Sump question

[dwillis]

So, I thought I was doing a good thing for my saltwater tank by adding a sump/refugium. I am trying to establish an invertebrate tank in my classroom. I have had a 29 gallon tank set up for nearly a year now. It was going okay, then I left it for the summer and when I came back to school got it going again. It was going okay with just some hermits and snails and lots of amphipods, chaeto, caulerpa and a few aiptaisia. The purple calciferous algae was looking bright and seemed to be increasing. I added some live rock that included some green star polyps.

I spent quite a bit of time building a sump in a 20 gallon long aquarium - divided it into three sections including a baffle, skimmer, refugium section (about 9 gallons in size). Got the water ready let it circulate without hooking it up to the main tank for several days. Just before I came on-line I pulled the caulerpa out of the main tank and put the chaeto into the refugium. Since I started pumping the water through the sump two of the snails have died, I can't see any of the amphipods anymore and even the anemones have closed up. The purple alage has blanched to nearly white and the polyps have completely disappeared.

I have tested the pH and other water parameters and nothing seems to have changed. I test for Nitrate, Nitrite, Alkalinity and Ammonia. Should I be testing for something else? I use only RODI water to replace evaporated water and to mix my saltwater. I have been adding Reef Calcium as prescribed by the manufacturer. Any ideas?

 

[Reefer Wannabe]

I don't know how often you test alkalinity, but if you're not testing for calcium--you could be throwing alkalinity out of wack by getting calcium to high???

The only other thing I can think of is that the water you had circulating was way different in pH, temp, or salinity--so when you pumped it in it was too big a change in your parameters.

 

[breutus]

could the new water been tainted or could the sump have been tainted was there ever copper medication used in it? is there some type of rust or other substance that a reef tank can't handle in the sump that when integrated did the damage to the main tank?

I bought a 30 g tank from someone years back that they had been using for a freshwater med tank. Having used copper meds in it many times when I hoked it up to my old 40 I had it nearly wiped everything out in the tank.

 

[scbadiver]

Hmmm, what did you put the baffles in with?

 

[dwillis]

unknown toxins?

unknown toxins?

I used aquarium silicon to install the baffles. The tank has been in service as a freshwater tank for some time but I never use any copper based medications. Though I'm inclined to believe that some toxin has been introduced somewhere. I'm wondering about the gravel but it's dolomite for saltwater aquariums. Still checking. Thanks for the ideas, though.