swjim's 30 Gallon Finnex

[blindside]

Oh sorry, ha, I met someone that came into river city aquatics and purchased all the box anthias we had. And I thought that I had cought them for you. Sorry!

[swjim]

Feb 11 Update (unfortunately not a good one):

A week ago Monday I went to empty the skimmer cup and when I grabbed the body of the skimmer with my left hand I came into contact with the water and got an electrical shock. It was late and the main lights were already off but I could see that some of the corals didn't look good. I immediately turned everything off, then grabbed my multimeter and started plugging things in one at a time. It turns out the return pump was the culprit, it was putting around 35VAC into the tank. Some of the acros and the purple pocillipora didn't look good but everything else seemed to be alright.

Work was extremely busy last week so I wasn't able to get out and buy a new return pump until Sunday. Since I didn't want to keep the bad pump online I let the tank run with only the nanostream on for circulation. I only fed lightly once, I believe it was on Thursday...

Surprisingly, the fish seem like they're doing fine. Most of the corals seem like they will make it as well, but two of the acros have bleached significantly and I don't think will survive. Other than the two acros the biggest problem is that the small amount of bubble algae that I had in the tank previously has increased dramatically in those few days that the filtration was offline. I did a water change on Sunday and hope that with a few more water changes I can get it back under control.

I have never had a problem with electrical components previously, so I hadn't put a grounding probe on the tank but I am going to order one this week just in case anything else ever goes bad.

[swjim]

Oh sorry, ha, I met someone that came into river city aquatics and purchased all the box anthias we had. And I thought that I had cought them for you. Sorry!

Nope, wasn't me. Maybe I'll come clear you out of some anthias sometime in the future when I get a larger tank back online.

[cbianco]

Feb 11 Update (unfortunately not a good one):

A week ago Monday I went to empty the skimmer cup and when I grabbed the body of the skimmer with my left hand I came into contact with the water and got an electrical shock. It was late and the main lights were already off but I could see that some of the corals didn't look good. I immediately turned everything off, then grabbed my multimeter and started plugging things in one at a time. It turns out the return pump was the culprit, it was putting around 35VAC into the tank. Some of the acros and the purple pocillipora didn't look good but everything else seemed to be alright.

Work was extremely busy last week so I wasn't able to get out and buy a new return pump until Sunday. Since I didn't want to keep the bad pump online I let the tank run with only the nanostream on for circulation. I only fed lightly once, I believe it was on Thursday...

Surprisingly, the fish seem like they're doing fine. Most of the corals seem like they will make it as well, but two of the acros have bleached significantly and I don't think will survive. Other than the two acros the biggest problem is that the small amount of bubble algae that I had in the tank previously has increased dramatically in those few days that the filtration was offline. I did a water change on Sunday and hope that with a few more water changes I can get it back under control.

I have never had a problem with electrical components previously, so I hadn't put a grounding probe on the tank but I am going to order one this week just in case anything else ever goes bad.

Was is the stock pump or an aftermarket pump?
How long have you had it?
What did you replace it with?

[swjim]

It was the stock pump, it was around 7 1/2 months old. I replaced it with a Maxijet 1200 which is rated at 295gph which is quite a bit less than the stock pump but I'm not too worried about it since the nanostream is providing plenty of flow.

[swjim]

Hi all,

It's been almost a year since last updating this thread so here goes:

The stray voltage incident with the stock pump seemed to stress the livestock and I ended up losing a few things and eventually had a bad bubble algae battle.

Hardware wise, I was unhappy with the flow from the Maxijet 1200 I initially used to replace the failed pump so I'm now using a Maxijet 1800 utility pump. It was a tight fit in the Finnex return chamber but it's been working great for about 8 months.

I replaced the stock skimmer with a Euroreef Nano. The new skimmer had an aluminum mesh impellar that broke down on me three times, the mesh would flake off and foam production would decrease until it was completely ineffective. These breaks in service didn't help the bubble algae situation.... Euroreef eventually ended up coming out with a new impellar made of resin that I've now had installed for 3-4 months and it's been working great.

The renewed skimmer performance caused the bubble algae to recede but because I was getting so tired of it I decided to do something a bit drastic - I added a small yellow tang. Yes, I know this tank is too small for a tang, so please don't beat me up too bad over it. My intent wasn't to keep the tang in this tank forever, I just needed something more effective than an emerald crab and I thought a Zebrasoma would be the best bet in the BA battle.

Things seem to be back on track, the bubble algae is almost completely gone and the corals are showing growth once again but the colors are quite washed out. I'm due for a bulb replacement which I'm somewhat putting off because I'm really tempted to attempt a DIY LED project. Anyway, that pretty much sums up the ups and downs of the last year for my little tank. Here are a couple pics.

Full Tank Shot


Candy Cane


The Bubble Buster


Green Pocillipora


Frogspawn

[Still Learning]

Thanks for the update. That is one fat/healthy yellow tang!!!!