I have a problem...with new cyano

[Damsel13]

I went on vacation and my pet sitter is great with dogs and cats but not so good with fishes. She said the automatic fish feeder dropped into the tank...::sigh::. It couldn't have been there long but I was wondering about metal in the tank and what I should do?

Also everybody survived however my hammerhead looks bad, bleached. I am wondering if there is anything besides waterchanges that will help.

Also, I have been using plastic coke bottles to keep my temp. down to 80F but I hear frozen plastic is NOT GOOD.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,

 

[Herefishyfishy]

If the pollution is what caused the hammer to bleach, clean water should fix it up. The less other changes the better. If the metal corroded, run carbon and water changes.

Where did you hear that frozen plastic was toxic? Outside of bursting from ice expansion, can't think of any problems there.

 

[Damsel13]

My Mom told me that frozen plastic was not good. Unfortunalty I do not know her source. The article she read was about water frozen in plastic for human consumption.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Hi Deb, I did a google search and got nothing. Seems unlikely that the type of plastic on soda bottles could leach anything, and freezing slows down chemical and most physical reactions in lieu of speeding them up. Should be safe.

 

[mmkeeper]

Is the automatic feeder electric?

 

[Damsel13]

the auto feeder ran on 2 AA batteries :|. I think my sitter just knocked it off and fished it right out.

 

[mmkeeper]

Your hammer might have been shocked a little. Just a thought.

 

[krisfal]

My auto feeder fell into my softy tank and kept running, a couple of months ago. I do not know how long it was in there maybe 15 - 30mins. Some of the corals retracted and slimed up. I wanted to run some carbon but did not have any and LFS was closed. Planned to get some carbon the next day. By the next morning everything was looking normal and there have been no long term effects.

I even got a replacement feeder as I had only had it a few days. The velcro that came with the unit delaminated (remained stuck to feeder, to the bracket I stuck it to and to itself) so I returned the feeder to Dr fosters and they replaced it

 

[bbehring]

simple water change and you should be good to go. Would recommend that next trip to eliminate the autofeeder from the equation and go with manual method. I use a plastic weekly pill box that has 7 small sections and put a very small amount of food in each box ( I use a homemade frozen concoction but anything would work including pellets and flake). I cut the amount in 1/2 from what I normally feed and leave specific instructions for my sitter to feed 1x per day. I have her dump the single unit frozen concautction into a small plastic cup in ro water and then stir 5 minutes later then pour 1/2 in, wait 5 minutes then pour the rest in. I just got back from a 2 week vacation and the tank looks fab. The key is keeping is simple and leaving detailied instructions. Other than having to empty my skimmer cup every other day and fill my auto top off container, she doesn't touch the tank. I also leave a good reef friend of mines phone number in case of emergency.

 

[krisfal]

I also leave a good reef friend of mines phone number in case of emergency.

Great plan. I also do this.

Thanks Augustus for being my emergency back-up. And BTW did I tell you you are on call this week. However I was able to talk them through the "skimmer is not working" problem. So I think all is well!

bbehring, the pill box is a fantastic idea; however, I use the automatic feeder to feed during the day when I am unable to be there, not only as a vacation feeder. After my feeder dropped into the tank I used some zip ties to better secure the unit. It is now a PITA to change the battery but zip ties are cheap and I prefer not to risk it falling in again.