theokie
07-01-2015, 12:12 AM
So on this lovely day before Canada Day, I was working on getting my 200 gallon system a bit more stream lined, aka attempt to tackle the spaghetti monster that is my controller and power bars.
While I was down under the tank, wedged into one of the most awkward positions I could get the soul piercing sound of dripping water started. Panic over came all rational thinking, had I bumped a bulkhead, did I disconnect a barbed fitting, was 200 gallons of water about to crash down upon my head?
All these things raced thru my head as I slowly and methodically removed myself from under the tank, rotating my head back and forth as I attempted to locate the slow drip, drip, drip.
I went to all sides of the 200 gallon, a peninsula style build, flashlight in hand, peering into all the dark corners looking for the puddle. No puddle was to be found, so I quickly darted across the room, well maybe 5 feet, over to the 150 system, and repeated the process, over, under, under, over, peering at the tangled web of pvc, vinyl and power cords. No puddle could be found, I was lost, confused, and yet the drip, drip, drip continued.
Had I finally lost my mind? Had I finally sucumb to "Reefer Madness?"
At a loss, I was about to sit down at my imac on the counter to begin searching for an illness on webMD, that would explain the apparently auditory hallucination I was under. And there it was, a slow puddle spreading across the counter, slowly growing under my 8 gallon Rock Flower Anemone cube. It wasn't a bad leak, but I had to be careful, power bars unplugged, the Imac moved out of the fish room and away from the puddle that was going to devour it, or so it appeared, it was a very malicious looking puddle.
So aside from all the colourful drama, it appears my little Fluval Flora that I have been using for years, decided to let the back seam start to split. Now since that really isn't' a repair that I can do in situ, I began preping a spare tank to become my Rock Flower Anemones new home.
So now to the portion that I actually came to this thread for, I removed as much substrate and used all "old" system water to populate this new tank. I took one of my sponge filters that I keep in my sump for impulse quarantine setups. I put a lid on the new tank, as I won't be able to get an ATO going tonight. I also put in a via of Prodibio into the new 15 gallon. So the million dollar question is:
Should I be worried about a cycle going on, or will Prodibio and carbon and old tank water be enough to keep 15 gallons of invertebrates only from getting an ammonia spike?
While I was down under the tank, wedged into one of the most awkward positions I could get the soul piercing sound of dripping water started. Panic over came all rational thinking, had I bumped a bulkhead, did I disconnect a barbed fitting, was 200 gallons of water about to crash down upon my head?
All these things raced thru my head as I slowly and methodically removed myself from under the tank, rotating my head back and forth as I attempted to locate the slow drip, drip, drip.
I went to all sides of the 200 gallon, a peninsula style build, flashlight in hand, peering into all the dark corners looking for the puddle. No puddle was to be found, so I quickly darted across the room, well maybe 5 feet, over to the 150 system, and repeated the process, over, under, under, over, peering at the tangled web of pvc, vinyl and power cords. No puddle could be found, I was lost, confused, and yet the drip, drip, drip continued.
Had I finally lost my mind? Had I finally sucumb to "Reefer Madness?"
At a loss, I was about to sit down at my imac on the counter to begin searching for an illness on webMD, that would explain the apparently auditory hallucination I was under. And there it was, a slow puddle spreading across the counter, slowly growing under my 8 gallon Rock Flower Anemone cube. It wasn't a bad leak, but I had to be careful, power bars unplugged, the Imac moved out of the fish room and away from the puddle that was going to devour it, or so it appeared, it was a very malicious looking puddle.
So aside from all the colourful drama, it appears my little Fluval Flora that I have been using for years, decided to let the back seam start to split. Now since that really isn't' a repair that I can do in situ, I began preping a spare tank to become my Rock Flower Anemones new home.
So now to the portion that I actually came to this thread for, I removed as much substrate and used all "old" system water to populate this new tank. I took one of my sponge filters that I keep in my sump for impulse quarantine setups. I put a lid on the new tank, as I won't be able to get an ATO going tonight. I also put in a via of Prodibio into the new 15 gallon. So the million dollar question is:
Should I be worried about a cycle going on, or will Prodibio and carbon and old tank water be enough to keep 15 gallons of invertebrates only from getting an ammonia spike?