Help please!! Nedded asap

[Jay O Matic]

Hello:

Well the thread name says it. I woke this am to see all my LPS corals with the spaghetti looking stuff on them and my sps corals slimming and bleaching. Yesterday we did to things that may potentially cause the problems. We painted the rooms around the tank. Ant I dropped a plastic clip into the sump. The plastic clip has a metal spring on it and it had rusted overnight. My question is what do I do. Heres what I did so far.
Checked my water...its Cal and ALK and PH are ok. Quick dip strips say there is no nitrates/nitrites. I filled my Phosphate reactor with fresh carbon about 3 cups and opened that pump to high. I added 4 drops of lugols iodine. What else can I do? I think I will go to the lfs and get a 55 gallon barrel of water and do a 55 gallon water change (120 gallon tank). All my inverst and fish are ok. Oh yea 1 clownfish dissapeared yesterday but I dont think this would cause all this. About noon my skimmer started going nutts yesterday and overflowed.

What should I do? Has anyone else had this problem after painting? Or was it the small clip that fell into my sump? Whats been your experiance about things recovering from this? What else can I do? I have about 30 corals in this tank and dont want to loose them

Thanks
Jay

 

[papagimp]

If the small clip fell in and rusted while in the tank, I could see that causing issues. But if you took it out right away, then very doubtful.

Not sure about the paint though. Never been there myself.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Ive painted my living room before, with 2 tanks in there, and experienced no problems. Anything with rust cannot be good though. Did you leave the clip in there? I suggest doing a large water change asap.

 

[Aquarist007]

Did you check the ammonia level--in the short run this could have spiked--not necessarily the nitrates.
What is the temp---could it have possible risen over 86 degress?

In Canada , you can purchase paints that will get rid of odours--cat urine smells etc when used----they contain ammonia for this reason.
But if this was the case I would think your ammonia levels would be high.

All said and done it might be coincidental with the painting--could be "old tank syndrome"

http://www.bestfish.com/oldtank.html

 

[Jay O Matic]

The clip fell in and was left in overnight. We painted the celing day befor yesterday then with darker paint did the livingroom and dinning room yesterday. About noon the skimmer went nutts and foamed all over the place. I also built a shelf for my Calcium reactor and moved it and the c02 tank onto it under the stand but I have the gas off because I was running out of reagent for my alk test kit ( only had enough for 2 tests left) I think I knocked the clip in the tank before the skimmer started going nutts but you wouldnt think a little metal clip would cause this so quick. It took overnight to start to rust. Hard to say what caused it but I will do the 55 gallon water change today and see if I can get some pollyfilters or purigen to see if this fixes it. Shoot I am planning a trip next week out of town too.

Jay

 

[Avi]

Well, I don't think that anything you've included in the description would have caused this kind of breakdown in a 120-gallon tank with a sump. Is it possible that something else of a chemical nature actually got into the tank or the sump and you overlooked it?

 

[Grins]

I have read that great care needs to be taken when painting near a tank, carpet cleaning, or spraying pesticides because the water absorbs the chemicals. Recommendations I've seen include covering the tank with a blanket and turning off mechanical filtration.

 

[UnderCoverDork]

Paint fumes are awful for your tank. Next time use plastic to cover up any exposed areas. serch the internet for more information on the specifics

good luck

 

[Avi]

Well, fumes getting into a tank, IMO, wouldn't so invade the water column as to cause the skimmer to run like it did to the point of overflowing, as Jay says it did. There must be some other chemical or biological source that was so invasive that the skimmer reacted that way. I don't believe a rusting situation would have caused it either, so I'd look for some other source.

 

[sammyfish]

I don't think the rusting overnight would effect things the way you describe. I've left one of those magnet scrappers in the water for a week or longer without noticing the rust and had no ill effects. But that's just my experience.

 

[rbursek]

With my skimmer and my buddies, we notice fumes cause them to stop skiimming for a period of time. I added iodine to my tank for the first time this week and my skimmer went nuts for a day just wet foam and clean.
Bob

 

[sabbath]

I would put in fresh Carbon and a Poly Marine filter. To try to remove any metals that might have got in to the water.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10278431#post10278431 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Avi
Well, fumes getting into a tank, IMO, wouldn't so invade the water column as to cause the skimmer to run like it did to the point of overflowing, as Jay says it did. There must be some other chemical or biological source that was so invasive that the skimmer reacted that way. I don't believe a rusting situation would have caused it either, so I'd look for some other source.

I agree--take a roll call---someone died behind a reef rock etc?--cause an increase in DOC's---skimmer goes into action