Corals dying ICP test results

[DenverSaltyFarm]

Hi
I used to use Red Sea blue bucket and the tank was always great. After watching the BRSTV episodes on salt, I switched to Tropic Marine Pro reef, coincidently, this was around the time the tank started declining.
I chose Tropic Marine Pro Reef as it is regarded as the best salt by many users.
I have performed many water changes over recent months and I am now on my third 25kg bucket, all bought at different times from different suppliers.
I also performed an ICP test on the fresh salt from the first bucket and it didn’t show any of the elevated elements that was evident in my aquarium. Also a few months back, I did 2 huge 75% water changes on consecutive weekends, after this, the tank started showing some positive improvements. A plating monti started growing again and put on a centimetre of growth, and a dead acropora skeleton that hadn’t been removed started to grow some new tissue. This lasted 2-3 weeks and then everything in the tank started declining fast again, the few SPS that had survived died from RTN over a couple of days and a frogspawn LPS ejected all of its heads.
I am more than happy to take your advice and change to a different salt brand but do you still think it could be the cause.

I thinks personally it’s worth a try, I was about ready to give up on my tank and that was the problem in my case. Might be different in your case but another factor to look at.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Wow, that really does show that you can get away with a lot of corrosion without it having an impact.

Of course, it depends on what is in the metal that is rusting.

 

[Seabed]

So I ran a magnet through my sand today and this is what I found. One large piece of thin metal and lots of small fragments and dust. The bowl and my fingers smelt strongly of rust after handling it. Could any of it be Rowaphos that’s found it’s way into the display?
What do people think

 

[Seabed]

 

[Cory]

Check if rowaphos is magnetic

 

[X-37B]

Por 15 top coat is what I coated my metal stand with. It can be applied over rust and seals it in. It is used on the under carriage of automobiles.
Good stuff for touchup with a small brush too.

 

[Seabed]

Check if rowaphos is magnetic

Rowaphos is magnetic but the particles seem much finer and more consistent than what the majority of what came out of the sand. What came out if the tank seems a bit more coarse but I can’t be 100% sure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The big piece certainly seems unlikely to be in rowaphos, and rowaphos won’t boost most metals aside from iron.

 

[Seabed]

The big piece certainly seems unlikely to be in rowaphos, and rowaphos won’t boost most metals aside from iron.

The big piece definitely did not come from the rowaphos as it couldn’t have escaped my reactor. When I have replaced my rowa in the past, Even after rinsing, I usually get a a very fine brown cloud come out of the reactor for a few seconds which is where I thought the fine particles may have come from.

 

[Seabed]

Assuming the particles are not rowaphos, do you think there is sufficient contamination there to cause all my corals to RTN, even after several large water changes of the last 9 months.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Assuming the particles are not rowaphos, do you think there is sufficient contamination there to cause all my corals to RTN, even after several large water changes of the last 9 months.

If it is from a toxic alloy, possibly. Just as a thought experiment, we can estimate how much copper it takes to cause an issue.

it’s a bit of guesswork, but suppose 0.1 ppm copper is an issue. That’s 0.1 mg per L or 35 mg copper in 350 L of tank water. Old pennies weigh about 3,110 mg. So copper metal about 1% the size of a penny can do it.

 

[Seabed]

If it is from a toxic alloy, possibly. Just as a thought experiment, we can estimate how much copper it takes to cause an issue.

it’s a bit of guesswork, but suppose 0.1 ppm copper is an issue. That’s 0.1 mg per L or 35 mg copper in 350 L of tank water. Old pennies weigh about 3,110 mg. So copper metal about 1% the size of a penny can do it.

Thanks Randy, that’s food for thought.

 

[Seabed]

After finding the metal fragments in the
sand, I am now considering changing the sand out for fresh as I can’t be certain I’ve removed everything.
My sand is 1/4 to 1 inch thick. It’s very clean and has no stagnant areas.
i have read that removing sand can be very destabilising for a tank. My thought process is the tank is already in a poor state of health with very few corals remaining.
what are people thoughts about both changing the sand and changing it out in one go.

 

[Seabed]

After finding the metal fragments in the
sand, I am now considering changing the sand out for fresh as I can’t be certain I’ve removed everything.
My sand is 1/4 to 1 inch thick. It’s very clean and has no stagnant areas.
i have read that removing sand can be very destabilising for a tank. My thought process is the tank is already in a poor state of health with very few corals remaining.
what are people thoughts about both changing the sand and changing it out in one go.

I’m going to do a 60% water change and replace the sand as my next step.
I will follow this up with 1 or 2 further 60% water changes then perform an ICP test to confirm there is no tin or other contaminants in the water.
At the same time I will not dose anything, I’ll remove, carbon, cuprisorb, rowaphos.
i expect the tank will pick up again for a period of time but if it drops off again I will perform another ICP test and see if the tin has reappeared. In my mind, This will only leave the PVC pipe installed nearly 1 year ago as the culprit.
All equipment is rust/corrosion free, heaters have been swapped out again, this time for titanium ones.

 

[Seabed]

I was about to buy the replacement sand and I found a part empty bag in the cupboard that I had left over from when I filled my tank.
I decided to run a magnet through it and to my surprise it had a very similar amount of metal particles in it.
knowing that this sand was in my tank long before it went down hill, I believe I can discount it as the culprit for the tin levels in my tank.
Therefore I have decided to leave the sand in place as I have already run a magnet through it and most of the metal should have been removed.

 

[miyags]

When I clean my tank with a razor blade,sometimes the corner of the blade brakes off and falls to the bottom fast. then I have to get out the magnet and try to find it.It's hard and I have a bare bottom. The broken blade always finds a way to sink and flow under the rock work.