distallassazn
New member
im also having the same issue right now. Don't know what to do. All my temps and parameters are in check......
SPS corals going down hill (lots of pics)
- Thread starter kau_cinta_ku
- Start date
kau_cinta_ku
New member
I searched high and low and din't see anything so far. but did add some poly filter so will have to see if that changes color.
I didn't think it would be a bug prob. like you said most of the corals I have are from you, and I have treated them and any other corals I got the same why you tought me.
my bulbs are 5 monthes old
kau_cinta_ku
New member
Tank is about 2 years old
what is it about my before pic.s that make the corals not look healthy?
I am gonna trim off all the dead bleached parts this weekend.
kau_cinta_ku
New member
as for the stray voltage, I am guessing the grounding probe doesn't work with the voltage in the tank and only alows me from getting shocked?
but I am gonna pick up a volt meter tommrow and test my water with it.
but I am gonna pick up a volt meter tommrow and test my water with it.
kau_cinta_ku
New member
not sure yet. is there one that is better for this purpose. or any recomendations?
kau_cinta_ku
New member
this is the one I am prob gonna get though as we have them in stock around here.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=SP-10A&cpc=SUGG
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=SP-10A&cpc=SUGG
melev
Well-known member
No, you need a digital volt meter to do this. You can buy a cheap one at Harbor Freight.
Things to check, which you've already began to do:
Salinity - same thing happened to me, except my tank was 1.021sg / make sure you are calibrating it to 35ppt, and not to 0 using distilled or RO water.
Stray electricity - I found it was quite high, and am in the process of replacing quite a few small pumps with one external pump pushing into a manifold.
Iodine - tested my tank and it was .06 when it should be .03 with the kit I used. I'm dosing 7 drops a week (1 per 50g).
Potassium - bought kit but haven't tested yet.
Lighting - cracked bulbs, dirty reflectors, weak ballasts. I just did a big upgrade on my lighting.
Temperature stability - try to keep that one under observation
Possible pests - seen anything that could be doing damage? Dipping would be best for those infected corals.
Water parameters - double check all your readings, even having someone else like Grant test with your kits or his own. Better to compare those numbers than to assume they are correct. Kits can go bad as they age.
Alleopathy - leathers attacking SPS corals, anemones releasing toxins in the water, mushrooms stinging neighbors...
It looks like you are getting plenty of help in this thread, and I hope you find the cause.
Things to check, which you've already began to do:
Salinity - same thing happened to me, except my tank was 1.021sg / make sure you are calibrating it to 35ppt, and not to 0 using distilled or RO water.
Stray electricity - I found it was quite high, and am in the process of replacing quite a few small pumps with one external pump pushing into a manifold.
Iodine - tested my tank and it was .06 when it should be .03 with the kit I used. I'm dosing 7 drops a week (1 per 50g).
Potassium - bought kit but haven't tested yet.
Lighting - cracked bulbs, dirty reflectors, weak ballasts. I just did a big upgrade on my lighting.
Temperature stability - try to keep that one under observation
Possible pests - seen anything that could be doing damage? Dipping would be best for those infected corals.
Water parameters - double check all your readings, even having someone else like Grant test with your kits or his own. Better to compare those numbers than to assume they are correct. Kits can go bad as they age.
Alleopathy - leathers attacking SPS corals, anemones releasing toxins in the water, mushrooms stinging neighbors...
It looks like you are getting plenty of help in this thread, and I hope you find the cause.
kau_cinta_ku
New member
thanks Marc, I am starting to do those things also. however, since I don't add Iodine, or potassium would you still recommend me to get tests and test for them?
I also ended up getting a digital volt meter today
I set it up to the second mark to the right, grounded the black wire, and put the red wire in the tank. and got a reading of 14.7
now with everything unplugged I still get a reading of 3.0?
what gives?
I also ended up getting a digital volt meter today
I set it up to the second mark to the right, grounded the black wire, and put the red wire in the tank. and got a reading of 14.7
now with everything unplugged I still get a reading of 3.0?
what gives?
melev
Well-known member
Was the ground probe disconnected and even removed from the tank?
I had the same situation with a residual 2.3v for some reason with everything else extracted.
Getting it down to 3v would be a good plan. I read about how some power can be measured in the water even with no direct contact. I didn't quite believe it, but it was like via osmosis some power would be transmitted into the water from the energy passing through the lightbulbs above.
I had the same situation with a residual 2.3v for some reason with everything else extracted.
