before I left I noticed he wasnt eating flake food (he usualy has a very voracious appetite). Apparently he didnt eat much if at all my whole trip, and when I get back he is a skeleton of himself. So I start the process of trying out different foods, using garlic to get his appatite back and its working, he is very weak, but he starts coming back after a day or so.
The next major problem I find out about when I get back is that the skimmer vent is all clogged up from a tiny snail that got into the air intake and its making no bubbles whatso ever. I need skimmer to work for oxygen to the tank because I run a calcium reactor AND a sulfur denitrator, AND the windows were closed while we were gone (so oxygen is a real issue now).
Then yet another disaster occurs, one that has never happened all the years I have had this damn tank.
I have a autotopoff system that takes water from a reservoir and fills the tank up when water reaches a certain level in the sump. However unknown to me the hoseline has come loose and dropped into the back of the overflow (where topoffwater usualy enters) . As soon as the autotopoff system kicks in and finishes its job, the line starts syphoning water back into the 40 gallon reservoir... Did I mention there is kalk in the topoff? Its fully saturated. So it keeps doing it, siphons water out of the tank, auto top off kicks in fills it back up, over and over.
I notice pretty quickly that the PH is spiking upwards (it was at 8.7 from 7.7) and panick .I think theres a leak in the tank somewhere and Im franticaly searching for it, because I dont know as of yet the siphoning is happening. After I conduct the search and find no leaks I finaly figured it out. I put some vinegar into the tank to bring it down a little(man i hate playing chemist but I didnt know what to do) and start watching my fish.
Powderblue stops eating completely (2 days ago) . The other fish show visible signs of stress, torn fins, discoloration but they will be fine because they are fat and still eating. Tang keeps detiorating through out the day. Its having a hard time swimming upright and just goes to a corner and wobbles there.
I turn off a couple of my pumps to make it easier on him.
Yesterday morning I get up I cant see the tang. I look underneath (i have barebottom tank) and see him laying there in tha back , with a hole in the side of its head where its laying with stuff growing out of it) and I see absolutely zero gill movement, no movement whatso ever. His eyes are all dialated. Ive seen dead fish before and this one looks dead.
I do a "please god dont let him be dead" but I was sure he was dead at this point. I feel pretty darn sad and begin the process of flushing him out of the corner area with a little water flow.
The instant the water hit him he like woke up or something. He was still having a very hard time swimming upright but he was breathing. His eyes were dialiting in and out, like getting smaller and bigger . He is still in really bad shape at this point but for some reason he keeps improving through out the next hour or 2. I try and give little bits of food at a time, flakes, brine, mysis, seasweed, and it starts he eats one flake .
Through out the day he also eats a few mysis, and a few brine shrimp, very uninterested unless it litteraly lands in its mouth. I put ALOT of food in the tank (my tank will handle it tho, once I dropped a entire package of frozen food in there so its pretty established, dont try this at home).
He was looking his best near the end of the day. The hole (it was morelike boil or something) in his head is also almost completely healed , you can still see a indentation , but theres nothing in there now, just a little crater.
Im looking at him now , he is still sleeping , but he is upright and looks alot better than he did yesterday morning. He is still not out of the woods yet but I feel there is a good chance he will recover.
This is kind of a miracle if you ask me. Keep your fingers crossed for my buddy.
A couple weeks I went on vacation, I had someone feed the fish for me. The day before I left I noticed he wasnt eating flake food (he usualy has a very voracious appetite). Apparently he didnt eat much if at all my whole trip, and when I get back he is a skeleton of himself. So I start the process of trying out different foods, using garlic to get his appatite back and its working, he is very weak, but he starts coming back after a day or so.
The next major problem I find out about when I get back is that the skimmer vent is all clogged up from a tiny snail that got into the air intake and its making no bubbles whatso ever. I need skimmer to work for oxygen to the tank because I run a calcium reactor AND a sulfur denitrator, AND the windows were closed while we were gone (so oxygen is a real issue now).
Then yet another disaster occurs, one that has never happened all the years I have had this damn tank.
I have a autotopoff system that takes water from a reservoir and fills the tank up when water reaches a certain level in the sump. However unknown to me the hoseline has come loose and dropped into the back of the overflow (where topoffwater usualy enters) . As soon as the autotopoff system kicks in and finishes its job, the line starts syphoning water back into the 40 gallon reservoir... Did I mention there is kalk in the topoff? Its fully saturated. So it keeps doing it, siphons water out of the tank, auto top off kicks in fills it back up, over and over.
I notice pretty quickly that the PH is spiking upwards (it was at 8.7 from 7.7) and panick .I think theres a leak in the tank somewhere and Im franticaly searching for it, because I dont know as of yet the siphoning is happening. After I conduct the search and find no leaks I finaly figured it out. I put some vinegar into the tank to bring it down a little(man i hate playing chemist but I didnt know what to do) and start watching my fish.
Powderblue stops eating completely (2 days ago) . The other fish show visible signs of stress, torn fins, discoloration but they will be fine because they are fat and still eating. Tang keeps detiorating through out the day. Its having a hard time swimming upright and just goes to a corner and wobbles there.
I turn off a couple of my pumps to make it easier on him.
Yesterday morning I get up I cant see the tang. I look underneath (i have barebottom tank) and see him laying there in tha back , with a hole in the side of its head where its laying with stuff growing out of it) and I see absolutely zero gill movement, no movement whatso ever. His eyes are all dialated. Ive seen dead fish before and this one looks dead.
I do a "please god dont let him be dead" but I was sure he was dead at this point. I feel pretty darn sad and begin the process of flushing him out of the corner area with a little water flow.
The instant the water hit him he like woke up or something. He was still having a very hard time swimming upright but he was breathing. His eyes were dialiting in and out, like getting smaller and bigger . He is still in really bad shape at this point but for some reason he keeps improving through out the next hour or 2. I try and give little bits of food at a time, flakes, brine, mysis, seasweed, and it starts he eats one flake .
Through out the day he also eats a few mysis, and a few brine shrimp, very uninterested unless it litteraly lands in its mouth. I put ALOT of food in the tank (my tank will handle it tho, once I dropped a entire package of frozen food in there so its pretty established, dont try this at home).
He was looking his best near the end of the day. The hole (it was morelike boil or something) in his head is also almost completely healed , you can still see a indentation , but theres nothing in there now, just a little crater.
Im looking at him now , he is still sleeping , but he is upright and looks alot better than he did yesterday morning. He is still not out of the woods yet but I feel there is a good chance he will recover.
This is kind of a miracle if you ask me. Keep your fingers crossed for my buddy.