x19
Reefing newb
As I mentioned in my other thread I picked up a yellow-tail and a blue damsel the other day, and the blue was so aggressive it had relegated the yellow tail to one rockless corner of the tank for about 30 hours. After learning here on the forum how notoriously aggressive the blue damsels are I did some additional research and decided that my only choice was to remove the blue from the tank else I would likely have problems with all other future planned additions.
Catching the Blue "Devil" Damsel, which I named Damien, was ridiculous. I tried a net, then a trap, and eventually ended up removing all of the live rock from my tank in order to catch him. I set him up in a 10 gallon tank that I happened to have lying around. Putting the live rock back in the tank with a sand substrate was a challange, and although I tried my hardest I couldn't be sure that I didn't crush and snails or crabs in the process.
Of course the skimmer also reverted to spewing millions of micro-bubbles out when I started it up, but I wanted to be sure it was running again as quickly as possible to avoid any mini-cycle the event would cause.
Sure enough, last night I tested for ammonia and found .25 ppm. By this morning that had risen to .5 ppm, with noticeable nitrites and nitrates as well. I had an appt this afternoon and had to leave the tank for about 6 hours. Testing the water upon return and of course I was now at 1 ppm ammonia with noticeable nitrite. At this point panic set in that the rise in Nitrates would kill all my snails/crabs, adding a lot more ammonia, and essentially sending me back to day 1.
Meanwhile, Damien was found dead at the bottom of the 10 gallon tank. I hadn't had a chance to get any live rock for that tank, it was just salt water, a heater and a powerhead so any number of things could have caused him I guess.
At this point, I ran to the lfs and bought some bio-spira which I hoped would help restore/reinforce the bacteria that had died in my tank. 2 hours later I tested the water and I'm down to .25 ammonia, and .25 nitrites. I'll check the levels again in the morning before heading to work so hopefully this crisis has been avoided. The Bio-Spira directions said to turn off my skimmer for 48 hours so I've got no micro-bubbles at the moment but the water actually looks noticeably clearer after having added the bio-spira.
I can't really blame the lfs for not warning me, I had meant to ask for two yellow-tail damsels but said blue by mistake. When he put the first blue in my bag I was struck by the brilliant color and decided to keep him along with one yellow. Still, it would have been nice if he would have said something..
Live and learn I guess.
Catching the Blue "Devil" Damsel, which I named Damien, was ridiculous. I tried a net, then a trap, and eventually ended up removing all of the live rock from my tank in order to catch him. I set him up in a 10 gallon tank that I happened to have lying around. Putting the live rock back in the tank with a sand substrate was a challange, and although I tried my hardest I couldn't be sure that I didn't crush and snails or crabs in the process.
Of course the skimmer also reverted to spewing millions of micro-bubbles out when I started it up, but I wanted to be sure it was running again as quickly as possible to avoid any mini-cycle the event would cause.
Sure enough, last night I tested for ammonia and found .25 ppm. By this morning that had risen to .5 ppm, with noticeable nitrites and nitrates as well. I had an appt this afternoon and had to leave the tank for about 6 hours. Testing the water upon return and of course I was now at 1 ppm ammonia with noticeable nitrite. At this point panic set in that the rise in Nitrates would kill all my snails/crabs, adding a lot more ammonia, and essentially sending me back to day 1.
Meanwhile, Damien was found dead at the bottom of the 10 gallon tank. I hadn't had a chance to get any live rock for that tank, it was just salt water, a heater and a powerhead so any number of things could have caused him I guess.
At this point, I ran to the lfs and bought some bio-spira which I hoped would help restore/reinforce the bacteria that had died in my tank. 2 hours later I tested the water and I'm down to .25 ammonia, and .25 nitrites. I'll check the levels again in the morning before heading to work so hopefully this crisis has been avoided. The Bio-Spira directions said to turn off my skimmer for 48 hours so I've got no micro-bubbles at the moment but the water actually looks noticeably clearer after having added the bio-spira.
I can't really blame the lfs for not warning me, I had meant to ask for two yellow-tail damsels but said blue by mistake. When he put the first blue in my bag I was struck by the brilliant color and decided to keep him along with one yellow. Still, it would have been nice if he would have said something..
Live and learn I guess.
