Help!!!

[Cathi]

Oh, tis a sad, sad day. I am in the middle of the flu and just realized that my filter stopped working. Almost all my babies that I have raised for over 2 years are dead:sad2: . I really feel like throwing in the towel but I have one solitary ocelaris in a bowl now. (sigh) I've gotten past the funerals and have cleaned out the LR (it is now in a bucket of my change out water) and I have dumped the old water. My leather toadstool, shrooms and polyps are still alive. My question is are bristle worms good? I seem to have a BILLION of them. I will probably decide to carry on with Jennie's old 65 (which I was planning to upgrade into soon anyway), but what do I do with all those things crawling around in my sub? if they are bad do I have to treat the lr b4 I put it back into the tank? And if they are good how long can they sit in an inch of water b4 they go down the tubes. I am not well enough to deal with much more today. Anyone???

Cat

 

[thepudge]

They are fine.. Good detritus eaters. I don't know how long they would live without any circulation though, you may want to put a powerhead in with them.

Sorry for your loss!

 

[GQ22]

leave the worms, they are good for the aquarium, just get your filter back up and running and dont feed the tank for a few days. most fish will eat the worms if they are visable. My clowns even eat them. Dont give up, doesnt sound like a complete disaster. Prob would like to getting a better filtration. Not sure what you have though.

 

[GQ22]

PS, my tank went without filtration for a whole week and was fine. Just dont feed till a few days after you get your filter up and running again.

 

[ctxmonitor]

what kind of filter are you refering to cathi? do you mean hob filter or you talking about your sump being the filter and now not getting the water back into the main tank?

 

[masterswimmer]

Hi Cathi, I hate to meet under such painful and stressful conditions. I'm sorry for your losses.

In order for us to be of any assistance to you, we'd have to know a lot more about your system. What are your water parameters? Specifically:

SG
pH
Alk
Ca
Mg
Ammo.
nitrites
nitrates
temp
phosphates

When you say your filter stopped working, were you referring to a protein skimmer? HOB filter like an Aquaclear? Canister filter like a Fluval? Answers to these questions will help us help you.

The bristle worms for the most part are good. Just depends on what variety they are. For instance, fireworms are not good and look similar to bristleworms. However, they are definitely rarer than bristleworms.

In order to sustain the life in your sandbed and LR, you'd need to put a heater in there and a small powerhead. You don't want to create a sandstorm, so don't use a Tunze, lol. Make sure you monitor your salinity in there as well. Not being in a tank you are apt to just ignore it. As water evaporates from that tub your salinity will increase. It is much less critical to keep that stable than the salinity in a tank, but you don't want that climbing to 1.04 or something ridiculous.

Again, sorry for your loss and good luck bringing it back.

Russ

BTW, I know you said it was just your filter that died, but now your water parameters are going to change dramatically. That's why I asked about all those readings.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

i picked up all of her stuff that survived. she had a hob filter. powerheads continued to work. my guess would be the dsb crashed the tank. the toadstool has not opened yet, but the polyps and froggy have began to open up. the clown is in my nano cube swimming happily it will be hard for her to get a reading since she dumped the stinky water i say set up the 65, and no filter just a bunch of rock and powerheads

 

[masterswimmer]

Nice rescue Jennie. Good luck Cathi, hope your 'new' setup works out great. We'll want pix of the new masterpiece.

LR, powerheads AND a skimmer would be great. I know some folks run tanks successfully without skimmers, but I'm not a believer in that. The skimmer helps out in soooo many different ways. Removal of DOC's for one, oxygen exchange, higher oxygen saturation and even additional system volume.

Russ

 

[druluv]

If it worth anything, I will willing to donate some of the corals you lost. Sorry to hear the bad news

 

[Cathi]

Thanks

Thanks you all for the help and advice. My old set up was just a few powerheads and a big (I thought it was, prob wasn't too big) skimmer. I will set that back up on the 65. I got some new sand to mix in and won't be placing such a deep bed this time. Pix when it's up and running. Again, thanks to all.:kiss:

 

[Quang]

Thanks you all for the help and advice. My old set up was just a few powerheads and a big (I thought it was, prob wasn't too big) skimmer. I will set that back up on the 65. I got some new sand to mix in and won't be placing such a deep bed this time. Pix when it's up and running. Again, thanks to all.:kiss:

Cathi sorry to hear of the lost. I don't know if it would a be a better idea to put in place a more shallow sandbed. I'm still not too certain that the sand was the cause of it. Maybe something died? A snail or something? Just look into your current set up and figure out why it crashed first and then makes plans to re-setup your tank. Good luck with it.

 

[PalmTree]

Sorry for your loss cathi. I've never heard of a DSB causing a crash. I have a DSB now and I've never had a problem. Good luck with your new setup. I'm sure it will be smashing!!