Disaster?? - Tank Black out

[Mikey]

Well, there I was thinking that I was lucky:

Scuttle came with no ink in the bag, didn't ink during acclimation, or overnight first night, or in the morning when lights switched on.

But last night (night 2) i came downstairs at 11 o'clock and the tank was black - I mean you could see in about 2 inches and that was it!!

I have no idea what caused this, as no one was even in the room. Tank lights were out, but room lights on.

I whippe dhim out just in case there was enough in there to suffocate him, popped him into a bucket of clean make up water and whacked the skimme ron full (wet foam) added more fresh caron.

After 8 hours the tank only looks half clean now - has anyone an idea of how long it takes to clear a fully inked tank? Also, any tips on getting ink out?

I'm visitng an LFS today to see about a cannister filter i can hook up when needed with TONS of carbon.

Thanks for any rerplies.

 

[Colin]

Hi Mikey,

This is a common problem but you were very lucky you didnt make it worse by taking the cuttle out, that will add more stress and although the tank was very inky it still has a LOT more in him.

Your skimmer should be on 24 hours a day on a cuttle tank fo the very reason that it will ink. When you switch it off it takes a wee bit of time to get started again... its also one reason why i ended up with a four foot tall skimmer. It may take more than a day to remove the ink but it will get there.

I hava had situations where you coulnt see into the tank at all, and never had a thing die, that was with soft corals, tube worms and a sea apple amongst other things, just make sure you have good water movement and aeriation.

Hope you and the cuttle arnt stressed too much

 

[Mikey]

He aint looking great to be honest.

Nearly not body movement at all, very slow breathing and his feeding tentacles hanging down.

I've just put a canister filter on the tank full of carbon, so hopefully that will clear it up even more (it's about 80% clear now).

I'm very sad at the mo, because he looks very ill. I just hope he pulls round.

 

[Colin]

sorry to hear this mikey... any updates?

was the water in the bucket brand new freshly made up?

good luck

 

[joel_ang]

I don't like the sound of this...

The inking is pretty normal, for me anyways. It seems they ink every few days the first time they come ,they seem to be afraid of everything initially.

 

[Mikey]

He's gone unfortunately.

I'm so gutted, and totally disallusioned. I made a choice to get him out of the tank as i didn't know how long the ink had been in there (couldn't see one inch into the tank) and I didn't want him to suffocate. Seems it was the wrong one.

I feel terrible. I wont be trying a cuttle again soon. Need to have a long think.

 

[Andy Lister]

Hey man, sorry i didn't answer your text message, i've been away!

Sorry to hear about Scuttle, these things happen to us all and i'm pretty sure that everyone here has reacted quickly to something like this and the only way to learn is through experience!

Don't get downhearted mate... you'll know for next time and i'm sure that it won't happen again!

Good luck and keep on going with it...

~Andy

 

[Nancy]

Sorry about your loss.

Nancy

 

[Mikey]

Cheers you guys.

 

[Colin]

Dont let it put you off... I think you should try again but get a tiny wee hatchling...

 

[corw314]

So sorry to hear.....Keep trying!!! I had many failures when I first had cephs.

Carol