hydrogen sulfide!

[d3rryc]

My closed loop went down about a month ago when the motor on my OM Super Squirt burned out. I just got the replacement motor today, installed it and restarted the CL. You could IMMEDIATELY smell the sulfur from the water that had stagnated in the pipes while the CL was shut down. I just did a full changeout of my carbon, and I've got good aeration from the overflow, skimmer and surface agitating K4s. What else can I do to prevent a full carpet-bombing of my tank from the hydrogen sulfide?

[Gseclipse02]

water change ?

[d3rryc]

Headed out for water now, but I don't have any salt water mixed and ready.

[Europhyllia]

yikes sounds scary.
since you're already running it have you noticed any reaction from the livestock?
hope everything works out without any negative effects.

[d3rryc]

No ill effects noted yet -fish are swimming normally, anemones are still extended, leather still has full polyp extension. According to my nose, things should be much worse than they currently look, but I'm being as proactive as possible.

[Gseclipse02]

since you have no water take 3g or so out of your tank and throw lots of salt in there so it can start mixing ... than add what ever water to it ... ( i dont know if thats right but its worth a try )

[justahobby]

you might want to pick up some baking soda while you are out if you don't have any on hand. I don't expect you to wait for the new SW's Ph to rise before adding. or throw in an airstone

[puretexn]

Hydrogen Sulfide

[d3rryc]

Thanks for the correction, puretexn.

Ok, I've got 25 gals of new SW mixing now. I'm waiting for the temp to come up to match the tank before changing out. I've also got some buffer on hand in case the pH is too low. Once this batch of water is done, I'll get a second one going.

Any more suggestions?

[puretexn]

Carbon filters it out I believe

[Gseclipse02]

how big is your tank ?

[Gseclipse02]

Carbon filters it out I believe


if you need a carbon reactor for a little while i can take my offline and fill it with new carbon if you need it

[d3rryc]

thanks, but i've already got 2 fresh cups running in a reactor, plus two or three more in a bag in the skimmer chamber.

[d3rryc]

oh, and total water volume is around 150 gals.

[ErikH]

You should be a-ok 20% water changes until your house doesnt reek anymore. :)

[Bill S]

Lots of aeration and you should be fine.

[d3rryc]

Well, by the grace of God, I seem to have dodged the bullet on this one. By 11pm, the sulfur smell had dissipated dramatically. I moved the K4s up closer to the surface to increase agitation there, and I kept the skimmer going full bore. I put two cups of new carbon in the media reactor, I added another two or three cups to the skimmer chamber in a bag, and I already had two cups of GFO running in another reactor. I did a 15% water change once the new water temp matched the tank temp, and I'll do another 15% this evening just to be safe.

Lessons learned:



If there's a problem with a closed loop, find a way to keep it limping along until the full fix can be put in so that you don't end up with stagnant water in the pipes. (I don't know why it never occurred to me to simply reinstall the super squirt - at least it was still moving water!)
[link]According to Randy Holmes-Farley (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php#14)[link], aeration, carbon and GFO all help remove hydrogen sulfide from the water, so it's good to have an emergency stash of carbon and GFO on hand.
If at all possible, have a batch of new SW mixed and ready to go. If that's not practical, at least have a plan for how to get some mixed up in a hurry (which was the route I had to take).

Thanks for all the advice and encouragement!