Help with wierd problem

[pistonfister]

The problem

Snails and corals will not live. snails last about 3 days at most and the corals die a fairly slow death. It takes the corals about a month sometimes but they just fade away. We are talking mushrooms, palythoa , kenya tree.

Paramiters

Salinity is at 1.023 , Nitrates and Nitrites undected, Ca 350 ppm,
alk 5.5 , Ph is in the 8.0-8.3 range, copper undeteced, and temp is around 80 degrees.

Inhabitants

Fish are doing great and have been in there for well over a year. 1 yellow tang, 2 pajama cardinals, 2 green cromis, 1 6 inch engineer gobie, about 20 hermit crabs, Some cheatoe in the refugium and a mangrove.

Other info

90 gallon tank, 2 vho actinics( 12 hours) and 2 250 mh halides ( 4 hours) Reverse daylight refugium, auto top off, 600 gph return pump and 1200 gph power head.

What I have done so far

In the last 2 months I have run carbon and phosban reactors, done 3 large water changes, and now asking for help.

I suspect some sort of metal or other posion. This tank used to sustain some gorgeous corals. Please help

 

[landlord]

You mentioned that copper was undetected. Have you ever had copper in that tank?

--landlord

 

[fishysteve]

You say your alk is 5.5. Is that meq/L or dkH? That is either too high or too low.

 

[rustybucket145]

I'd start dripping kalc to stabilize your dkH and calcium. They are both a little low and should be brought up. Kalc will be the best IMO to safely do this.

2nd. You don't mention having a skimmer.... Do you? Is it working?

3rd. Get a Poly Pad and put it in your sump. It will absorb any heavy metals or toxic chemicals that may be present in your tank. I run one about every 6mos to remove and contaminants that may be building up in the tank. You can get these at most pet stores, I order mine from marine depot.com

It must be this brand!! They're really the only one.

 

[pistonfister]

Alk is 5.5 meq/l

The reason I tested for copper is because when the auto top off was installed it was run with a copper line. It is to late to change because it is run through a now finished basement.

 

[rmw4547]

check your PO4 and see if that is the problem.

 

[fishysteve]

sorry double post

 

[fishysteve]

I am assuming you use RO or RODI water. That is quite a bit more corrosive than tap water. Having your ATO water going through copper pipes may not be the best idea. Plus, the water just sits in the pipes while not flowing, and slowly corrodes the inside of the pipes. I don't think this is a good situation.

 

[luke33]

I'd also bring the sg up to .025 or .026. Are you using a refractometer? Or a swing arm?

 

[greenbean36191]

Yep, I suspect that's your problem. Copper tests are for measuring therapeutic levels of copper, not toxic levels. Even levels in the low ppb range (2-3 ppb) are toxic to some inverts over the long term and very few tests go that low. The fact that snails go quickly, corals a bit slower, and hermits not at all also seems to support the idea that it's heavy metal poisoning since that's the progression you would expect.

Also, 1.023 is low. Bump it up to at least 1.025. At this point it's probably taking a back seat to the metal problem, but as you get that fixed it's going to hamper your ability to keep the snails long term.

 

[pistonfister]

Thank You for the advise. I am using a refractometer. I will raise the salinity, use one of those poly filters, and work on the Ca and Alk levels.
Some one asked about a skimmer. I am running a red sea on this tank. Its a POS but does bring out some waste. Also I am going to disconect the auto topp of and manually top off for a while to isolate that problem. Thanks all.

 

[rustybucket145]

Yeah, the poly pad will tell you within a week +/- if the copper is your problem. It will turn colors for certain metals... I think copper is either black or brown..... anyways, it's on the instructions. At this point I'd almost put money on the problem being your top off water being run through the copper pipe. It's probably coming out of there 'dirtier' than from your tap.

Best of luck getting everything straightened out. You may go through quite a few poly pads getting this back in line. You will know it's out when they quit changing colors.