Best way to fix my mistake

[ST3PH3N]

So long story short I rigged something instead of just buying a pump and now I lose my 2 cleaners. Snails are dropping and my coral look very bad.

My mistake

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/23/7y7a7y9y.jpg


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[350gt]

Oh dang! I have no clue but a pump and some water changes should be in order....

[Scutterborn]

Is that brass or copper?


-Ben-

[Mike]

It looks like metal to me, which is not a good idea for the tank. You should probably get it out of there and do a water change and get some carbon.

[ST3PH3N]

I'm guessing brass and galvanized steel ? Idk really. It was a pond pump set up like that already


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[ST3PH3N]

The ironic thing is I was using it to run a carbon reactor


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[ST3PH3N]

U can see some of the unhappy coral and my goby finishing off my cleaner shrimphttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/23/gepu7une.jpg


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[Mike]

What was that for? Just water movement in place of a power head? Or was it for a return? Either way, probably need to get it out of there and do big water change.

[ST3PH3N]

It's been out since last night. Was running it on a carbon reactor. Imma change 15 gallons and put fresh carbon with a plastic power head lol


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[reefreak]

I've got a big empty fuge are if you need any holding area. I can looking and see what pumps I have what size pump is it?

[ST3PH3N]

^^^^^^^

I bought a pump today. After the water change if pieces aren't looking good I may take u up on that. I'm just scared they may be too far gone but I'm hoping they are just closed to protect themselves. The Duncan's are open so it must not be horrible just stressful. Fingers crossed!


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[ramsey]

Brass is an alloy made partially from copper so it will leach copper into your system. That's why your inverts are suffering. I would recommend some poly filters or something like cuprasorb if you have a reactor. A water change will help, but you're going to need something that can soak up the copper.

If you can't find any poly filter, holler at me. I have 3-4 packages unused sitting in my fish closet for emergencies.

[ST3PH3N]

Brass is an alloy made partially from copper so it will leach copper into your system. That's why your inverts are suffering. I would recommend some poly filters or something like cuprasorb if you have a reactor. A water change will help, but you're going to need something that can soak up the copper.

If you can't find any poly filter, holler at me. I have 3-4 packages unused sitting in my fish closet for emergencies.

Poly filters go in the reactor ? Will the carbon help clean it up ?


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[ramsey]

Also the galvanized steel would probably leech metal and rust too but I still think that brass fitting is what's caused the biggest problem.

[ramsey]

Poly filter can go in a reactor, but you usually just place them in your sump. They're basically a pad, so somewhere where water will run through them. They also change color depending on what it's absorbing. Let me find a link for you.

[ST3PH3N]

Yea I pulled it yesterday. It ran in the system 2-3 days and the second day everything was closed but I thought it was my lights cause the acclamation period ended and it shot up from like 50% to 80%


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[ramsey]

Here ya go:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4136+4335&pcatid=4335

[ramsey]

Carbon's not going to really do anything. You need something that can absorb metal and possibly ammonia depending on how much die off you're having currently.

[ramsey]

Also, PM'd you my number if you want to come pick up that poly filter.

[reefreak]

Cool let me know hope all goes well.

[ST3PH3N]

Thanks imma head and go get some poly filter!


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[ST3PH3N]

Cool let me know hope all goes well.

Will do!

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/23/qanypy6y.jpg

bought a couple of these!!!


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[Mike]

Those are it. Water change and those should hopefully remove the harmful metals in the water. The original pond pump might be fine, just without the adapters. See if you can find plastic ones to replace them. Shame to get rid of a good working pump. Without the fittings, it might be good for mixing salt water for water changes. Good luck. Hopes that fixes it. Sucks to lose livestock, whatever the reason.

[ST3PH3N]

Those are it. Water change and those should hopefully remove the harmful metals in the water. The original pond pump might be fine, just without the adapters. See if you can find plastic ones to replace them. Shame to get rid of a good working pump. Without the fittings, it might be good for mixing salt water for water changes. Good luck. Hopes that fixes it. Sucks to lose livestock, whatever the reason.

Thanks for all your responses Mike, appreciate it.


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[ST3PH3N]

I've got the pads running in my baffles in my sump and did 15 gallons of water changes. Put fresh carbon in reactor and light and flow are cut back. Hope everything pulls thought !!


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[envy]

If you need any help with anything text me. I also have a couple of frags I can give you once you get things back to normal.

[ST3PH3N]

If you need any help with anything text me. I also have a couple of frags I can give you once you get things back to normal.

Thanks Andrew!


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[Bill S]

As far as I understand it, carbon should remove the copper - that's what is suggested after treating a tank with cupramine. Brass is copper and zinc, primarily copper. I don't think the zinc will be as big a problem. That's because the zincs on our boat always have "stuff" growing on them, and copper does not. Galvanized steel is also zinc. Any rust you have should be fine.

[ST3PH3N]

Well I just did a copper test and it read 0. So I'm thinking my problem was coral dying from being fried by the lights and making the ammonia in the tank jump and stress inverts and other coral.


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[ST3PH3N]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/25/basysu7y.jpg


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[ramsey]

It doesn't take much copper to kill most inverts. It's possible your carbon, poly filter and water changes reduced it by the time you tested. I'm not sure how fast or how much copper a brass fitting would leach, but I've read horror stories of a tiny piece of copper or a brass fitting wrecking havoc. I also heard stories of people dropping copper pennies in FO tanks back in the day for ich treatment before there was products for ich on the market.

It's certainly possible that the die off from the fittings caused your tank to cycle. I'd test ammonia and nitrite.

Regarding copper and carbon, I thought that carbon only traps organic molecules but the internet seems to have mixed answers. I can tell you this, I would not rely on carbon alone to absorb the copper.

Did your poly fill change color at all?

[ST3PH3N]

Ramsey, the filter hasn't change and color besides what a normal filter would change whole snagging particles from the water. It's started lightly browning in some areas. My ammonia 2 days ago was in a stressful level with no nitrates or nitrites.


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[ST3PH3N]

Ammonia was if I had to guess a .80 yesterday.. I can't even imagine what it was when it crashed. A lot of the coral I have have started to open back up at this point. I did another 5 gallon water change today but have slowed down to try and keep water more stable as they are starting to open. Ammonia test showed close to no traces a few min ago but I can't be 100% with the API tester. I'll do another small water change tomorrow night just to be sure but it looks like things may be looking good. I'll count my losses after I know it's pulled out of it.


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[Kristy]

Having lived through a crash and in talking to others who have also, keep a very close eye on your nitrites. Ammonia may be down but that could indicate that it has converted to nitrites as the typical chemical conversion. The nitrites were devastating to my fishies, not the ammonia. My apologies if this advice is not timely. Best of luck!

[ST3PH3N]

I did notice my angels fins looked to be a little frayed but wrote it off to aggressive maroons. May do some more water changes today and check the nitrites. U think the fins could be from nitrites ?


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[Kristy]

Possibly. We saw some early signs of HLLE suddenly appear and ich and lost a couple more fish in the nitrite phase. Test for it and keep doing WC if needed. Also consider using Prime.

[ST3PH3N]

Starting WC
nitrate is 30
Nitrites 2 almost 3
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/04/02/6e2abery.jpg
Put some of this in there too.


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