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- Feb 14, 2019
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Past 48 hours one of my frag tanks which has been healthy and growing a mix of SPS and LPS frags has been having issues and left me scratching my head. Montipora frags have started bleaching, acropora and stylo frags showing PE issues, and some acans clearly stressing. While it's a small tank, 10 gallons, the tank has been really stable and growth / health of all citizens very, very good.
More head scratching...water testing. Nothing wrong.
Then I found it - a penny. It all came back. The night before I had been cleaning up a bit, found a penny on the floor and placed it on the edge of the tank not wanting to sacrifice another vacuum to the appliance gods. I must have then bumped it in the tank while cleaning the glass cover (I keep all my tanks covered with plate glass).
The penny had landed on the base of some rapidly encrusting digipora and left a large white spot where the tissue was. Don't need any more conformation in my book that penny was causing the poisoning, and what are modern U.S penny's made of?
Think about this: while a larger tanks would have obviously dissipated the issue, the problem would have simply accumulated over time and become a more gradual issue. This also leaves me concerned about salt mixes since a test I saw a few years ago indicated metal contamination was found in several brands although at trace levels. In any respect, don't throw pennies in your tank.
More head scratching...water testing. Nothing wrong.
Then I found it - a penny. It all came back. The night before I had been cleaning up a bit, found a penny on the floor and placed it on the edge of the tank not wanting to sacrifice another vacuum to the appliance gods. I must have then bumped it in the tank while cleaning the glass cover (I keep all my tanks covered with plate glass).
The penny had landed on the base of some rapidly encrusting digipora and left a large white spot where the tissue was. Don't need any more conformation in my book that penny was causing the poisoning, and what are modern U.S penny's made of?
Think about this: while a larger tanks would have obviously dissipated the issue, the problem would have simply accumulated over time and become a more gradual issue. This also leaves me concerned about salt mixes since a test I saw a few years ago indicated metal contamination was found in several brands although at trace levels. In any respect, don't throw pennies in your tank.