Wednesday 25 April 2012

Disaster - Guppy Tank Overflowed!

When I check my system this morning, the water in the guppy tank had overflowed spilling water on the floor below. Several guppies were found on the floor and on the tilapia tank mesh covering. Luckily, most were still alive and I scooped them up with a dry leaf. Some dead ones were probably killed by ants.


Guppies on the floor... Still alive because the floor is wet...
Killed by ants...
Some were found inside the shade cloth...
The reason this happened is due to the modification of the outlet pipe that I made yesterday. I wanted the outlet to draw water from the bottom of the guppy tank to suck debris at the bottom. The outlet pipe also has a fine mesh that prevents tiny guppy fries from exiting the outlet...
The T-connecter is used to prevent a siphoning action from happening. It also allows easy insertion and removal of the green mesh for cleaning...
Problem happens when too much poop got stuck at the green mesh preventing water from exiting through the outlet fast enough causing an overflow...
Photo of fish poop stuck on the green mesh...
Luckily not much water and guppies was lost from this tragedy. I'll need to redesign a better filtered outlet pipe this time. I also did a water quality check:

Traffic light... Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate...
Ammonia: still green... 1.0
Nitrite: strangely, yellow color... < 0.5
Nitrate: photo is too dark... Its actually cherry red... > 50

Nitrite levels are lowering... This is sign of bacteria growth!

No comments:

Post a Comment