All of my fish and coral are dying

[Michaelrisucci]

Brand and type?
That is usually a liability disclaimer.
you built the tank?

I built the tank and sump

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Ge supreme black. It’s written on the back in small print.

Some have fungicide for use around showers and bathtubs. Just 100% silicone is best and some are made just for water use.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Some have fungicide for use around showers and bathtubs. Just 100% silicone is best and some are made just for water use.

All GE silicone sold at retail all standard commercial industrial skus contain mold inhibitor (biocide).

They likely will not what is used in each product and it is. Or on the MSDS. Some are boron based, others organotins or phenoxarsines. The later two can be pretty nasty. For example the phenoxarsines contain arsenic.

GE supreme black is a Henkel manufactured product. They may or may not tell you what biocide is used to get the lifetime mold free guarantee.

Is it Reef safe? No clue.

Contact them and ask for more info. SDS link below.

https://ypsswhdoal-a0d0758e9.dispatcher.hana.ondemand.com/SAP_GATEWAY/odata/SAP/YPSSWH_DOO_SRV/SafetyDataSheetSet(Appid='YPSSW_SDSUA_EXT',Matnr='2777174',Laiso='EN',Rvlid='US',Dmskey='')/$value

 

[Jay Hemdal]

All GE silicone sold at retail all standard commercial industrial skus contain mold inhibitor (biocide).

They likely will not what is used in each product and it is. Or on the MSDS. Some are boron based, others organotins or phenoxarsines. The later two can be pretty nasty. For example the phenoxarsines contain arsenic.

GE supreme black is a Henkel manufactured product. They may or may not tell you what biocide is used to get the lifetime mold free guarantee.

Is it Reef safe? No clue.

Contact them and ask for more info. SDS link below.

https://ypsswhdoal-a0d0758e9.dispatcher.hana.ondemand.com/SAP_GATEWAY/odata/SAP/YPSSWH_DOO_SRV/SafetyDataSheetSet(Appid='YPSSW_SDSUA_EXT',Matnr='2777174',Laiso='EN',Rvlid='US',Dmskey='')/$value

It bothers me that they can say "100% Silicone" when it has other additives - that throws a lot of people off and they buy the wrong product. Marine silicone seems o.k. to use.

I've used this product before:

Marine Silicone Sealant

Starbrite quality care products since 1973 for: Automotive, Marine, Aviation, Motorcycle, Powersports, Outdoor Power Equipment, ATV, Snowmobile, Home Care, Outdoor Furniture, Farm Implement.

www.starbrite.com

Jay

 

[BeanAnimal]

It bothers me that they can say "100% Silicone" when it has other additives - that throws a lot of people off and they buy the wrong product. Marine silicone seems o.k. to use.


Jay

I had the same thought and have always been curios as to why the biocide is not on the MSDS.

I honestly don't know what the effects are. I have read many anecdotal accounts, but nothing that I can recall definitive. What also makes it hard is that they can change biocides at any time.

 

[exnisstech]

I’m looking at the silicone I used for parts of the tank and it says not for use in aquariums. Great.

I wiped out an entire tank like this when I added a sump that I had sliconed the baffles using the wrong silicone. What is different tho is my deaths occurred within 24 hours of adding the sump.

 

[crow14]

I had the same thought and have always been curios as to why the biocide is not on the MSDS.

I honestly don't know what the effects are. I have read many anecdotal accounts, but nothing that I can recall definitive. What also makes it hard is that they can change biocides at any time.

It depends on the biocide and concentration used as to whether they'll appear on an SDS. Many biocides won't appear as they are used in such low leverls (<0.2%) that they don't meet hazard limits for declaration.

In regards to your second comment, yes biocides can change but based off industry experience this is not something that happens frequently due to application testing and regulatory review that must be done if you switch to a different technology.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

At one time a few years ago I was chasing silicone for aquarium construction. The best stuff was from Germany but I am afraid I forgot the brand. I gave up with that when I priced out US glass sources versus Chinese aquariums. Why beat your head against a rock price wise? Selsil, Asi, and others come up on a search.

 

[Michaelrisucci]

At one time a few years ago I was chasing silicone for aquarium construction. The best stuff was from Germany but I am afraid I forgot the brand. I gave up with that when I priced out US glass sources versus Chinese aquariums. Why beat your head against a rock price wise? Selsil, Asi, and others come up on a search.

I ended up buying apel brand off Amazon. It seemed to have good reviews and it was $19 for two 10.2 oz tubes.

