Hi guys I'm fairly new to this hobby about 6 months in.
For the past couple of months Ive been doing all the homework to DIY retrofit a sump onto my existing 55gal FOWLR tank. After receiving my plumbing, new pump and other assorted gizmos I went to work siliconing my glass baffles into my newly acquired 20L tank. I didn't put much research into specifically what kind of silicone I needed as long as It was 100% I did a quick google to make sure that GE 100% silicon II was OK and I saw someone say that they had built a ton of stuff using it and had no problems. After about a 12 hour cure. I made sure everything worked and did a leak test just to make sure everything was working fine. My return wasn't the right size so I decided to wait and not jury rig anything and promptly hooked my HOB filter back on and went to bed.
The next morning my GF text me that I had a dead fish this morning and that she had removed her. It was my very newly acquired dwarf angel. I did a parameter test and nothing was out of the ordinary. I chalked it up to her having been new and maybe all the hustle and bustle had just stressed her out too much. Yesterday I got some different plumbing and had the whole system running. Everybody was a happy camper. about 3 hours later I look over and my yellow tang is laying against a rock. Oh **** I thought. I get up to go check and see my goby floating.
It was getting late at night and I couldn't transplant anybody anywhere. I retested my water and my ammonia was still less at .25 ppm and everything else seemed fairly normal. Distraught I went to bed. The next morning my tang was dead along with my hawkfish. Only thing left were my 2 frostbite clowns. I took the sump out of the equation and did a massive water change and added a bag of carbon to the system. After doing my homework and realizing that my curing GE II silicone in the sump had charged the sumps water with ammonia and methanol. And had poisoned all my fish when I had turned the return pump back on. I could only hope that my two expensive clowns make it.
Well I wasn't so lucky and I only have 1 clown left.
Guys for the love of everything only use acid curing silicon and wait a few DAYS for everything to cure. Don't be like me. I guess the only good thing was that I didn't have any coral in the tank yet.
If anyone has any ideas on anything else I could do to keep my last clown alive please let me know.
For the past couple of months Ive been doing all the homework to DIY retrofit a sump onto my existing 55gal FOWLR tank. After receiving my plumbing, new pump and other assorted gizmos I went to work siliconing my glass baffles into my newly acquired 20L tank. I didn't put much research into specifically what kind of silicone I needed as long as It was 100% I did a quick google to make sure that GE 100% silicon II was OK and I saw someone say that they had built a ton of stuff using it and had no problems. After about a 12 hour cure. I made sure everything worked and did a leak test just to make sure everything was working fine. My return wasn't the right size so I decided to wait and not jury rig anything and promptly hooked my HOB filter back on and went to bed.
The next morning my GF text me that I had a dead fish this morning and that she had removed her. It was my very newly acquired dwarf angel. I did a parameter test and nothing was out of the ordinary. I chalked it up to her having been new and maybe all the hustle and bustle had just stressed her out too much. Yesterday I got some different plumbing and had the whole system running. Everybody was a happy camper. about 3 hours later I look over and my yellow tang is laying against a rock. Oh **** I thought. I get up to go check and see my goby floating.
It was getting late at night and I couldn't transplant anybody anywhere. I retested my water and my ammonia was still less at .25 ppm and everything else seemed fairly normal. Distraught I went to bed. The next morning my tang was dead along with my hawkfish. Only thing left were my 2 frostbite clowns. I took the sump out of the equation and did a massive water change and added a bag of carbon to the system. After doing my homework and realizing that my curing GE II silicone in the sump had charged the sumps water with ammonia and methanol. And had poisoned all my fish when I had turned the return pump back on. I could only hope that my two expensive clowns make it.
Well I wasn't so lucky and I only have 1 clown left.
Guys for the love of everything only use acid curing silicon and wait a few DAYS for everything to cure. Don't be like me. I guess the only good thing was that I didn't have any coral in the tank yet.
If anyone has any ideas on anything else I could do to keep my last clown alive please let me know.