Getting it down to 3v would be a good plan. I read about how some power can be measured in the water even with no direct contact. I didn't quite believe it, but it was like via osmosis some power would be transmitted into the water from the energy passing through the lightbulbs above.
kau_cinta_ku
New member
OK, here is the deal, whoever rewired this house when they went from fuses to breakers did a very poor job.
I had a friend come over today who is an electrician, and we went through a lot of things to find out only a couple of my outlets in this house are grounded. and because I never had a volt meter before, and the outlets were 3 pronged I didn't think anything of it. so the grounding prob was plugged in but wasn't doing a dang thing because the outlet wasn't even grounded.
so it was the outlet that was putting volts into the water, as we took my return pump, plugged it straight into the outlet and it read 13 volts. then we plugged the same return pump into the grounded outlet and got a reading of .1.
after doing a little wiring and such, just to get the tank back running with it plugged into a actual grounded outlet. we get .1 -.7 volts with the meter now. I am guessing that is ok to have?
So tomorrow he is going to stop back over after work and we are going to run a dedicated circuit to the tank so that it will be grounded.
the weird part about all this is, how come my leather and LPS corals seemed fine with the 14 volts? and why didn't I get shocked when I put my hand in the water?
well hopefully that was the problem and we will get it fixed correctly.
now as for the corals, some of the acro's and millie's will have to be fragged but how about the caps, they are not really bleached but a grayish color, will it recover or will they still need to be fragged?
I am also guessing this is the reason why my corals didn't seem to grow very fast.
once again I am thanking all of you for the help so far, this has been killing me for a while and it almost got to the point where I wanted to stop the hobby. but besides my wife, aquariums are my life.
I had a friend come over today who is an electrician, and we went through a lot of things to find out only a couple of my outlets in this house are grounded. and because I never had a volt meter before, and the outlets were 3 pronged I didn't think anything of it. so the grounding prob was plugged in but wasn't doing a dang thing because the outlet wasn't even grounded.
so it was the outlet that was putting volts into the water, as we took my return pump, plugged it straight into the outlet and it read 13 volts. then we plugged the same return pump into the grounded outlet and got a reading of .1.
after doing a little wiring and such, just to get the tank back running with it plugged into a actual grounded outlet. we get .1 -.7 volts with the meter now. I am guessing that is ok to have?
So tomorrow he is going to stop back over after work and we are going to run a dedicated circuit to the tank so that it will be grounded.
the weird part about all this is, how come my leather and LPS corals seemed fine with the 14 volts? and why didn't I get shocked when I put my hand in the water?
well hopefully that was the problem and we will get it fixed correctly.
now as for the corals, some of the acro's and millie's will have to be fragged but how about the caps, they are not really bleached but a grayish color, will it recover or will they still need to be fragged?
I am also guessing this is the reason why my corals didn't seem to grow very fast.
once again I am thanking all of you for the help so far, this has been killing me for a while and it almost got to the point where I wanted to stop the hobby. but besides my wife, aquariums are my life.
kau_cinta_ku
New member
Grant trust me, you would deff. be the first person I would talk to about taking the leather. but you would have to promise that you wouldn't frag it lol. as you know he is my baby :lol:
MammothReefer
Active member
I only got shocked when my hand was in the water, and I was pulling it out and my elbow touched my pendant while my arm was still in the water... (creating a circuit), the worst time is my whole arm was wet...once (not just my hand).. and WOW almost tossed me from the chair i was standing on... I have a feeling I have the same problem as you bad grounds, in the unit I'm renting.. I've been meaning to crawl underneath and double ground the prob by screwing it into the metal casing around the socket..but since I Removed the offending heater, and replaced all "suspicious", pumps things have been good...but I had the same issue, where some stuff was effected, other stuff wasn't... Montis were a tell tell, sign for me.
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kau_cinta_ku
New member
well I'm glad your shock didn't do a lot worse to you, glad your safe. I am just glad I didn't get any huge shock now that I know I could have gotten a decent size one. there was one time when testing the water the volt meter got up to 57 volts, ouch.
I am also renting and after talking to my friend about the wiring he said if I was buying this house rather than renting, I would be better off running all new electrical through the house.
and well since I am only renting this house my friend is just going to rewire a new 20 amp circuit just for my fish tank, so at least that will be much more safe.
I am also renting and after talking to my friend about the wiring he said if I was buying this house rather than renting, I would be better off running all new electrical through the house.
and well since I am only renting this house my friend is just going to rewire a new 20 amp circuit just for my fish tank, so at least that will be much more safe.
