The tank of doom... help me!

[rowancollins]

Hey guys and girls, so he's the story; moved house, set up a smaller new tank to fit in the place, I cycled the tank with the Red Sea Reef mature kit, at clean up crew addition stage, added a few small hermits.and a couple of snails, both snails basically shrank into their shells immediately, and wasted away.
I Moved my two maroon clowns over from my other tank, all well, but every coral I have moved, dead overnight, two small anemones basically give up straight away, dead within 24hrs. Zoas, not dead, but closed up tight, and wasting away, and I can't for the life of me decide what could be causing it.
After every failed livestock addition I did a 50~60% water change and got nitrates back down to <0.05ppm before trying again, my tank parameters are all within acceptable ranges, I have a seneye monitoring ammonia/ph/temp all of which have been fine, I've tested everything I have a kit for and nothing is out of the ordinary.. what am I missing? The tank has been up for over 3 months, I must have done 10 major, 10 minor water changes in that time, so what on earth can be killing everything? Fish and crabs ok, snails, corals dead almost immediately.


Tank parameters have been consistently

1.026sg
Ph 8.4
Alk 10.4dkh
Cal 432
Mag 1330
Amm 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <0.5ppm
On salifert, API, and Hannah Checker

100l system volume
Running a skimmer, and kessil a150we
Dosing Red Sea NO3-PO4x
Running activated carbon in a reactor
A bunch of dead reef rock
Shallow sand bed (black sand- could this be the culprit?)

Appreciate all your thoughts


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[mcgyvr]

Nothing out of the ordinary in your parameters..
I'd suggest getting a polyfilter and running it to see if it changes colors..

 

[rowancollins]

Nothing out of the ordinary in your parameters..
I'd suggest getting a polyfilter and running it to see if it changes colors..

Thanks, I'll give that a go


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[Joshua I.]

Try running it longer add fish like damsels at try to see if they get a cycle going only thing I can think of

 

[Kevin Guthrie]

Copper poisoning?

 

[Ngoodermuth]

Copper poisoning?

My thoughts also, sounds like a contaminant...was the tank bought used? Have you checked all your equipment, no broken wires, cracked casings, leaking magnets?

No spraying of chemicals or cleaners, air fresheners etc?


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[FoxFace Fish]

did you acclimate them?

I do not mean this as a joke I know a lot of people who forget this step even if everything is the exact same

 

[rowancollins]

did you acclimate them?

I do not mean this as a joke I know a lot of people who forget this step even if everything is the exact same

Haha, yes I remembered this step, all drip acclimated, and pretty much each time longer than the last


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[rowancollins]

My thoughts also, sounds like a contaminant...was the tank bought used? Have you checked all your equipment, no broken wires, cracked casings, leaking magnets?

No spraying of chemicals or cleaners, air fresheners etc?


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Tank is new, as is the sump, only things I've moved over are the lighting, skimmer, return pump and wave maker, I'll give them all a once over tonight


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[scubadan206]

Are you using an RODI system, or just dechlorinated tap water.

 

[jubei2006]

Sounds like metal poisoning to me. Copper most likely. Check wires for pump, thermo, etc. plumbing (i once used a antisiphon with a metal spring in it). Ro or tap water?. If tap, pvc or copper water lines?. Also chloramines, though i would also expect fish problems too. Hope that helps some

 

[rowancollins]

Are you using an RODI system, or just dechlorinated tap water.

Have an Rodi system, so all good on that front


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[rowancollins]

Sounds like metal poisoning to me. Copper most likely. Check wires for pump, thermo, etc. plumbing (i once used a antisiphon with a metal spring in it). Ro or tap water?. If tap, pvc or copper water lines?. Also chloramines, though i would also expect fish problems too. Hope that helps some

Thanks, copper is sounding like the crowd favorite, I'll have to pick up a test kit


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[exsequor]

Definitely do and also make sure you cross check your salinity. I have two refractometers and two hydrometers so I can cross check them and not just rely on one.

 

[rowancollins]

Definitely do and also make sure you cross check your salinity. I have two refractometers and two hydrometers so I can cross check them and not just rely on one.

Did check that, calibrated my refractometer with some RO, and double checked with a home brew hydrometer I had lying around, and were both reasonable close


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[rowancollins]

So, I headed down to the LFS this arvo, no copper test kits in stock, but picked up some polyilter, so let's say in the instance it is a copper contamination issue, what are my options? from what google and forums tell me, it's contaminated forever - is this an overreaction based on copper filled quarantine tanks? Will the poly filter pick up enough to reduce to acceptable levels, or am I looking at a full tear down/FOWLR?


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[Ngoodermuth]

The tank of doom... help me!

So, I headed down to the LFS this arvo, no copper test kits in stock, but picked up some polyilter, so let's say in the instance it is a copper contamination issue, what are my options? from what google and forums tell me, it's contaminated forever - is this an overreaction based on copper filled quarantine tanks? Will the poly filter pick up enough to reduce to acceptable levels, or am I looking at a full tear down/FOWLR?


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Not necessarily, the hard part is finding the source. It might not even be copper, so I wouldn't jump the gun quite yet. Did you get a chance to check your equipment? You should take everything out/apart and check for cracks or corrosion, especially anything with magnets or wires in the water.

Another thing to consider is stray voltage...


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[keithw283]

You said it's only been up for 3 months and you've done 20 water changes. Did you do water changes during the nitrogen cycle?

 

[rowancollins]

Not necessarily, the hard part is finding the source. It might not even be copper, so I wouldn't jump the gun quite yet. Did you get a chance to check your equipment? You should take everything out/apart and check for cracks or corrosion, especially anything with magnets or wires in the water.

Another thing to consider is stray voltage...


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Checked everything that's in water, swapped the heater out for my spare one, only thing with a magnet is the powerhead, but looked ok... any way to test the stray voltage?


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[rowancollins]

You said it's only been up for 3 months and you've done 20 water changes. Did you do water changes during the nitrogen cycle?

No major ones during the cycle, just the few 5% water changes called for during the reef mature program, a major one/two after every failed live stock addition, and a minor one/two if nitrates weren't back down completely


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