Live Rock Leaching killing sps?

[szl]

So my umpteenth try at keeping sps with no luck.

Brief background;

-Had a 30g kept sps no problem
-Upgraded to 180g kept sps for a couple of months then everything went to ****
-Tried EVERYTHING under the sun, never could figure it out stuff just keeps dying.

So I accidentally stumbled upon what I think may be the problem. One of my MP40s wet side had cracked open and the magnet was rusting into my tank. I removed it.

My zoas r growing, my tank is covered in pods and sponges, no coraline, even put LR with it in and it seems to die off.

Now that we have that out of the way.....

We know that Live Rock can absorb cupraine and phosphate, so I am wondering if it can absorb other things that would potentially be toxic (from the magnet) and leach it into the tank?

I just started to run carbon and poly filter and I will do a 40g water change today.

Do you think I should get rid of all my old live rock? (Its literally the ONLY thing I havent replaced on my tank so far) Or should I be safe just running carbon and polyfilter and wc/skimming?

Thanks everyone!

 

[NaturalReef]

Here is my take.....

I went through something similar with my sps on a slow decline over the last few months. Very slow stn on a couple Frags with color loss on most. I found out my frag rack had rusting magnets. Took it out, changed water on a weekly basis...ran chemipure blue and started adding microbactr and biodigest to build the bacteria load back up after it was probably decimated from the chemicals leeching from the magnets. I also started using brightwell Restor to feed the tank.

Changed tank lighting to a dominant blue spectrum which I have known from the past helps heal coral. 1 month later my tank has sprung back to life and growth and color have resumed. Hope that helps and speedy recovery...

 

[stevejrnc]

i definitely would not throw out your current live rock

 

[jda]

Your rock can absorb all of those things. They can also release the organic forms back into the water. However, the organic forms don't really do a lot of damage unless there is a LOT of them... and the skimmer will export them. Although you are right about al of this, there is next to no chance in the real world that the rock is your issue. If you are really worried about it, then get a polyfilter and change some water and you will be in the clear.

Not being able to grow coralline is warning sign. What are your parameters? High phosphates, unstable parameters can keep coralline from growing.

Do you know your current phosphate level? If your new tank was started with dry or dead rock, then it could be releasing phosphate to grow-limiting levels... this is pretty common.

If you posted a full sell of parameters, you will get more help.

 

[szl]

Hi guys thank you.

Sorry I didnt post my params, but I can assure you they have been rock solid for a long time. Ive tested multiple kits, multiple peoples houses and they always come back solid.

po4 .01-.03
no3 2-3
SG 1.026
DKH 7.7
Ca 425
Mg 1460


I have had many of the most successful reefers in my city come over and check it out and everyone has been stumped!!! My params are bang on yet SPS dies and I have kept SPS before, even in this current tank they were good for a while.

I tossed in some carbon and a polyfilter today. and will be doing a 40-50g wc.

Ill add a couple SPS testers in a couple of days and update!

 

[jda]

Once, I had a big-time issue with black sand releasing all kinds of hard metals and other nasty stuff. This was a separate tank from my main system and SPS would suffer in there and then be great again in the main tank if I moved them. Even this tank would grow coralline like crazy when acropora would suffer and die. The lack of coralline in your tank has me really stumped.

Is there any chance that you used some newer cheap Chinese pumps? This is probably just anecdotal and there are definitely not enough instances for concern, but another reefer noticed some white powder that ended up being some sort of aluminum that jacked with his system and would not allow SPS to grow.

Let us know if the polyfiter has any color changes.

 

[szl]

I do have black sand, however my old tank had black sand and grew sps no problem.

I originally started this tank with white sand and had issues with white sand, then swapped it out thinking black was better.

No china pumps. I will double check all my other pumps today, to make sure no screws are rusting or anything like that.

 

[szl]

I feel like its also worth mentioning, 2 other reefers I know (very successful sps tanks) had an issue with rust recently and they had the same issue as me, the coral looses color almost turns black then dies. Thats why I suspect rust has been my issues.

 

[jda]

I was not saying that black sand was your problem... just that I have problem with some growing acropora and even coralline would grow in that tank. Ironically, I had black sand before that was totally fine, but this batch was all kinds of magnetic and caused issues like crazy.

 

[jda]

Rust from iron/steel is no problem. It is just ferric oxide... which people use in their tanks all the time.

 

[szl]

I have read that too jda, but then I have also read tons of stories where peoples magnets rusting caused huge loss in SPS tanks.

 

[NaturalReef]

My understanding is that it isn't the rust that is the issue, but the other chemicals used to make the magnets that leeches and causes problems. After I took the rusted magnets out, did a water change and used chemipure everything has turned around for me.

 

[jda]

Rust is no issue. The corrosion of other metals in magnets certainly can be. However, lots of magnets in higher end stuff are ceramic and completely benign, but do attract GFO and other stuff and get a bad rap... so don't throw away a good magnet before you check. I freaked out once over a Tunze magnet being all corroded and it was a ceramic magnet with a bunch of GFO on it... I almost threw it away which would have been 60 bucks to replace.

If you have a bad magnet, then get it out. I would also get out any cheap magnets like those on thermometers and any TLF products since these are time bombs for most folks.

 

[szl]

The product rusting for me was an Ecotech MP40, from what I can find Ecotech does not use ceramic magnets (Correct me if Im wrong.)