Found Out Why Shrimpy Died..

[z28pwr]

Browsing through reefcentral I ran into a post about a guy who had all his corals wiped out after storing his water in rubbermaid trash can.

I had left the water mixing for 2 days in a rubbermaid trash can before doing the water change. The worst part is that I saw a white film on the top of the water and didn't think nothing of it.

DOH !

You can read more here

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sho...hreadid=142357

Apparently only certain trash cans are food safe.
Hope this helps others prevent a death in their tank.

[Brett Wilson]

At lowes or homedepot you can get the gray rubbermaid brute cans, they hold about 30 gallons and cost about $25 or so....
I have used one and never had problems with it.

HTH
-Brett

[TexasState]

What kind of pump do you use to mix your salt water? I used to use a Mag 3 to 5 to mix water in my grey rubbermaid trash can. If you don't have enough agitation, it's normal for salt water to build a surface film.

[z28pwr]

I was using a little powerhead to mix the salt, but sounds like I may need a bigger pump and an RO/DI system.

I now went and bought a 100 gallon RubberMaid stock tank to do my salt mixing. Overkill but it will serve as my sump for my 720 when it's up and running and alot of people run these without any problems.

[TexasState]

Make sure you replace the bulk head of those Rubbermaid livestock trough can. They are known to leak. Get a good bulk head replacement from Savko.com. TurboBrett from up here is selling his MH for cheap, so maybe you can use the MH to to grow caulerpa/coral in your sump later on.

Have fun setting up that Ocean View tank. For a tank that size, a 40/65 gallons glass sump would be big enough for a sump.

[captexas]

I use rubbermaid container for my water storage. I have a 50 gallon containor for fresh water from the RO/DI unit and then I mix saltwater in a 31 gallon container. Never had any film build up in the freshwater, but have noticed a white film if I let saltwater sit in the container too long without circulation. I don't think it is a problem. I think the guy on Reef Central just grabbed a trash can real quick before he had to go out of town and maybe forgot to rinse it very well or the water just sat too long. Most people are now spending the extra money for "food grade" containers. If you don't clean these out occassionally and if you don't circulate the water, you still end up with the same problem.

[Tim Marvin]

If you have notice there are some guys that jump to quick conclusions on reef central, with no real scientific evidence. I have used the GREEN rubbermade roughneck garbage can for years and never had a problem. I am growing SPS at about 1/4-1/2 inch per month. I think that is pretty good, but I could be wrong.