Need advice: Temporarily "abandoning" a simple nano tank in NYC.

[Perpetual Novice]

I always seem to post on behalf of my friend in NYC who is a passionate and extreemly enthusiastic novice in the hobby. His job has insane (I suspect technically illegal) hours and leaves him almost no free time. but what time he has is hevily donated to his 4 month old fluval sea evo 13.5 setup. I'm no expert but I am trying my best to be his lifeline and do the research for him that he doesnt have the time to do himself. And this time Im at a loss.

Amidst the pamic of the coronavirus he has left his apartment and was sent to work remotely from a different state leaving his tank behind with only a days notice. He called me in a panic to ask what to do and I just dont know. he did a water change, topped off the water as much as possible, dumped in seveal days worth of food, and left.

The setup:
bengai cardinal
royal gramma
serpent star
hermits
snails
unidentifid xenia/clove polyps?
zoas
disco mushrooms
significant live rock
deep sand bed
maintains nitrates at 20-40
feeds flake food and was unsuccessfully trying to transition to pellets

The question is what should he do now? How long can the fish survive without food? If both fish die would it be enough bioload to spike ammonia to where it kills the inverts and coral and crashes the tank?

He is struggling to find or hire someone to care for the tank and doesnt think hell be back for possibly over a month. Any advice? I live 3 hours away and cant lend him a hand.

 

[albano]

Not sure which is worse... dumping in too much food or not having automatic top off for a month!
I’d suggest calling Manhattan Aquariums to see if they can service the tank, but the cost will probably be ridiculous for a small tank. On the other hand the ‘smell of death’ from a dead tank may make ‘officials’ decide to break into the apt. to see who died!

I also know a service guy in Brooklyn, but I’m not sure that he’d go into Manhattan, at this time.

 

[ScottB]

Life Aquatic in New Canaan services tanks in NYC. Greenwich Aquaria too.
None of them are going to be cheap though.

Disclosure: I am the part time coral guy for Life Aquatic.

 

[brandon429]

You should separate the fish from the tank immediately and hold them elsewhere, change out all the water in the tank for new if possible and drop light intensity by fifty percent till he returns. Top off if possible while he’s gone using distilled water if possible and the system will live, if you try and maintain it all together then one fish loss when nobody is there, a certain, wipes the whole system.


Separate all fish from the tank, that way one group has a chance of living, if you can tell Im prioritizing the reef over the fish. Ride it together, lose both, soon. House fish any way you see fit, a bucket with prime and water changes, deal with them how you will. Keeping them with corals during stress will crash the system, if a tank is left alone on max crash prevention you must undo his mass feed and separate the fish, see how fish inclusion already caused a risk to the whole system?

 

[ShawnSaucier]

Honestly, the tank should go to someone’s place. If you could make the drive, go pick it up and bring it home, he can drive to come pick it back up. A small tank like that doesn’t have much room for error.
Not to put the pressure on you, but obviously you are a hobbyist if you are on here. A service is going to cost an arm/leg and what happens if there is an issue between service schedules. Or if there is another trustworthy friend closer..

 

[Devaji]

my 2 cents...

I would reach out and find other hobbyist in the area. a see if anyone is willing to take the tank or at least the fish. maybe someone has an extra ATO they can let it use for a while.

at the very lest maybe take the fish to a LFS. that way the corals have a chance but if there is no ATO then they to will die.

another option is have him call ppl that live on the building and see if anyone is willing to take care of the tank once a day. even offer a small payment. ( i know its NYC and ppl dont care about each other ) but someone might just be board and willing to do it.

best of luck!

 

[BantyRooster97]

I don't know about the mushrooms but most of the stuff besides the fish will survive with just an ATO, and unless he has some high dollar zoas, he's not going to lose much. I'd say give the fish to someone willing to trade you an ATO. Or at the least just give the fish away.

 

[brandon429]

For sure. Without a cascade event caused by fish, he can Saran Wrap a reef cover that reduces evap.

a few bottles of dasani will hold him over, max evap down 1/2 inch from a marked reference point, top back up with freshwater.


no future water change required *other than export of the fish feed. The tank can sit under the custom lid, under half power lighting in clean water for months just barely topped off. He will come home to an algae problem that looks like 75% of the normal running reefs in the current nuisance algae forum, and we will turn it back around.

 

[albano]

I know its NYC and ppl dont care about each other

That’s not really true...

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Not sure which is worse... dumping in too much food or not having automatic top off for a month!
I’d suggest calling Manhattan Aquariums to see if they can service the tank, but the cost will probably be ridiculous for a small tank. On the other hand the ‘smell of death’ from a dead tank may make ‘officials’ decide to break into the apt. to see who died!

I also know a service guy in Brooklyn, but I’m not sure that he’d go into Manhattan, at this time.

Life Aquatic in New Canaan services tanks in NYC. Greenwich Aquaria too.
None of them are going to be cheap though.

Disclosure: I am the part time coral guy for Life Aquatic.

You should separate the fish from the tank immediately and hold them elsewhere, change out all the water in the tank for new if possible and drop light intensity by fifty percent till he returns. Top off if possible while he’s gone using distilled water if possible and the system will live, if you try and maintain it all together then one fish loss when nobody is there, a certain, wipes the whole system.


