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View Full Version : need help, bad water chemistry?


goby2004
12/07/2008, 05:40 PM
not sure where to turn so maybe someone here has some new ideas. Just set up our 240 gallon tank 6 weeks ago and seem to be having some unknown water quality issue. 2 coral banded shrimp molted and died halfway thru molting 2 weeks ago. Added some zooanthids week and a half ago, opened right away and after 3 days never opened since. two sps coral frags put in 7 days ago and are dead now. Sponge seems to be ok, fish are ok, no new coraline algae yet but that is expected. little bit of brown diatom algae, hair algae, no cyno. good current.

tank set up 6 weeks ago with 225 pounds live rock. 50 punds live rock full of copepods, miniature brittle stars put in 3 weeks ago with zooanthids, sponge and full or coraline algae. can't find any copepods and i put a cleaner shrimp in yesterday and he died within minutes!! so it looks deadly to copepods, shrimp, tube worms and ? but not hermit crabs, fish. and ? also have some kenya trees and mushroom polyps that are doing fine...

currently have sailfin tang, 18 1" green chromis, lawnmower blenny, red leg hermits and few snails. these guys are fine.

2 250 watt 20k radium halides 8hours and 2 5' VHO's on for 10 hours per day
Instant ocean salt adjusted to parameters below.
currently running 2 cups carbon

system parameters

340 gallon system, RO/DI water, TDS on output is zero.
all test done with salifert test kits

PH 8.2
calcium 425
magnesium 1300
KH/alkalinity 3.6

rates below again with salifert test kits, undetectable with those kits.
phosphate 0
nitrate 0
ammonia 0
nitirite 0
copper 0

The only thing i can think of that is different is I now use a plastic make-up water bin (150 gallon horse watering tank) covered with styrofoam insulation and a rubber pond liner for my water change and mixed up some of the original water in. I can not find any evidence of toxicity from that but?

Any of you Wizards out there have any ideas what might be the problem?

I know first advice will be water change but I need to understand what is wrong or I may just be putting more bad into it. I have 125 gallons water change ready to go.

any ideas would be apreciated, send for lab test?

Randy Holmes-Farley
12/08/2008, 05:54 AM
Coppers tests cannot rule out copper as the cause, as they cannot accurately read low enough.

Any brass parts anywhere on the system?

Any chance anything copper or brass fell into the tank, like a wire?

On the chance it is that or some other metal, I'd try running a polyfilter and/or cuprisorb.

lkc
12/08/2008, 10:13 AM
Well, if you got this: http://www.livesand.com/
check for chunks of rusty metal! Thats what I got!