Friday 1st June 2007
Tests are much more like normal. Still above anything I'd seen before but moving in the right direction.
Starfish is brighter (in colour) and is moving more. Out in the open and sitting up on his legs, almost like his old self (I hope).
Missing crab (Margaret) has turned up and both are moving around more normally.
Another 7-8 litres of water changed tonight.
I'm off to Cape Town for a week tomorrow so worried what might happen to tank. Family will look after it but have never run tests or done a water change so I may have to leave it to chance.
Continuing remedial action
Thursday 31st May 2007
Tests looking better but still a long way from right.
Starfish still looking very unhappy but crabs are moving a bit more.
A lot of the bristleworms have been hanging out of their hidey-holes. Cannot be a good thing.
The two turbo snails are laying upside down and despite being put upright have not moved.
Slightly concerned about changing too much water (no idea why) so decided to limit change to just 5 litres tonight.
Tests looking better but still a long way from right.
Starfish still looking very unhappy but crabs are moving a bit more.
A lot of the bristleworms have been hanging out of their hidey-holes. Cannot be a good thing.
The two turbo snails are laying upside down and despite being put upright have not moved.
Slightly concerned about changing too much water (no idea why) so decided to limit change to just 5 litres tonight.
Remedial action
Wednesday 30th May.
Water is less cloudy today.
Tests are now only at the maximum on the scale. Better than yesterday but still basically fatal.
Have obtained 20 littres of RO water and changed another 10 tonight. This time I thought about it a bit more and added the salt (and mixed it well) BEFORE adding the water.
One crab has disappeared. Might just be hiding. Hope so.
Water is less cloudy today.
Tests are now only at the maximum on the scale. Better than yesterday but still basically fatal.
Have obtained 20 littres of RO water and changed another 10 tonight. This time I thought about it a bit more and added the salt (and mixed it well) BEFORE adding the water.
One crab has disappeared. Might just be hiding. Hope so.
Disaster
Tuesday 29th May 2007
Arrived home to find tank cloudy. Very cloudy. Thought something must be wrong so immediately ran full set of tests.
Horrifying. Ammonia off the scale. Nitrite off the scale. Nitrate off the scale. All bad.
Did an immediate water change (about 20%).
It was actually my first water change (probably shouldn't have been but until today tests had been fine). Made ANOTHER mistake by not thinking about salt and having to add salt AFTER I'd added the water. Ended up stirring as I added it. Far from ideal.
I also removed the black sponge (1st level filter) and found it, to my surprise, full of worms.
On checking with the guys at the fishkeeping forum I decided to bin this and replace it with filter wool (which luckily had just been delivered).
Alvin (the starfish) looks sick. Limp and moving hardly at all. The bright coloured stripes on his body have faded to almost nothing. I am most concerned about him.
Crabs have gone completely lifeless. Still living but not moving as they usually do.
Have read up on how to do a water change in a marine tank and feel I do not have enough kit to do it the recommended way but will definitely be adding salt to the water BEFORE adding the water to the tank.
Arrived home to find tank cloudy. Very cloudy. Thought something must be wrong so immediately ran full set of tests.
Horrifying. Ammonia off the scale. Nitrite off the scale. Nitrate off the scale. All bad.
Did an immediate water change (about 20%).
It was actually my first water change (probably shouldn't have been but until today tests had been fine). Made ANOTHER mistake by not thinking about salt and having to add salt AFTER I'd added the water. Ended up stirring as I added it. Far from ideal.
I also removed the black sponge (1st level filter) and found it, to my surprise, full of worms.
On checking with the guys at the fishkeeping forum I decided to bin this and replace it with filter wool (which luckily had just been delivered).
Alvin (the starfish) looks sick. Limp and moving hardly at all. The bright coloured stripes on his body have faded to almost nothing. I am most concerned about him.
Crabs have gone completely lifeless. Still living but not moving as they usually do.
Have read up on how to do a water change in a marine tank and feel I do not have enough kit to do it the recommended way but will definitely be adding salt to the water BEFORE adding the water to the tank.
New hermit homes and a squid supper
Monday 28th May 2007
Over the weekend I got a few different shells to give the hermits somewhere to move to if they wanted to. Once they were in the tank I realised they looked way to big but left them there in case.
Within 24 hours the larger crab (Henry) had moved out of his old shell into one of the larger ones. The smaller crab (Margaret) had moved into Henry's old shell. Never saw them move but pleased that they liked the additions.
Today I decided to give Alvin (the starfish) a treat and bought him a fresh squid. I chopped into what I thought was good sized but manageable chunks and put a few in. He jumped on it.
On reflection the chunks were a bot big but I figured that in the wild these creatures must be used to dealing with whatever they find so left him to it. The Bristleworms and crabs seemed keen too.
This is the first "extra" I've added so it'll be interesting to see how it goes down.
Over the weekend I got a few different shells to give the hermits somewhere to move to if they wanted to. Once they were in the tank I realised they looked way to big but left them there in case.
Within 24 hours the larger crab (Henry) had moved out of his old shell into one of the larger ones. The smaller crab (Margaret) had moved into Henry's old shell. Never saw them move but pleased that they liked the additions.
Today I decided to give Alvin (the starfish) a treat and bought him a fresh squid. I chopped into what I thought was good sized but manageable chunks and put a few in. He jumped on it.
On reflection the chunks were a bot big but I figured that in the wild these creatures must be used to dealing with whatever they find so left him to it. The Bristleworms and crabs seemed keen too.
This is the first "extra" I've added so it'll be interesting to see how it goes down.
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