Carbon recall

[TampaSnooker]

Does anyone know if BRS carbon is included in the recall that Kent's carbon is undergoing? I'm having issues in my 180 that reek of metal poisoning - zoas not opening, SPS branches dying overnight, Favias, Echinos and Pectinia melting and it all seems to coincide with a switch to BRS's higher grade carbon.

One of my coral distributers says he heard BRS carbon may be included in the recall, but he wasn't sure.

Chem parameters are generally stable and acceptable - it's a 12 yo berlin style setup. PO4 did climb to .1 (hanna) after the brittle star ate some new anthias, but I changed GFO immediately and got levels back under .05 in a few days and 0.00 within a week. The issue started before that minor spike, so while that didn't help, it wasn't the cause.

Acans, Euphyllias and softies are all fine. Favias were the first to go.

Any thoughts on another cause? Stray voltage can cause the same symptoms but I typically can feel that in any of the cuts I always seem to have on my hands and I don't feel that tingling when I reach in the water.

 

[swanny]

Fwiw, I'm using one cup of brs carbon in my 120g with no ill effects. the carbon was bought recently.

 

[TampaSnooker]

edit: had time for a quick call to BRS and they claim no reported issues and a different source than Kent uses. I think I was fed some bad info from my other vendor...

I've seen similar reactions to metal toxicity when heaters fail, but winter never came to FL this year and I never plugged it in. Time to dig out the Koralia from the rockwork and take it apart?

 

[JSeymour]

Did you switch to BRS ROX Carbon? Rox carbon is very reactive. Many people when switching use half as much ROX as they would of another type of carbon. It's quite likely the new carbon over polished your water, increasing water clarity and removing too many organics at one time. Start feeding a bit more, reduce your photoperiod and cut the carbon amount in half. Things should clear up.

 

[Percula9]

If it is metal poisoning, then run a polyfilter to see if it changes color. You may have lowered the PO4 level to fast. Corals can react to PO4 being lowered to fast.

 

[TampaSnooker]

It was the ROX and I used as much as I used to use with their lignite. I hadn't thought of it but it is possible that I overpolished the water. The big difference I see here between this trouble and metal poisonings is that the snails aren't affected this time. I've seen heaters and pumps blow out and contaminate a system and it was the same species that were affected except those events killed all the snails.
However, my SPS recession was patchy and typically from the bottom up. With bleaching from overexposure, isn't it the tips that are first affected? The strangest one is an echinophyllia that developed a golf ball sized bubble from the central mouth that burst. All the affected corals have been in my care for at least a few years, except for a 6 mo mycedium.

 

[TampaSnooker]

Poly Filter added 2-3 weeks ago and is still fairly clean - and floating. Not copper.
Copper sinks those like a stone.

GFO is typically changed if levels reach .1 (hanna) and get down towards 0.00 in a couple days. Too fast? I test weekly unless I see variance that I want to follow.

 

[Allmost]

ROX is much stronger than other carbons out there.

wht you are seeing is a typical symptom of using too much carbon.

it removes organics too much shocking corals causing STN frm base up.

remove some of the carbon.