Separate all fish from the tank, that way one group has a chance of living, if you can tell Im prioritizing the reef over the fish. Ride it together, lose both, soon. House fish any way you see fit, a bucket with prime and water changes, deal with them how you will. Keeping them with corals during stress will crash the system, if a tank is left alone on max crash prevention you must undo his mass feed and separate the fish, see how fish inclusion already caused a risk to the whole system?

Honestly, the tank should go to someone’s place. If you could make the drive, go pick it up and bring it home, he can drive to come pick it back up. A small tank like that doesn’t have much room for error.
Not to put the pressure on you, but obviously you are a hobbyist if you are on here. A service is going to cost an arm/leg and what happens if there is an issue between service schedules. Or if there is another trustworthy friend closer..

my 2 cents...

I would reach out and find other hobbyist in the area. a see if anyone is willing to take the tank or at least the fish. maybe someone has an extra ATO they can let it use for a while.

at the very lest maybe take the fish to a LFS. that way the corals have a chance but if there is no ATO then they to will die.

another option is have him call ppl that live on the building and see if anyone is willing to take care of the tank once a day. even offer a small payment. ( i know its NYC and ppl dont care about each other ) but someone might just be board and willing to do it.

best of luck!

I don't know about the mushrooms but most of the stuff besides the fish will survive with just an ATO, and unless he has some high dollar zoas, he's not going to lose much. I'd say give the fish to someone willing to trade you an ATO. Or at the least just give the fish away.

For sure. Without a cascade event caused by fish, he can Saran Wrap a reef cover that reduces evap.

a few bottles of dasani will hold him over, max evap down 1/2 inch from a marked reference point, top back up with freshwater.


no future water change required *other than export of the fish feed. The tank can sit under the custom lid, under half power lighting in clean water for months just barely topped off. He will come home to an algae problem that looks like 75% of the normal running reefs in the current nuisance algae forum, and we will turn it back around.

An update plus more details:

he reached out to nearby stores and they said they arent offerince services at the moment due to the virus. they also (and this shocked me) told him that the fish could probaby surive by scavenging for 3 weeks at least.

I have been on his case this whole time about really committing to minimal feeding and he has sent pictures and facetimed me to clarify exactly how little to feed. So when I say he put 3 days food I mean he put in what you woud expect a novice hobbyist to feed in one day. So im inclined to not be concerned about an immediate ammonia spike.

to be clear about topping off the water he did more than just fill the tank as much as it would hold. he also turned off the skimmer to reduce evaporation. and he adjusted his salinity so that it was as low as was safe to make it to offset the rising salinity from unattended evaporation.

the seran wrap idea for water loss seems genius but I would be concerned about the water getting enough oxygen. He has a lot of algae in the tank (new tank syndrome i tell him) and, while ugly, I expect it to fourish if he keeps the lights on their regular cycle. would that supply enough oxygen? is seran wrap oxygen permiable?

I think algae growth would be enough by itself to mitigate the bioload of even the two tiny dead fish in terms of nitrate. He has a pretty good head start so there is enough hair algae ready to buffer a sudden high nitrate spike. I just dont know how fast the bacteria can process ammonia to dampen the impending spike to non-lethal intensity.

one other thought is that, assuming both fish perish, there is no reason to expect they will die in unison. in other words, one fish could die and start an ammonia spike, bacteria population proliferates accordingly and gets to work. so in theory, by the time the second fish expires and starts adding ammonia the bioload capacity of the tank will be supercharged by the bacteria bloom from the pevios fish.

and at the end of the day, if we cant find someone to help maintain the tank, we can probably find someone to flush the fish (or ive heard freezing them is painles and more humane). cruel as it would be, would that guaruntee the safety of the tank for the next month?

 

[sde1500]

I know you said you can't help. But probably the easiest thing to do is take a night to go get it. I assume you can access the building, just drive out, its a small tank so easily can move it in a couple buckets, transport it to your place to maintain.

 

[miyags]

Some people should not have living things,they cant take care of.He should of just gave every thing away before he left. Better than leaving this to die a slow death.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

There is a reef club that can help. Someone needs to go get the tank and take care of it. Tossing out the idea that someone can just go there and flush/freeze the fish is ridiculous. Your friend made a commitment to take care of those fish and needs to stick to it.

 

[Back where it all began]

That’s not really true...

But they are not practicing social distancing. I know, I live there.

 

[Wtyson254]

I live in NYC, PM me I might be able to help

 

[samnaz]

But they are not practicing social distancing. I know, I live there.

Again not a fair statement. Some people DO care and are taking proper precautions. Find those people.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Again not a fair statement. Some people DO care and are taking proper precautions. Find those people.

yeah. But they all left. Like my friend. Ahaha

half joking

 

[Back where it all began]

Again not a fair statement. Some people DO care and are taking proper precautions. Find those people.

Those people are not the problem, it’s the ones who are not practicing safe behavior.

 

[Katrina71]

@NY_Caveman any input here?

 

[NY_Caveman]

Where is he in the city? I could certainly top off the tank, but my apartment is too small to take the whole thing. An ATO would be useful, but the reservoir would still have to be refilled.