Copper butterfly and exploding heater

rocsec1 · 12/10/2012, 07:32 AM

Ok so I had a bad night. I have a QT set-up and have had a Copper Banded Butterfly and fire fish in there for three weeks and they were doing great. I was doing a water change last night. I bought an inexpensive heater to warm my change water. It is one of those Big Blue $10 heaters which is fine for warming water change water. Unpluged the heater and took the water from the barrel into my tank. Notice the heater was still hot and without thinking about it I put the heater in my QT tank. Well it exploded in the water. There is some kind of metal powder in the heater and it immediately went every where in the tank. I got the butterfly and fire fish out immediately and put themin the bucket with the old water. They seemed fine. I got them out with in 30 seconds. So I was faced with leaving them in the bucket or putting them in the DT. So I decided the best thing was to introduce them into the DT tank a week early. I dripped them for 2 hours and everything was fine. They looked good. The fire fish hid right away, but it is out this morning when the lights went on for feeding. The Butterfly starting swimmimg around until the tank bully noticed it. Then it was getting chased around until I turned all the lights out. I run 2 of the 4 foot trulumen Pro Led lights, and 10 Cree 3 watt LEd's 8 royal blue and two of the UV.
I have a Yellow tang in the DT that is the tank bully. I was planning to find out the best way to introduce the butterfly without the tang bullying it, but at 8:30 last night I was out of options. So I've decided the yellow tang can go into the frag tank until I can think of something else. What is the best way to get the tang out of the tank? Or is there a way to get the yellow tang to leave the butterfly alone?
Thanks

passion4reef · 12/10/2012, 08:03 AM

They will eventually rework the pecking order. The same thing happened when I introduced my klieni butterfly to my powder blue. It took a little less then 2 days and they were fine. In a full blown reef you will create more trouble trying to get the tang then its worth. Better to just let them work it out.

rocsec1 · 12/10/2012, 09:08 AM

I am worrying about the butter fly getting stressed and developing ich.

Dr Colliebreath · 12/10/2012, 11:30 AM

Tape a mirror to the side of the tank and the tang will focus on fighting its image and probably ignore the cbb. Take the mirror away after 4-5 days and the tang should ignore the cbb.

rocsec1 · 12/10/2012, 11:47 AM

That is a great idea. Thanks I will try that.

MrTuskfish · 12/10/2012, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rocsec1

I am worrying about the butter fly getting stressed and developing ich.

Fish don't get ich from stress, they get it from ich. If the tank has ich, most/all fish will get it sooner or later. If you've avoided letting ich in your tank, no fish can possibly get it.

rocsec1 · 12/10/2012, 01:16 PM

Well when I first started I didn't use a QT. I do now, but it is possible that there is some in the tank. Plus I bought the tank used and running, so who know if it was there then or not. Plus the butterfly was only in QT for 3 weeks when the heater exploded and dumped who knows what into the QT.

12/10/2012, 07:32 AM	#1
rocsec1 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Medina oh Posts: 1,782	Copper butterfly and exploding heater Ok so I had a bad night. I have a QT set-up and have had a Copper Banded Butterfly and fire fish in there for three weeks and they were doing great. I was doing a water change last night. I bought an inexpensive heater to warm my change water. It is one of those Big Blue $10 heaters which is fine for warming water change water. Unpluged the heater and took the water from the barrel into my tank. Notice the heater was still hot and without thinking about it I put the heater in my QT tank. Well it exploded in the water. There is some kind of metal powder in the heater and it immediately went every where in the tank. I got the butterfly and fire fish out immediately and put themin the bucket with the old water. They seemed fine. I got them out with in 30 seconds. So I was faced with leaving them in the bucket or putting them in the DT. So I decided the best thing was to introduce them into the DT tank a week early. I dripped them for 2 hours and everything was fine. They looked good. The fire fish hid right away, but it is out this morning when the lights went on for feeding. The Butterfly starting swimmimg around until the tank bully noticed it. Then it was getting chased around until I turned all the lights out. I run 2 of the 4 foot trulumen Pro Led lights, and 10 Cree 3 watt LEd's 8 royal blue and two of the UV. I have a Yellow tang in the DT that is the tank bully. I was planning to find out the best way to introduce the butterfly without the tang bullying it, but at 8:30 last night I was out of options. So I've decided the yellow tang can go into the frag tank until I can think of something else. What is the best way to get the tang out of the tank? Or is there a way to get the yellow tang to leave the butterfly alone? Thanks

12/10/2012, 09:08 AM	#3
rocsec1 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Medina oh Posts: 1,782	I am worrying about the butter fly getting stressed and developing ich. Last edited by rocsec1; 12/10/2012 at 10:00 AM.

12/10/2012, 11:30 AM	#4
Dr Colliebreath Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: DC Vicinity Posts: 1,813	Tape a mirror to the side of the tank and the tang will focus on fighting its image and probably ignore the cbb. Take the mirror away after 4-5 days and the tang should ignore the cbb. __________________ Frank Current Tank Info: 110 Oceanic RR w/35 gal sump and SRO XP2000 int

12/10/2012, 08:03 AM	#2
passion4reef Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Posts: 157	They will eventually rework the pecking order. The same thing happened when I introduced my klieni butterfly to my powder blue. It took a little less then 2 days and they were fine. In a full blown reef you will create more trouble trying to get the tang then its worth. Better to just let them work it out.

12/10/2012, 11:47 AM	#5
rocsec1 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Medina oh Posts: 1,782	That is a great idea. Thanks I will try that.

12/10/2012, 01:16 PM	#7
rocsec1 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Medina oh Posts: 1,782	Well when I first started I didn't use a QT. I do now, but it is possible that there is some in the tank. Plus I bought the tank used and running, so who know if it was there then or not. Plus the butterfly was only in QT for 3 weeks when the heater exploded and dumped who knows what into the QT.