problem 180 reef!

[shane 1111]

I am having a problem with my tank at work. It can keep many difficult fish alive, but corals don't last a week. Nitrate @ 10, ammonia @ 0, Nitrite @ 0.

Every thing seems fine in the tank, I don't know what to do. My co-worker seems to think it could be a silicate problem, because hte PVC piping wasn''t given adequate time to cure and dry, and possible contamination has occoured.

The tank has been established for over a year, consists of a wet / dry filtration system, with built-in skimmer, Magnum 350 for chemical filtration, formerly included a UV Sterilizer that has been disconnected.

Tried Bio Spira and massive water changes (90%), to no avail, no coraline. No invertibrates live when we add them; including shrimps, crabs, snails, feather dusters, serpent starfish, and others. I'm currently out of ideas and don't know what else to try.

Can you guys please offer any suggestions? Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks In Advance

[Invso]

Have you dosed copper or any other kinds of medication in the tank?

[shane 1111]

no we have not. nothing like that.

[bpd964]

interesting.. sounds like something leeched in the tank..

[Waxxiemann]

yeah, thats a good sign that there is a leeching of somthing. I'd bet it's copper.

[Waxxiemann]

if that's the case, you'd probably have to start from scratch. If it were my tank, I'd just keep as a FOWLR.

[scarter]

do you use rodi?
what container/equipment do you use to make water changes?
what type of substrate?
where did the LR come from?
any pods or fauna in the substrate?
does the water have any type of smell to it?
check the temp with 2 different therm?
any HLLE on the fish?
what kind of lighting?

[ACBlinky]

I highly doubt the PVC is the problem (providing it's PVC and not something else like DWV pipe). PVC cement takes very little time to cure - most folks leave it for a day or so, but I asked about cure times a little while back when I was setting up my plumbing and someone kindly posted a chart, showing that unless the temperatures are extreme it takes under an hour for the cement to cure.

It really sounds like a Cu issue - every invert dying while fish are fine sounds so much like copper that I can't imagine what else it might be. Are you using any metal hose clamps, or anything metal anywhere around the tank? Is there a possibility that someone may have tossed a penny into the tank? Sometimes people have problems with coworkers thinking their office tanks are wishing wells . Could a thumbtack, staple, or paperclip have made its way into the tank somehow? All it takes is a single piece of metal hiding behind a rock somewhere to poison an entire reef.

I have to agree with Waxxiemann; obviously you wanted a reef, but it may just be easier to keep it a FOWLR for now. Otherwise you may have to tear the tank down and start fresh - not only a lot of work, but quite expensive as well.

[McCrary]

That really sounds like you have copper in the system.

[lllosingit]

Have to agree sounds like copper contamination, Did you buy the tank new? Fresh liverock not from someone elses aquarium?
Any metal objects in the tank at all?

[awestruck]

Could you test for copper?

[2manytangs]

One of my pals keeps many tanks in his classroom, and while the tanks are very simple, some of the problems he has had were the coins in the tank, and the Janitor turning of the power. I've been to the room over weekends and vacation periods to help clean out the tanks because the power had been cut for just a day. The temp drops, no water is moving through the sumps, the skimmer goes funky, general nastiness builds up. I can see corals not making it while fish could survive something like that.

I hope you solve your problem.

Jim

[stonepilot]

check for electricty leeching in tank also.

[stan zemanek]

do you have any enemies at work, are you the boss, hey ya never know

[tibbs2]

I would say it is copper, another chemical or your salinity. What is your salinity? Have you tested your salinity with another person's refractometer to make sure your's is accurate?

I believe they make products that remove copper from water that could possibly lower it enough to keep inverts (Cuprisorb by Seachem, and Poly Filters by Poly Bio Marine). You could try that solution but I'd check and verify you have a salinity in the range of 1.024 to 1.026.

Also start running carbon in your tank if you don't.

Chris

[sabodish]

do you have a cleaning company at the office? it might be possible they are spraying cleaning products in your office and they are being pulled in by your skimmer.

i had a buddy who went away for a week and had his mother inlaw watchign his house. she went around and sprayed lysol throughout his house and killed about 75% of his tank.

[bambam31]

Run a poly filter and see what color it turns - that should identify the problem.

[HBtank]

Sounds like copper or another invert. specific toxin (metals) leeching into the tank. Get a copper test kit.

Could be a penny, paperclip, clamps, base rocks with high metal content.. Previous medications on equipment/tank.. so many sources...

Who knows, just one metal object spells trouble

[enemec1]

what type of check valve do you have I have seen some from home depot and lowes that use a copper spring flap on them.

[RichConley]

Hes running a huge cannister filter. High nitrates will kill inverts WAY before fish will even notice it.

Whats your Calcium? Alk? Mag? Salinity? How are you testing it?

[shane 1111]

First, thanks for all your replies, answers, and suggestions.

I actually work at a pet store, and its a store display tank I'm working on with another employee. The substrate is Arag, the live rock is a 50 / 50 mix of new rock and some that was given to us from a third party. We put it in another tank first, to make sure it was OK, and it did fine. The lighting consists of metal halide / actinic / moon lights. We have a hanging tank thermometer as well as a digital thermometer. We do water changes using new salt water only / clean rubbermaid trash cans and empty / clean salt water use only Instant Ocean 5 gal. buckets. We check the salinity using a hydrometer.

Some of these things are very obviously not the best choices, but its the best we can manage, as the owner of the store tends to be a bit of a tightwad when it comes to spending money.

[scarter]

I am gonna go with crud in the tap water, copper, iron ect....
check the fill source with a tds meter. not that it will tell you whats in the water but if you get a tds of 900, you might wanna atleast put on a drinking water filter. they usually knock it down to 20 or so and are only like 20 bucks.

[shane 1111]

we cant get a tds meter.
and we tested it it is copper. its at .2 or 2 ppm?