SeanNTX
Active Member
I posted this on my build thread but thought it would be good for everyone to see. Please learn from my mistake.
Prior to Fathers Day, everything had been going SO VERY WELL! My nutrients were perfectly dialed in and SPS corals were really starting to grow fast. I felt like tank maturity had finally arrived and I could really focus on growing corals. All of my fish and inverts were doing perfectly and my little reef had really hit it's stride.
I noticed that my sump fan had quit working that morning so I removed it from the tank and ordered a replacement. No big deal, the saltwater environment doesn't play well with electronics and I figured a year on a $14 fan was pretty good. Later that evening, my daughter and I went to the movies and upon returning home, I noticed one of my large turbo snail upside down on the sand. No big deal, I moved him towards the glass so he could reattach. The lights were tapering off at this time so I didn't really notice anything else. Then I started to look closer.
I see more and more snails upside down on the sand and now I am very confused and concerned. I turn the lights up a little bit and see almost all of my corals encased in a slime coating, especially the SPS. Something very bad is happening. I immediately start checking everything. Temperature, good. Salinity, good. Nutrients, good. ALK, CA MG, good. Apex data shows no run away dosing pumps. Everything seems normal in the data, but something catastrophic is clearly going on. However, all of the fish seem to be perfectly fine.
I finally conclude that I have experienced so sort of contamination, but what? I started inspecting equipment, magnets, etc. when I notice a blue/green dried drop of a fluid on my skimmer air valve. My skimmer sits directly in front of where I had removed the broken fan earlier in the day. I immediately take the fan apart and find this...
When I see this I clearly see I am dealing with a copper overdose. Apparently there was moisture in the fan housing and when I removed the fan, it leaked into the sump unnoticed. I took a large sample of water for later testing and went into emergency water change mode. I am so thankful that I have a nice water change stating with 35 gallons of saltwater and 35 gallons of RODI on hand. I proceeded to do an emergency 70 gallon water change. Keep in mind it is now about 1 am!
After the water change was complete, I shifted into research mode. I ended up ordering Cuprisorb and Polyfilters via Amazon which arrived the next day. I had some activated carbon on hand and threw that into my filter sock to start doing what it could while I waited for supplies.
The next day was Monday and my LFS was closed, so I still had not confirmed that I was dealing with copper poisoning. I had another batch of RODI ready so I mixed 35 gallons of salt water and performed another 35 gallon water change. The poly filter and cuprisorb arrived and that was added to my sump as well. At this point things had appeared to stabilize quite a bit. Fish were fine, corals were VERY stressed, shrimp dead, urchins dead, snails that were still alive, were removed the night before and put into a bucked of fresh saltwater.
This is a quick video on day 2 I believe....
Tuesday rolls around and I am finally able to take my water to the LFS for testing. This is the result of the water I pulled before water changes.
This is the reading after about 48 hours of treatment and 105 gallons of water changes..
Copper poisoning 100% confirmed probably along with some other heavy metals from the solder and wire in the fan. This video and photos were taken about 72 hours after the incident.
Pretty much all of my SPS didn't make it. Surprisingly, my Andre The Giant Acro did not suffer any tissue loss or bleaching. As of this writing, it looks like it will survive. Other SPS survivors are a green slimer frag, JF Forest Fire Digitata, and a birds next coral. All of my Euphyllia, mushrooms, zoas, gonis, duncans, 1 RFA, and numerous LPS and sofites survived. Needless to say, my coral population took a huge hit.
It took a good 10 days before I started getting test results of zero copper. I am continuing run cuprisorb and carbon for another 2 weeks. In all of the chaos, my NO3 and PO4 got out of control and now I am fighting a dino outbreak. I think the massive water change and probably death of tons of beneficial bacterial helped contribute to the outbreak.
I am day 2 into my dino treatment using Dr. Tim's prescription and looks like it will be a short battle. I am rebuilding my beneficial bacteria, added a gallon of pods, keeping nutrients in check with NeoPhos and NeoNitro as I attempt to regain stability.
What a tough learning lesson! No more fans in my sump where I can see them. I now have Tunze moisture rated fan on the top of the tank where it can be observed daily. I really thought I had prepared for most failures and this one was never on my radar. It really is amazing at the copper levels I was seeing that I didnt see a total coral extension event.
If you have stuck with me this far, I commend you! This was not the 9 month update I had hoped to post, but hopefully this will be a good learning experience that you don't have to go through.
"We will rebuild!"