 

[Michaelrisucci]

Replaced all of my silicone last night and am about to drain and refill the tank with fresh, non contaminated water, then sending an icp test today. Wish me luck, lol.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Replaced all of my silicone last night and am about to drain and refill the tank with fresh, non contaminated water, then sending an icp test today. Wish me luck, lol.

I don't think the ICP test will show you any toxicity from the silicone, the additives they use are organic chemicals, and those will just report back as their elemental components (carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.). Now, if the additives are elemental (like how tin is added to some peroxides) that will show in an ICP, but not in this case I think.

Jay

 

[BeanAnimal]

I am not sure that the silicone was the culprit either. Months with everything okay. I am sticking with the cascading catastrophe that was the culmination of several small actions.

 

[bigdaddydz]

water changes & run carbon.... maybe icp test?

 

[Superd513]

Every fish in my 60 gallon (20g sump) has died besides my melanarus wrasse. I had a pair of pink skunk clowns, mandarin goby, lemon peel angel, coral beauty, powder tang, clown tang (both tangs were under 4” and would have been transferred to a 200g that is being converted to salt now), squareback anthias, red linckia star, and blue linckia star. I was originally having issues with my zoanthids opening, so I overfed for a day or two to raise my nitrates and phosphates, but made sure to monitor the 0 ppm ammonia and 6-8ppm nitrate range as well as keeping the ph at 8.3 and phosphates at 0.05. I’ve added Red Sea magnesium booster and the levels are now at around 1250 (min) 1350 (max) as well as a ph and calcium (450 which seems a bit high?) buffer periodically to keep them in check. The zoanthids opened for a few days and everything seemed to stay in check. While overfeeding, I turned the return pump flow down to about 650 gph for a night with my wave pump on. The next day, I found my powder blue tang and lemon peel dead, as well as my linckia stars pushing out their organs and my zoas closed. I automatically turned my return back to 1050 gph. The next day the linckia’s both died as well as the anthias. I continued to check the parameters and everything was still in check. Yesterday, my coral beauty, pink skunk, and clown tang died, so I decided to do a 50% water change, change the media, and check the parameters. Today, I came home and my other pink skunk and mandarin goby died and my Duncan coral completely retracted. I then did another 50% water change (ro/di, 0 tds with 35ppt salinity). I am testing with all salifert test kits and adding oxygen with an air stone. I’m assuming a chain reaction happened where the lowering of flow killed my stars, poisoning the water, and killing my fish, but I’m not sure. Please help. I’ve lost around $500 in fish and don’t want to lose my corals now.

Omg. That’s terrible. I’m so sorry. How devastating. I don’t have a fraction of what you had and I’d be tore up. It should not have happened that fast I don’t understand. That’s why everyone says to go with a big tank. I have a 28 gal nano. I do 40% water change every week.

 

[Superd513]

3 pages and I'm suprised the question hasn't been asked..........Do you have a wife, girlfriend, or partner? Have you had an argument recently?

Not one person has asked about the PH levels

 

[Superd513]

I never use bottle bacteria and I never put fish into a system that isn’t fully cycled. I cycle tanks using sub cultures of bacteria from existing, solid tanks and I’ll sometimes goose it along with ammonium chloride and some Coca Cola (yes, really).
People will do go this “instant route” and it’s usually a done deal by the time I hear about it.

Jay

So I did use Brightwell micro bacteria xlm. I also used live ocean rock and live sand and 5 Mollys. And that’s it in a 30 gal nano. After a month I put 5 corals in. Now I put a pistol shrimp in that’s all I got. I do 30% water change every week. I just got my protien skimmer this week. It seems to be working but there isn’t much organic to filter out. Oh yea and I just added alge barn copepods to my tank too to hopefully slow down the algae once it finally hits. And I’m sure it will. I do have 3 more corals coming. And that’s it. Not gonna put a thing in it.

 

[Muffin87]

I’ll take this opportunity to suggest that the authoritative voices on this forum could post a write up of the most likely causes of a tank crash and how to avoid them.
I’ve never had a tank crash, but they aren’t that uncommon and could be prevented.

 

[PensacolaReefKeeper]

I think an underplayed fact here is that you had just introduced a brand new fish. And that fish was showing signs of stress. You sound like you know what you're doing so I am not convinced this is all about water quality. My bet is that simply a stressed fish died and caused the chain reaction of things dying.

 

[Atlantis107]

if you had a fish for just a day and it died, that would be my first guess as to cause of the rest.