We made a mess! What do we do??

Discussion in 'Live Rock' started by juliew, Oct 26, 2008.

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  1. juliew

    juliew Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Location:
    Central Florida
    We've got a mess...... we added some dead rock to the tank (it was bigger & the pieces & looked much nicer). BTW - we are still cycling the tank.

    We had to take out some of the FL cultured live rock that we had in the tank & decided that we would replace the bioballs in our wet/dry filter with the live rock. Well, the rock is really dense & my husband thought that drilling holes in the rock would increase the surface area, and that drilling would be a good idea.

    I guess the drill turned the rock to a powdery substance & mixed with the water to form a slurry. He didn't rinse it off (because I keep telling him tap water is bad) & he put it in the filter.

    He turned on the pump & guess what......the slurry went into the tank. :( After a couple of hours, he took the rock back out & rinsed it with tap water & mud still came out of the holes, & it seems like he got the rest of it off & out of the rock. It is now 18 hours later & the stuff is still suspended in the water & is so thick, it's almost impossible to see the rock in the tank.

    We called our friend at the LFS & he suggested that we continue to run the pump & do a 25% water change today.

    Do you think this will help? Is there anything else we can do?

    Thanks for your suggestions!

    julie
     
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  3. techno2

    techno2 Stylophora

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2007
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    Thats what I would do. The stuff either needs to settle or be taken out. Settling could take many days. Certainly a water change will help to clear things up.

    If you have any spare filters lying around, I would add them to help clear out the mess. I like to keep a spare canister filter around for this type of clean up. Maybe you can "Rent" one from the LFS to help clean up.

    With that much soot, the bubble sponge in the Proclear will likley get clogged so keep and eye on that.

    You may need to clean your filtration 2-3 time before the mess is gone.


    When all is clean and gone, you should clean your filters/skimmer before going live and watch to make sure the "Cycle" is gone and or under control.

    Good luck
     
  4. lunatik_69

    lunatik_69 Giant Squid

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    Run your PS and have some felt filter pads in your drip tray( W/D ) or any other place that you can have it. It will eventually clear up, but will not be over night. Luna
     
  5. juliew

    juliew Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Thanks for your suggestions double2mk & luna -

    We will turn on our PS & see if we can borrow an additional filter from our friend at the LFS.

    I appreciate your help!

    julie
     
  6. lunatik_69

    lunatik_69 Giant Squid

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    The felt pads will do wonders, only drawback is that you will need to clean them out very frequently. Good luck. Luna
     
  7. PharmrJohn

    PharmrJohn The Dude

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    +1 to Luna. Exactly what I was thinking. Filter socks everywhere and clean daily for the time being. Then if you decide to keep them, twice weekly cleaning is a must. You may want to consider increasing flow in the tank for the time being. What kind of flow do you have anyway?
     
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  9. juliew

    juliew Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Location:
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    Thanks pharmrjohn -

    In addition to the return pump, we have a Koralia 3 & 4. We are planning to turn them on in the next little while.
     
  10. Otty

    Otty Giant Squid

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    Any kind of filter pad or screens to capture all the mess to get it out. I would clean twice a day to keep on top of it. Hope you not going to try this again. :(
     
  11. juliew

    juliew Coral Banded Shrimp

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    Thanks Scott -

    We added a second filter screen, so we'll see how that goes. We plan on cleaning it at least 2x per day until the water clears up.

    I'm sure we won't do this again - we've learned our lesson ;)

    julie
     
  12. Hackem688

    Hackem688 Millepora

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    My ? is would it have been bad to rince them with tap water