I got some big problems - Need some insight -(Please)

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Are you doing water changes to remove what’s there?

Yeah. I did +90%. I’ll probably do another 50% this weekend. Trying to figure out when would be a good time to do a ICP.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
Hey man, hope you are well. I’m coming up on 6 months trying to run this new system in and it’s kicking my butt.

I used Cuprisorb, Metalsorb and Poly Filter for 2 weeks. I have done 350g in water changes, 200g system. I have vacuumed about 60% of the displays bottom.

Copper and arsenic are gone. Tim is down from 400+ to 111, still as high a giraffe booty. I’m during some aluminum now too. That I may have expected as I hung 8020 above the tank and perhaps some of the cuts weren’t super clean and some aluminum shavings fell into the display. That is very possible.

My theory on the spaflex or silicon tubing must be debunked. I have been using the same darn plumbing parts on my 550g system for 14 months and I have no metal issues in that system.

What do you think about Triton’s detox? I’m thinking about putting all 3 of those metal removers back in the system to continue to strip away. I’m not sure if I found the source, I’m not sure if there is metal shavings that made it to my remote deep sand bed, etc.

Here is what I see when inhabitants.
-Fish, no F’s to give. They are fine.
- Inverts/Snails don’t care
- SPS : When the Ton was >400, SPS dies in 24 hours. Like, dead as a door nail. Now, it’s a slow painful death. I have testers in there 2.5 weeks and it’s as if any SPS that goes into this tank is as if they are going in to Hospice. We know the outcome, we just can’t nail the dates. LPS, not impacted AT ALL.

Pretty close to tossing in the towel and breaking this tank down and starting it back up In Feb with all brand new plumbing. I’m just not sure what to do. Ok, rant over. Thanks for all you do!

Shared Results · Reef Labs Portal

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Ultimately, is there a sure fire approach, or approaches, to removing all forms of tin?

 

[BoaConservationist]

Back story (some of you may remember bits and pieces of this):
- been cooking rocks for 2 years in a brute I’ve added rocks and taken rocks out along the way
- 5 months ago on a whim, I put most of these rocks in my main displays second sump to “assist with additional bacteria growth in prep of a new look down tank I was getting ready to to bring online
- the day after I put the rocks (about 125 pounds) in my secondary sump, a super healthy and OG blue hippo randomly died over night. I noticed him heavy breathing before lights out but did not think of anything
- had some caution tossed at me here. So I. Took the rocks out and put them back in the brute with fresh water It had flow and heat the two years
- 3 months ago I got my 48x48x20 lookdown tank online. It’s going to be an all acro lookdown.
- I ordered 100 pounds of TBS rock and 50 pounds of tbs sand. The TBS rock went in the sump and the sand went in a second sump which is a remote sand bed
- it ran 3 weeks like this with no lights.
- 2 months ago I added 100% of all my cooked rock to the look down display. I let it run for 2 months
- I added lights (it has 12k GPH of closed loop flow, yes, very intense)
- I added 9 fish, all are doing great - except the poor file fish that got sucked up into one of the reflow pumps when I didn’t have the safety flow cage on
- I have sent up multiple tanks this way
- I added a frag, it looked fine so I added 3 trays of Acro frags.
- within 48 hours I lost 40% complete the other 60% looked like crap.
- I assumed I rushed the tank. No two tanks are the same. So, I ran an ICP
- I haven’t done but one 15% water change
- I thought it was odd as I have copious amounts of coralline growing everywhere. But this coralline and the algae has been preventing me from seeing in the tank. So I haven’t been looking for my clean up crew (I imagine they are dead, morning a minute)

- I get my ICP back - What the freak. Mind you I run monthly ICP on my big system. The rocks being in my system for 2 days never impacted my ICP for that tank.

Now I have some digitada and some green LPs-SPS stuff psy!?!?! Something something - the green stuff is doing well , the digi is starting to fade.

Arsenic
Copper
Tin

Coller is at near therapeutic levels. Arsenic? My fish are fine. Tin?!?!?!

So, what would you do?

- Right now I am planning on pulling all the non TBS rock out and putting it in a brute. Fresh water and let this run a few days. I will test for copper in a few days. If it tests for copper I’m guessing these rocks are now destined for a permanent QT system. I’m guessing they are smoked.

- I’m super worried my TBS rock is questionable?

Going to do about a 80% water change today. Leave the TBS rock and sand and run cuprisorb.

Thoughts?

I do think you have something like a broken paperclip/office utensil in the tank somewhere, you also have lead antimony and tin present which really shouldn't be there in generic salts, are you using any chinese parts / pumps/wavemakers ? pot metal breaks down quick and thats three main components of the pot metal (bearings/babbits etc) -- also, Solder, these are components of solder, is there a board failing? tv remote? - cheap clamps, screws, hosebarbs, all of these are culprits, check all metal components-- something else to consider, your water source? (old plumbing can have this solder)

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

@BoaConservationist
Perhaps I found it!!!!

The shaft of this MP40 has been grinding away. Part of it has been rusting also. Essentially it been turning metal into a fine paste and flushing that paste into the system. I missed this on my prior inspection. I was looking for issues with the magnet, not the shaft. Maybe this is finally it!?!?!?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Best I can say is “maybe”. :)

 

[BoaConservationist]

thats at least one of the culprits, its possible also solder has failed on a board somewhere (lead tin antimony situation) , id be checking everything electronic & metal

funny story, a long time ago I had a controller fail that was getting wet and dripping back into my feed , it literally dosed the entire tank of copper over a period of 6 months, ended up healing a few fish and nuking some snails, what an experience that was

 

[BoaConservationist]

also, a leading cause to this in the first place is sandstorms, using oolite or dry sand and then having the pump on at ALL, 1 seconds all it takes , in my case my feed line was splashing up onto the board right into a wire that wasnt drip looped or covered, just dripping degraded copper directly, lots of small things in reef keeping for sure ^.^ safety=paramount

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I’m going to pull all electronics tomorrow and replace one section of silicon that I cannot for sure say is from the same roll my main system is on. I’m going to to do two 80% water changes in 7 days then run another ICP. I’m also going to pull all the rocks Dan everything from display. Put it in a brute with the old water and flush it. I going to vacuum the display again. I’m also going to pull any ceramic media that may be in my deep sand bed. I’m on a mission. If this doesn’t do it. I’m going to likely break it down, scrap the plumbing, acid wash everything and start over. All the rock and sand will go in a brute with new water. I’ll test that after x amount time then to. This is screwing up my plans. I had a new lowboy built by Glass Cagez that was to be a flowy LPS tank, but, it’s a holding ground for the coral for the look down currently.