Dawn's 56g memorial seahorse tank!

melypr1985 · Jan 2, 2017

vlangel said:
Well Meredith, maybe I did jinx it! My sitter texted me yesterday and said the tank was making a gurgling noise. I told them to look at the sump and see if the water level was down which it was. I guessed that it had evaporated since there was no mention of water on the floor so a leak was unlikely. I told them where my fresh made ro/di water was and instructed them to fill up to the line. They said that stopped the gurgling. Problem fixed, right? WRONG!

I got home and realized the return chamber in the sump was pumped dry, most of the macros in my fuge were toast and upon checking the salinity it was down to .020. Amazingly the display tank looked ok with seahorses and coral all looking pretty normal.

The real problem was the chiller leaked. I am still not sure whether it was the flex tubing at the input, output or inside the unit somewhere. I took it offline and cleaned up the sump which included emptying it of everything except the DSB. Then I filled it back up with newly made saltwater. I have no idea what temperature the tank is since my chiller told me that but I suspect it was a little warm. Tomorrow I will buy a thermometer. I did another water change later on and I am making new ro/di now for tomorrow.
Everything still looks good so I think I dodged a bullet. Maybe your well wishes for my tank helped!

Oh man!! I was hoping it would all be ok for you! I'm glad there wasn't any loss from it. So will you need to get a new chiller or just fix this one? How long would the ponies be able to go without the chiller? Is that something they NEED or would they be ok for a while without it?

Lionfish Lair · Jan 3, 2017

Why do these things happen when we are gone! I'm on vacation now and the GFCI tripped in the garage (where my QT tank is with my prized radiata Lionfish). I would have noticed it immediately, but of course the "sitter" did not.

Hopefully it's just a connection issue on your chiller.

JaimeAdams · Jan 3, 2017

Dawn - Oh man, sorry to hear about your issues. You should give your sitter my number for future issues. I'm glad that the ponies were alright.

vlangel · Jan 3, 2017

melypr1985 said:
Oh man!! I was hoping it would all be ok for you! I'm glad there wasn't any loss from it. So will you need to get a new chiller or just fix this one? How long would the ponies be able to go without the chiller? Is that something they NEED or would they be ok for a while without it?

I will know better when I go to Petco, (to buy a thermometer) whether I can get away without having a chiller at all. I am thinking I can because my sump is in my basement. I might just have a fan blow over the surface of the sump when the T5's are on in the DT.

Chillers are big $ pieces of equipment and this one was just bought a year and a half ago. Of course the warrantee is only 1 year. If its irrepairable I will try to get away without one.

vlangel · Jan 3, 2017

Lionfish Lair said:
Why do these things happen when we are gone! I'm on vacation now and the GFCI tripped in the garage (where my QT tank is with my prized radiata Lionfish). I would have noticed it immediately, but of course the "sitter" did not.

Hopefully it's just a connection issue on your chiller.

Ah Renee, I am sorry that happened to you. It seems the "Murphy's law of aquariums" is: if it can happen its going to happen when you are away!

vlangel · Jan 3, 2017

JaimeAdams said:
Dawn - Oh man, sorry to hear about your issues. You should give your sitter my number for future issues. I'm glad that the ponies were alright.

Thanks Jaime, I appreciate that. My sister lives closer than you and she has been my sitter in times past and is a good trouble shooter. These folks wanted to return the favor of me walking their dog and they are not aquainted with marine tanks. I thought I knew what the problem was from the description but I never dreamed that the chiller would leak. Anyway it turned out ok so all is well that ends well.

JaimeAdams · Jan 3, 2017

vlangel said:
Thanks Jaime, I appreciate that. My sister lives closer than you and she has been my sitter in times past and is a good trouble shooter. These folks wanted to return the favor of me walking their dog and they are not aquainted with marine tanks. I thought I knew what the problem was from the description but I never dreamed that the chiller would leak. Anyway it turned out ok so all is well that ends well.