Cheers,
Sean
"The Fathers Day Carnage"
9 Month Update
9 Month Update
Prior to Fathers Day, everything had been going SO VERY WELL! My nutrients were perfectly dialed in and SPS corals were really starting to grow fast. I felt like tank maturity had finally arrived and I could really focus on growing corals. All of my fish and inverts were doing perfectly and my little reef had really hit it's stride.
I noticed that my sump fan had quit working that morning so I removed it from the tank and ordered a replacement. No big deal, the saltwater environment doesn't play well with electronics and I figured a year on a $14 fan was pretty good. Later that evening, my daughter and I went to the movies and upon returning home, I noticed one of my large turbo snail upside down on the sand. No big deal, I moved him towards the glass so he could reattach. The lights were tapering off at this time so I didn't really notice anything else. Then I started to look closer.
I see more and more snails upside down on the sand and now I am very confused and concerned. I turn the lights up a little bit and see almost all of my corals encased in a slime coating, especially the SPS. Something very bad is happening. I immediately start checking everything. Temperature, good. Salinity, good. Nutrients, good. ALK, CA MG, good. Apex data shows no run away dosing pumps. Everything seems normal in the data, but something catastrophic is clearly going on. However, all of the fish seem to be perfectly fine.
I finally conclude that I have experienced so sort of contamination, but what? I started inspecting equipment, magnets, etc. when I notice a blue/green dried drop of a fluid on my skimmer air valve. My skimmer sits directly in front of where I had removed the broken fan earlier in the day. I immediately take the fan apart and find this...
When I see this I clearly see I am dealing with a copper overdose. Apparently there was moisture in the fan housing and when I removed the fan, it leaked into the sump unnoticed. I took a large sample of water for later testing and went into emergency water change mode. I am so thankful that I have a nice water change stating with 35 gallons of saltwater and 35 gallons of RODI on hand. I proceeded to do an emergency 70 gallon water change. Keep in mind it is now about 1 am!
After the water change was complete, I shifted into research mode. I ended up ordering Cuprisorb and Polyfilters via Amazon which arrived the next day. I had some activated carbon on hand and threw that into my filter sock to start doing what it could while I waited for supplies.
The next day was Monday and my LFS was closed, so I still had not confirmed that I was dealing with copper poisoning. I had another batch of RODI ready so I mixed 35 gallons of salt water and performed another 35 gallon water change. The poly filter and cuprisorb arrived and that was added to my sump as well. At this point things had appeared to stabilize quite a bit. Fish were fine, corals were VERY stressed, shrimp dead, urchins dead, snails that were still alive, were removed the night before and put into a bucked of fresh saltwater.
This is a quick video on day 2 I believe....
Tuesday rolls around and I am finally able to take my water to the LFS for testing. This is the result of the water I pulled before water changes.
This is the reading after about 48 hours of treatment and 105 gallons of water changes..
Copper poisoning 100% confirmed probably along with some other heavy metals from the solder and wire in the fan. This video and photos were taken about 72 hours after the incident.
Pretty much all of my SPS didn't make it. Surprisingly, my Andre The Giant Acro did not suffer any tissue loss or bleaching. As of this writing, it looks like it will survive. Other SPS survivors are a green slimer frag, JF Forest Fire Digitata, and a birds next coral. All of my Euphyllia, mushrooms, zoas, gonis, duncans, 1 RFA, and numerous LPS and sofites survived. Needless to say, my coral population took a huge hit.
It took a good 10 days before I started getting test results of zero copper. I am continuing run cuprisorb and carbon for another 2 weeks. In all of the chaos, my NO3 and PO4 got out of control and now I am fighting a dino outbreak. I think the massive water change and probably death of tons of beneficial bacterial helped contribute to the outbreak.
I am day 2 into my dino treatment using Dr. Tim's prescription and looks like it will be a short battle. I am rebuilding my beneficial bacteria, added a gallon of pods, keeping nutrients in check with NeoPhos and NeoNitro as I attempt to regain stability.
What a tough learning lesson! No more fans in my sump where I can see them. I now have Tunze moisture rated fan on the top of the tank where it can be observed daily. I really thought I had prepared for most failures and this one was never on my radar. It really is amazing at the copper levels I was seeing that I didnt see a total coral extension event.
If you have stuck with me this far, I commend you! This was not the 9 month update I had hoped to post, but hopefully this will be a good learning experience that you don't have to go through.
"We will rebuild!"
Cheers,
Sean
