My 180 Up and Running!

[Thaumas]

Well we've had an eventful weekend with some strange happenings First off though the fun stuff. Kevin made it up this weekend with a "bunch" of live rock for my new tank. Wow, what a difference some live rock makes! He was extremely nice and put all the rock in for me too (see pics) Oh, I was totally suprised with a number of corals on rocks too, sweeeeeet! I'll post pics.

Now for the strange happenings.... Kevin came up early saturday afternoon and put rocks in tank. My sis stopped by later that day and helped me with some aquascaping. Shortly afterwards my daughter and wife started complaing of irritated throat. My wife actually says she noticed it earlier in day when Kevin was placing rocks. Anyways, that night my wife was extremely congested and her and my daughter coughed throughout night. I had difficulty breathing throughout the night as well. I spoke with Kevin Sunday to run this by him and he said he had experienced similar symptoms, iritation and congestion. When we talked the only thing we could think of that happened was some of the corals, a candy cane in particular, secreted alot of mucus. From what I've gathered that should't mean anything unless your physically touching the corals though. Today my family is somewhat feeling better, but this morning I had my aide help me move couple things in tank and empty skimmer and her throat and nose began burning as well.....I've ran this by locals in fish bus and none have experienced this before. My wife happened to be in Missoula today and stopped in at Dan's to ask him, but again he hadn't heard of this before. Just info for thought, tank smells fine, my water tests in parameters, and my 2 floating biofilters are only slightly discolored. Anyone have any ideas???

I'm going to try and do a water change just trying to figure out what % to do....

Sure glad y'all are out there to ask questions I'll keep adding pics too.

Argh, I keep trying to add pics and keep getting fatal error. Will try pics tomorrow.

[Thaumas]

[lostcreekreefer]

Wow! Keith - you all did a very nice initial re-organization of the rock there! That looks much better...helps to have an idea what all you have to work with.

My cough & sore throat lasted until Sunday evening, but much less than what it was on Saturday initially...Saturday night was bad for the cough. Monday was fine, I did a 30+ mile 'strenuous' bike ride that evening with friends, no cough & performed as expected, so the whole problem was very transient. Like I mentioned, Jennifer (Brandon's fiancee) did say that other folks coming over to her house after we removed that rock mentioned that it smelled really bad (I did not notice anything when I was there). I did notice a rather marked H2S (hydrogen sulfide) stink to the bottom 'sludge' in the container that my contribution to the rock pile was in when I cleaned it up. Don't know exactly what, and I don't think it is a problem, just bacteria doin' their thang!

Better living through Microbiology!
KevinD

[charlie]

Rockwork really looks nice Keith

I hate to be a jerk, but please tell me that the substrate isn't crushed coral??????? The reason I ask is that in the future, you are probably going to see it become a nutrient sink that even a big skimmer is not gonna be able to help. I have been there and done that with crushed coral, and after 8 months I was looking at a hair algae factory that I could not keep up with. Just asking, OK?

[Thaumas]

It is I do have an oversize skimmer though.... I went back and forth on substrate when planning and ended up with crushed because I wanted to have building material for a jawfish and I liked it's look. Besides skimmer is there anything else I can do to try and head off algae prob (specific fish)? Oh and your not being a jerk lol. I'd much rather hear ahead of time possible problems I might possibly circumvent ;)

Hey I haven't got anymore responses bout the prob I described in first post and just wanted to give update. My wife and I are still not feeling well since sat. night. Monday was bit better, but now it's Thurs. and my chest still kind of hurting and slight headache. My wife still has similar symptoms too. It just seems so wierd that this all started after putting rocks in the tank....I actually found quite a bit of info on hydrogen sulfide that Kevin mentioned and it describes are symptoms to the tee, but there is no smell. Found a good link as well Hydrogen Sulfide and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com but it didn't talk bout exposure effecting humans ...Kind of at a loss. I ended up not doing a water change though because tank is doing so well.

[charlie]

In my opinion, you could have gone with sand and added small pieces of rubble for the jawfish, If you asked about this in a previous thread, I am so sorry that I missed. IMO, the crushed has no real function except to trap detritus. before things get to far along Keith, do a little research on deep sand beds, you would be much better off with a 4" sand bed, at least you could build up the critters in the bottom on the sand bed to do the filtration for you. As I stated before, I have had nothing but trouble with a crushed coral bed, and before you get to far along with more critters, now would be the time to change. OH, and I don't care what Bob will tell you, and he will tell you I am full of sh**, but he will sell anything to anybody that is willing to pay his price. Call Kevin Pockell at Aquatic Dreams in Post Falls ID. or Dan down in Missoula, if you want real info.

As far as your problem with the headaches, I have no idea. Kevin called me Monday and asked the same questions. It almost sounds to me like you and your wife may have had an allergic reaction to something, what???????, I have no idea. I have been curled up in sickly ball from Zooanthids more than once in my life, but it never lasted more than 1 day.

[lostcreekreefer]

...wanted to give update. My wife and I are still not feeling well since sat. night. Monday was bit better, but now it's Thurs. and my chest still kind of hurting and slight headache. My wife still has similar symptoms too. It just seems so wierd that this all started after putting rocks in the tank....I actually found quite a bit of info on hydrogen sulfide that Kevin mentioned and it describes are symptoms to the tee, but there is no smell. Found a good link as well Hydrogen Sulfide and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com but it didn't talk bout exposure effecting humans ...Kind of at a loss. I ended up not doing a water change though because tank is doing so well.

All I can add to this is my symptoms lasted 2 days & I feel fine, activities & intensity back to normal. I read the article on H2S....maybe beneath the rock in my containers, maybe the same thing in Brandon's tank. I will say all of the crabs & snails left there after we removed the rock did just fine.
I dunno.

[Thaumas]

Yeah it's wierd. I don't know what's causing our chest issues, but the corals and cleaners are doing great. The yellow leathers look good too and from what I've read they can be one of the more difficult leathers to keep. Oh, and I don't recall whose corals I got but thank you very much It's nice having life in the tank lol. Hey Kevin the star polyps have started showing green too. Pretty cool!

[DevonM]

Any update pictures???