Yes, I am very glad for that. You can give your sister my number too or I'm sure Ted's as well. These are the situations that us club members should be on call to handle. I totally agree with the whole "it's gurgling, toss some water in it though" that would have been my answer too. I'm just glad that the babies are A, Ok

vlangel · Jan 3, 2017

JaimeAdams said:
Yes, I am very glad for that. You can give your sister my number too or I'm sure Ted's as well. These are the situations that us club members should be on call to handle. I totally agree with the whole "it's gurgling, toss some water in it though" that would have been my answer too. I'm just glad that the babies are A, Ok

Thanks again Jaime. You are absolutely right about us club members being there for each other. Its one of the huge advantages of being involved in a club and being networked.

vlangel · Jan 4, 2017

A rare pic of all 3 ponies at different hitches. Can you spot them?

vlangel · Jan 4, 2017

This has got to be absolutely the cutest pic I have ever taken of the ponies...Ruth and Eve having some girl talk! You get a good view of just how much a pinto Ruth has turned into also.

JaimeAdams · Jan 4, 2017

I like Ruth

Lionfish Lair · Jan 4, 2017

The pinto is puuuuurdy!

vlangel · Jan 4, 2017

JaimeAdams said:
I like Ruth

Me too!

vlangel · Jan 4, 2017

Lionfish Lair said:
The pinto is puuuuurdy!

I am amazed at how white she was when she arrived and now how much the dark patches are manfesting themselves. I guess she turns white when she is stressed instead of dark.

She is my favorite, her inquisitive nature and her unique beauty just makes her special.

Lionfish Lair · Jan 4, 2017

Shhhh.... the others will hear. She was from OR?

vlangel · Jan 5, 2017

Lionfish Lair said:
Shhhh.... the others will hear. She was from OR?

Oh you are right, I do not want to hurt Eve or Boaz's feelings.

No, I got Ruth and Boaz from Seahorse Source. When I called Abbie told me that she had a female pinto, although she was young enough that Abbie could not be sure that she really was a female. I said that was ok if she ended up being a Reuben instead of a Ruth.
I was a little disappointed when all she had was 1 black dot on her nose when she arrived but I did not realize then that that was her stress color.

Lionfish Lair · Jan 5, 2017

OR would hate it if they knew "their" term was being used on someone else's bred horse. LOL! I'm glad you didn't get her from them.

vlangel · Jan 5, 2017

Lionfish Lair said:
OR would hate it if they knew "their" term was being used on someone else's bred horse. LOL! I'm glad you didn't get her from them.

LOL, you might be right about that but actually pinto is a horse term for patch colored horses so I am not sure that OR could claim exclusive rights to it.

I only bought Adam and Eve from OR because I took the free online seahorse training course from them. It is comprehensive and definitely properly equipped me to care for seahorses so I felt obligated to buy my first pair of seahorses from them. Now that I fulfilled that obligation I plan to buy the rest of my seahorses from Dan and Abbie at Seahorse Source.

vlangel · Jan 8, 2017

Well bad news folks, I thought I dodged a bullet when the tank had a problem last weekend, but it appears I didn't get through it unscathed. Boaz stopped eating 3 days ago and is experiencing serious buoyancy problems. I tried to see if he had air bubbles trapped in his pouch but that is not where the problem is, it is much higher in his body. He is very bloated and I don't feel optimistic about his prognosis. I also don't see antibiotics or parasite meds helping. My guess is liver dysfunction so I am not going to stress him more by QT him. This makes me indescribably sad, especially since Eve keeps going up to the return where he is hitched to check on him. I will do 7 gallon WCs every day this week to make sure the tank water is up to par and make sure husbandry is totally tended to. Eve and Ruth seem uneffected. Its a sad time though.

MamaLovesHerReefTank · Jan 8, 2017

vlangel said:
Well bad news folks, I thought I dodged a bullet when the tank had a problem last weekend, but it appears I didn't get through it unscathed. Boaz stopped eating 3 days ago and is experiencing serious buoyancy problems. I tried to see if he had air bubbles trapped in his pouch but that is not where the problem is, it is much higher in his body. He is very bloated and I don't feel optimistic about his prognosis. I also don't see antibiotics or parasite meds helping. My guess is liver dysfunction so I am not going to stress him more by QT him. This makes me indescribably sad, especially since Eve keeps going up to the return where he is hitched to check on him. I will do 7 gallon WCs every day this week to make sure the tank water is up to par and make sure husbandry is totally tended to. Eve and Ruth seem uneffected. Its a sad time though.