Tank Dying

[armywife022]

I don't even want to type this, but I have little choice as of right now. My tank started dying a few weeks ago. My husband and I set up a sump system on our own and connected our 15 gal. Mantis tank to our 46 gal. main tank via a 29 gal. sump. The problem, he set up the main portion of this while I was not home and he didn't let it the pipes that he glued air out for 24 hours. Anyway, sump was set up and running for a while before I realized. After a few days my turbo snails and mushrooms started to die off. All of my polyps have died (or at least they are closed, haven't fallen off yet). I did multiple water changes in order to try to save everything. It has now been about two weeks and all of my snails are dead, I found a little white crab that I didn't know was even in my tank dead, my coral is dead, and my fish aren't looking so good. I have a clown who is not eating as much as usual and a goby that doesn't seem to be eating at all (but they swim/breathe normal).

Another note, the ph was pretty low (7.6) and I didn't know why. Did yet another water change and got it back up and have been using reef buffer since. We added activated carbon to canister filter and sump filtration in order to filter out toxins (we hope). Besides the ph, there have been no problems at all. I have had a little more algae than I like, but nothing too serious. No phosphates, nitrates, nitrites, ammonia or anything. All the levels are within range.

Could this be the PH, the pipe glue? If it is a poison, what do I do? Do I need to replace my 4.5" of sand and 50lbs of live rock (please no)? Do I need to start from scratch if my fish die? I don't know what to do.

Thanks guys 8*(

 

[preef]

Sorry to hear about the glue incident. It sounds like you are doing all of the right things. I'd also add a couple of Poly Filters to help remove the toxins. Keep up with the massive water changes. Good luck.

 

[ginger7286]

Hmmm, don't know about the glue thing. I have fixed several areas of my piping under my tank, and started it again right away with no problems. Anything else, metal anywhere that could be leaking? What is your salinity? Are you checking your params before adding the RB? Also how long have you been using the carbon? Remember carbon does not differentiate between good and bad it just absorbs everything. If you have had it in there for a while I'd remove it. How about an airstone or what is your oxygen content in the water? How about water temp? Good luck hope everything works out.

 

[LaOtIn]

when i had to replumb my sump 2-3 weeks back i glued the parts together and turned it all on right away. the glue maybe dried 5 mins, but the last elbow prolly didnt dry for more than a min. i never had a problem with anything being unhappy, other than i had a different flow than before so some zoa's were getting more flow than they were used to.

just thought i would chime in, cuz i didnt have any ill effects from pvc glue

 

[eric@tampa]

+1 on the Ployfilter

 

[eric@tampa]

Opps Polyfilter

 

[steelhead77]

Yeah, the glue is not the problem. I think almost every one of us has glued a pipe and turned on a pump within a minute or two of each other.

Post your parameters, with numbers. A ph of 7.6, while not ideal, is not serious enough to cause widespread death. I'm going with salinity or metals. +1 on the Polyfilter and carbon.

 

[ninjazx777]

Yep not the pvc glue. When I added my 75 gal tank with my 300 I ran over 60 feet of pvc with lots of elbows tees and ball valves dried 5 min at most before I ran water through it and I haven't had a problem. Something else is wrong double check all your parameters

 

[Lynnmw1208]

what kind of test kit are you using? maybe it went bad? you could try using a different one to see if the results are the same. I know some people were getting a hold of past expiration test kits.

Also was copper ever added to any of the tanks at any time? copper can stay in the silicone and poison invertebrates.

 

[armywife022]

Ok, so you guys sure made my husband feel better! Here are the levels in my tank:

Calcium: 480 ppm
Carbonate Hardness: 179 ppm
Phosphates: 0
Ammonia:0.50 (first time I have seen it above 0, probably because I am removing dead snails constantly)
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
PH: 8.2-8.3 (hard to tell with those stupid color charts)
Specific Gravity: 1.026
Temp: 79F

Now, to answer some questions.
1. The carbon has only been in a day or so, we just added it as a last ditch effort to save some fish.
2. I have no idea what the O2 level is in the tank, but I am running a Remora AquaC hang-on skimmer w/ maxi-jet 1200 pump which I was told should pump enough O2 into the tank (should I put a few airstones?).
3. We have polyfilter in the canister filter (just cleaned two days ago). I can add some elsewhere though.

