October 7th
this was my biocube just after the copper crash that was initiated by yours truly
it was only up for about 4 months and, well it wasn't anything really special. At the time I had 5 fish in there and a GSP a leather toadstool and some Button polys and a Branching Hammer. The CUC was modest with only about 8 snails and 5 hermits and 2 Nars.
I had about 60lbs of live sand and about 20+ lbs of crushed coral. Live rock was at 22 1/2 lbs.
Then came the crash. All but 2 hermits survived the crash. The Snails were all dead. 2 Blue devils were gone too. The toadstool bit the dust and the GSP eventually died, and the Hammer liquifiedinto a Peanut butter and Jelly mixture, only the green button lived.
I was crushed, what a stupid mistake. Then I kept reading stories on other boards on how the tank is forever contaminated. Nothing I could do would completely remove the copper as it probably bind to the acrylic.
One of the sources of the crash, a copper elbow along with two, yes two copper barbs (not shown)
I tossed the substrate and was about to throw out the L/R. The survivors were moved into an Eclipse 6 gal that I had running for about 3 months with two damsels and with about 10 lbs of crushed coral. It would make for some very cramped quarters.
A vinegar scrub and about three nights of vinegar soak with all my pumps in it saw to the copper problem (if it ever existed) on the tank The rocks were soaked and thusly and sadly, for whatever life remained, "sterilized."
The tank was then "cycled" with a poly filter pad, and the water temp to about 110 f and then brought down to 60 F and then back up. I wanted to encourage PH shifts and to see if any copper would come out if it indeed had bind itself to the tank surface. This took three days. The pad showed no blue hue. It stayed white.
I then bought some Nature's Ocean live sand, some Aragonite sand and threw that in after a brief water change of about 30%.
I was about to buy some new L/R from the LFS that I used to go to however was about to buy some Poly pads when I noticed that they wanted $16 per unit. I was buying it for $7 at my local petland discount place where I lived.Then I noticed other markups of a 100% or more in some cases. They may have a nice store and claim to be the best in Jersey, but I'll be damned if I get ripped off.
But I digress.
Craigslist saw to my L/R. I got 30+ lbs of l/r loaded with Aiptasia.
The old now somewhat "sterilized" rock is in a 10 gal AGA that I found on the side slated for trash pickup (one mans' trash is another's treasure)One day when I'm confident that the Copper is gone from that rock I'll upgrade the lighting and turn it into a reef tank. for now it's a FOWLR in my daughter's room
FOWLR for now
The cube is going to be worked on pending further water tests in the future but for now this is it
Biocube 29 is quite Spartan for now. Hopefully I can get some color in this thing
Guess how many Aiptasia where in the tank?
this was my biocube just after the copper crash that was initiated by yours truly
it was only up for about 4 months and, well it wasn't anything really special. At the time I had 5 fish in there and a GSP a leather toadstool and some Button polys and a Branching Hammer. The CUC was modest with only about 8 snails and 5 hermits and 2 Nars.
I had about 60lbs of live sand and about 20+ lbs of crushed coral. Live rock was at 22 1/2 lbs.
Then came the crash. All but 2 hermits survived the crash. The Snails were all dead. 2 Blue devils were gone too. The toadstool bit the dust and the GSP eventually died, and the Hammer liquifiedinto a Peanut butter and Jelly mixture, only the green button lived.
I was crushed, what a stupid mistake. Then I kept reading stories on other boards on how the tank is forever contaminated. Nothing I could do would completely remove the copper as it probably bind to the acrylic.
One of the sources of the crash, a copper elbow along with two, yes two copper barbs (not shown)
I tossed the substrate and was about to throw out the L/R. The survivors were moved into an Eclipse 6 gal that I had running for about 3 months with two damsels and with about 10 lbs of crushed coral. It would make for some very cramped quarters.
A vinegar scrub and about three nights of vinegar soak with all my pumps in it saw to the copper problem (if it ever existed) on the tank The rocks were soaked and thusly and sadly, for whatever life remained, "sterilized."
The tank was then "cycled" with a poly filter pad, and the water temp to about 110 f and then brought down to 60 F and then back up. I wanted to encourage PH shifts and to see if any copper would come out if it indeed had bind itself to the tank surface. This took three days. The pad showed no blue hue. It stayed white.
I then bought some Nature's Ocean live sand, some Aragonite sand and threw that in after a brief water change of about 30%.
I was about to buy some new L/R from the LFS that I used to go to however was about to buy some Poly pads when I noticed that they wanted $16 per unit. I was buying it for $7 at my local petland discount place where I lived.Then I noticed other markups of a 100% or more in some cases. They may have a nice store and claim to be the best in Jersey, but I'll be damned if I get ripped off.
But I digress.
Craigslist saw to my L/R. I got 30+ lbs of l/r loaded with Aiptasia.
The old now somewhat "sterilized" rock is in a 10 gal AGA that I found on the side slated for trash pickup (one mans' trash is another's treasure)One day when I'm confident that the Copper is gone from that rock I'll upgrade the lighting and turn it into a reef tank. for now it's a FOWLR in my daughter's room
FOWLR for now
The cube is going to be worked on pending further water tests in the future but for now this is it
Biocube 29 is quite Spartan for now. Hopefully I can get some color in this thing
Guess how many Aiptasia where in the tank?
