What is going on with my reef!? need some veteran help!!!!

ariffle11

ariffle11

Member
ok....

so my temps were hitting major record high so i decided that i needed to add a chiller to my reef before summer gets here (fans just werent keeping it down)...

i bought a chiller, and installed it last night, and made sure it ran and worked and all... today, i came home to a tank that was at the perfect temperature, but one of my fish was dead (copper band), and all of my sps, and zoas look TERRIBLE... zero polyp extension, turning pale, zoas are closed up, etc. all of the LPS look just fine!

the first thing i did was test all of my parameters and they are all right where they are supposed to be... another thing to note is that i didnt let the temperature quickly drop (to prevent temp shock) last night... i waited to start running the chiller untill today before my lights came on...



can anyone help? im BAFFLED on what this may be!!! has anyone heard of things like this happening? i hope i dont lose any more sps or fish, but this isnt looking good!
 
Could be there were some toxins built up in the coil. Since you bought it used, it likely was on someone's tank, so it gathered the usual schmutz that one sees in piping over time. When it was removed, that stuff would have started to rot, etc., so unless it was cleaned out first, it's in the tank.

If it were me, I'd run a large amount of fresh GAC immediately and do a big water change. Also test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.
 
any chance you have a bad thermometer? It could be reading HI, and you're "chilling" it. Just a thought. Crazy pH swings will do in a copper band quick too. Any big water changes etc recently?
 
last water change was march 20th... everything was doing fine untill today... it definitely has something to do with the chiller...

my first reaction was something built up in the chiller rotting and coming out, but all of my levels tested out perfectly... the only change my ph goes through is it drops to about 7.98 at nigth when the lights are off...

i can also note that when i first started the chiller my water got a tad murky but cleared up in a few hours...

the thermometer on my apex and on the chiller read the same thing... which one would you think was wrong?

if push come to shove i may be looking for a coral babysitter if things start to go crazy... i want to minimize my losses untill i can fix whatever the heck is causing this...
 
i can also note that when i first started the chiller my water got a tad murky but cleared up in a few hours...

hmmmmmm?
 
with two thermometers reading the same, I'd say your pretty safe there. The pH swing is with in normal range. Did you test for ammonia? A sudden spike from "chiller gunk" might have done it. Try nitrites too.
 
What type/brand of chiller. Possibily saltwater sitting in the coil reacted with the metal, possibily copper. I would pull the chiller off the system, do a water change, run carbon and chemical polyfilter, name escapes me at the moment. HTH
 
well just got home from softball prac and things are lookin a tad better... i re-tested for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and got 0's across the board... corals are starting to get polyp extension again, but no where near where they should be...

im going to do a water change to be on the safe side and run carbon strait off the chiller... whatever the chemical might be it doesnt like my tank... its just strange cause the people i got it from had it running on there system (reef)...

total count right now is a copper band, turaki frag, and a possibly a green stag colony (its looking bad) dead from whatever this is...

i feel almost dumb for just hooking it up and letting it go without running it in some fresh water to clean it all out... wheres that thread about "what not to do?" :( lets hope thats all of the damage and i can get this under control...
 
My first thought was copper. Did the person have a fish only when using the chiller? Something must be clogged in the piping. It doesn't have anything to do with ph or the such. The only thing you've changed is added a chiller. I'd take the chiller offline and consider something else.
 
Hi,

If the water circulates through the chiller then it probably was some kind of junk gone bad(the mirky stuff) in your chiller piping. If you drop a chiller probe in your tank then there might be a leak in the probe. +1 on the carbon & water changes.

Dave
 
ok. so i think i found the problem...

drum role please for my stupidity..........

i used a brass ball valve to dial the pump back running my chiller... i just now thought about searching that on google, and found that brass is 65% copper... what was i thinking :(

all of the corals are moved out, and i took the chiller off line... will water changes and running carbon take all trace copper out of my tank? i really dont wanna tear it apart and bleach wash everything...

what a newb mistake. :thumbdown
 
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