And for some more crappy information that I forgot about (it has been a long series of really bad events for the past two weeks with our tank):

First, I forgot that when we set up the sump we added a new thermometer which measure both the air temp and the water. We noticed after a day that the temp was at 74F which is low so I upped the heater just a little. No change, so we thought the added water volume maxed out the heater. We added a small one. About 12 hours later we realized the stupid thermometer was on the air setting and our tank was 90F. This was like this for 12 hours, we slowly dropped the temp over a few hours back down to 82 then over a few days down to 79 (where it is now).

Second, the Specific Gravity was higher a few days ago, about 1.028 at its highest. No idea why, but we added a little freshwater over three days and it is at 1.026 now.

So, I am pretty sure that is all of the details.

Oh, and on our sump we have 2 brass or steel ball valves that we use to regulate flow. I don't think we rinsed those. We also added about 25lbs of live rock to the sump prior to the mass die-off. With so many variables, it is really hard to picture what is happening.

I must say, I am incredibly upset to watch not only hundreds of dollars die off before my eyes, but to watch these things that have been living and thriving under my care for months (years for the fish) sucks.

Thanks for all of your help guys.

 

[Ben_Im]

Replace those ball valves with PVC ball valves ASAP! Any copper fittings will corrode and leech copper into the tank, thus killing your invertebrates, coral, and eventually your fish!
Have you tested your Copper levels?

A general rule of thumb is to have no metal in a saltwater tank (except of course for stainless steel shafts for powerhead impellars etc).

 

[redawg]

Oh, and on our sump we have 2 brass or steel ball valves that we use to regulate flow. I don't think we rinsed those. We also added about 25lbs of live rock to the sump prior to the mass die-off. With so many variables, it is really hard to picture what is happening.

2 brass ball valves explains what's happening in your system.. why all your inverts and coral are dead but fish still alive. sound's like you've dosed your tank with copper. not sure if you can salvage rock and sand or not.. first step is to replace the valves with pvc valves. no brass in tank anywhere(bad idea).
then run poly filters changed often for awhile, even after many water changes and the copper test kit reads 0. who knows how much other metals have been absorbed by your rock and sand.

good luck

 

[armywife022]

Man this sucks. Well now that I know I am totally screwed, can I at least use this tank as fish only with the rock and sand and some serious copper reduction methods?

And is my mantis going to die too?

I hate being new at things! Why? Because crap like this happens!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!! I need a drink.....

 

[Ben_Im]

Mantis shrimp are known for being extremely resilient (they hitchhike on live rock for crying out loud), but that being said they're still invertebrates. I'd continue doing what you're doing. Run a ton of carbon (change it frequently as it'll get exhausted), and do more water changes.

Good luck!

 

[scbrooks87]

Sorry to hear about all the losses... And all over a couple little brass valves too.

Keep your chin up though!

I wish you all the best, and I hope that your tank can recover from it!

I'd stay FOWLR for a little while till things stabilize, then maybe drop a coral in down the road and see if it will survive. I hope you can make it a reef again!

-Scott

 

[bryan007]

Just sent you a PM before reading all your postings. Definitely the copper valves. Instead of Prime get a water conditioner that detoxifes heavy metals AND continue to use the carbon and polyfilter and do water changes but make sure the water parms match the tanks and be sure it is airated-sp??? Don't add newly mixed water right away the salt is highly corrosive at that point and not good for your animals. It should sit for a day or so and be sure to have an airhose pumping air into the water to balance the oxygen with CO2 and a thermometer to be sure temp matches the water in your tank you don't want to do anything else to stress the animals.

 

[steelhead77]

Get a copper test kit and whole bunch more polyfilter. Those ball valve are the culprit. On the brght side, at least you don't have to worry about ich.

 

[bryan007]

Or a bunch of other diseases either. Your not alone most of us have had things happen causing us to lose many animals as I explained when my ex poisoned my tank. Thank god for Seachem Prime.

 

[Dave VG]

There are pads you can buy not sure of the name maybe someone that knows will chime in that will absorb heavy metals including copper and change color if there is any presents of it. You may want to try them. This really sucks good luck to ya.

 

[EdSnyder]

There are pads you can buy not sure of the name maybe someone that knows will chime in that will absorb heavy metals including copper and change color if there is any presents of it. You may want to try them. This really sucks good luck to ya.

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