Project5k and the new 75Gal salt tank

[bjohanson1234]

Sounds like your day is going great.:grumble:

 

[project5k]

yea, well that was yesterday, so, i'm trying to just put it in the past... and move on to better things.

i just dont know what to do now, so i guess i'll spend another month just sitting there stairing at it, like i have been...

 

[project5k]

well, i was reading that tank disasters article, and i just got to the part about the bad salt.. i may have killed george.. i did this, and i didnt know about it.. i had a new sealed bag of salt mix that i was using up before i bought a new bucket of salt mix, well, i had the bag rolled up(the top) but not sealed,(cause i used some last week for a water change, and i was gonna finish up the bag so i rolled the top like potato chips, and when i mixed the salt, i noticed that i had to break some of the chunks... i didnt know that was an indicator that the salt mix could be bad... so it may be all my fault,

the below is copied from the article:
Bad Salt
Seal salt containers tight. If moisture gets in the salt it can go bad. If salt has hardened into a large chunk, it is almost certainly bad. One person used 10 month old salt that had not been kept in a tight container. Two days later most of his livestock was dead.

so, George's death may be my fault, i did a water change on saturday, and then on sunday he died... kinda close to just be a coincidence, i'm thinking...

 

[daugherty]

Nice job. Looks like lots of time was spent putting that all together.

My only comment is about salt going bad. It does not. There is nothing to "go bad". If salt gets wet, the only thing that happens is the locally high concentration of ca and alk cause the carbonates to precipitate. That precipitate will not redissolve, so you will have a mix of salt that is lower in calcium and/or alk than the mix was intended to be. The remedy...test the frresh mix and dose to get the levels back up.

https://www.livingreefs.com/new-article-prevent-marine-aquarium-disasters-t20515.html

 

[bjohanson1234]

I always thought that what happens in that the moistur changes the amount of salt required to get the right salinity. but didnt know that it would actually go bad.

Who knew?

 

[daugherty]

that would not have killed your fish IMO

 

[project5k]

well if lumpy salt didnt kill him, then thats good i guess, but at the same time, re-opens the question of what did..

i guess rather than stewing in it, i'll just move on, nothing i can do about it now.

so.. i guess i'm in the market for a new algae eating fish... but i also have a tank move planned, if i can ever get the new stand finished and stop loosing time to the planning stages...

so, do i get my new algae eating fish now, or do i wait till i move the tank first?
what should i get? george was a beautifull splash of color in the tank, so i'm gonna miss his bright yellow face...

 

[daugherty]

lawnmowers are good fish

 

[project5k]

do you mean lawnmower blenny? yea i could do that, i wonder how it will get along with my mandrin gobie?

 

[daugherty]

yes a lawnmower blenny. and they will get along fine since a mandrin is not a goby it is a dragonet

 

[bjohanson1234]

He means these
Neuton Battery Lawn Mowers -

Dont know how good of a fish they would make but they would definantly take care of the yard:mrgreen:

This is actually an idea I dreamt up last night only to google it this morning and find out they are already made:grumble:

Brian

 

[daugherty]

this is the mower that i want

Robomower LawnBott

 

[bjohanson1234]

nice if I had a lawn, I would want one!!!!

 

[project5k]

ok, i'm into that idea, so what about when to get him??? i dont have bad algae in the tank now, but i'm sure when i move it, i'll set off another mini cycle...

 

[daugherty]

mine before he died of old age ate mostly film alage off the glass but they do eat hair sometimes but not turf alage. they will also eat mysis. i had mine for about 8 years.

 

[bjohanson1234]

getting back on track, (i seem to de-rail easily:mrgreen:)
I would wait until after the move. No use putting a fish through the stress of a new home only to get uprooted a few weeks to a month down the road to be put in a new home.

Plus during the move, I would clean off the rocks as best I could.

Brian

 

[project5k]

sounds perfect, if he can keep some of the film in check, and will occasionally munch on mysis, which is what i normally feed, then he should be pretty happy in my tank..

oh, you dont think that my 18" snowflake eel would mess with him, do you?

oh and i'm really not thinking that the rocks need cleaning, mine look pretty good to me....
is there more to the cleaning of the rocks that i should be aware of?

 

[daugherty]

as long as the blenny or any fish is twice the size of the eels mouth it should leave it alone but you just never know what will happen.

 

[project5k]

hmm ok, cause this eel dosent mess with my gobi, and the eel could easily swallow him...

 

[daugherty]

that does not mean he wont eat him.