DaisyDo

Thanks for all your help...I am ordering the Cuprisorb today and will that running in my reactor. I also have to get a new submersible pump to run the reactor. I know this is a loaded questions...however what brand of pump is preferred? I need some thing small (75 gph is what I had) and I need it run quietly, as this is in my family room with the tv. Thanks. Karen

Found it !!!! I had shut off the Carbon Reactor and removed it from the tank and just hadn't gotten around to clean it until today. As I'm cleaning it I realize that the cord to the pump is not attached. Sure enough it had broken and had exposed copper wire. So there was my copper contamination. So glad that I finally know what happened and can move forward. I am running the poly filter and wondered how long it would take before it would be safe to add anything to the tank? I really need to get some snails and hermits in there to get back to work cleaning up. I just don't want to add anything too soon and have them die. Thanks so much for everyone's help. I just love WAMAS !!!!

Wanted to give everyone and up date. It seems the Poly filter is working well...the tank is looking better. The Poly filter is turning a light blue which means copper. I was talking with my 13 year old (who helps me with the tank) and said I couldn't figure out where the copper came from. He then pointed out that we have copper water pipes in the garage and that is where I have a 55 gallon brute trash can with my water. I changed all the filters tonight in my unit and emptied out the trash can to clean it. I was surprised to see in the bottom that it was covered in some whitish scale (or something like that). I have used white vinegar to break it down and scraped it all out. Does anyone know what this could be? Could this be copper residue? Thanks for all the insight that everyone at WAMAS gives me.

I haven't changed/added anything in a long, long time. I even asked my family (teenage children) if anyone was cleaning (that would have been a surprise) or sprayed anything in the air, etc. Nothing....went to bed with everything fine Friday night and then noticed all the problems around 1 pm. the next day. The salinity was a tiny bit high but Ben said that shouldn't have caused something like this. I'm curious see what color the poly filter turns, if it does. That might tell me more.

I'm thinking it must have been the coral warfare...as I really don't see anything else wrong. I am pretty careful about my corals not touching and will move something if they get too close...but maybe they don't have to touch to wage war. I was also wrong about the anemone splitting last night. It is just back to it's big size again and the clowns are sleeping happy in it. Hopefully things will be getting back to normal soon. Thanks to everyone for all their suggestions/ideas. It's just so frustrating when you don't why something is happening.

So just looked at the anemone again...as I really thought he was a goner....he had spit out another huge ball of brown mucas which I sucked up with a turkey baster to get out of my tank around 5 pm. He also shriveled up to basically nothing from a full expended 10" size and is hiding back under a rock. I just looked at him and his tentacles are looking a little better and then I noticed that it looks like he is coming out behind the rock....but now can that be. I'm think he split into 2. He's done this 3 times before but never like this. He has always just ripped himself in half and not looked bad doing it. I'm afraid to move the rock at this point to see if it really is 2 anemones now. I'm just praying that he will bounce back and die. He is my favorite back of the tank...as he houses my black clown pair. My ducans are peaking out a little...so I'm hoping for the best. It just drives me nuts that I don't know what happened. I also took my carbon reactor off line, so I could check it out and see if it is working properly...pump and all. I'll let you guys know what the tank looks like tomorrow. It is just so bare looking with all the corals that I had to throw away.... :(

I have a normal, couple of inches sand bed. It didn't look stirred up on that day. The wrasse sleeps in the sand bed every night, so this is always a little stirring from him. I have not added anything new to this tank in over a year, so why would there all of a sudden be coral warfare? As for algea, I have some in my overflow and every month climb up and try to pull the stuff that I can reach out. I have no idea what type it is...just long green and yucky....

I did a 15 gallon water change and I have almost all the test kits....just not a copper one. Ben tested for me on Saturday, as I was so stressed out. I will test again to see if anything changed but I doubt it. Other then things slimming....I just took out the toad stool and dead frogspan. And anemone is spitting our more globs of brown stuff, so I think he won't make it through the night. Fish are all fine...mushrooms okay, 2 SPS still alive for now. We'll see what happens ....

Just put in a poly filter so hopefully that will help. I do have a grounding probe in the sump. I just found my fire shrimp dead...which was alive yesterday. This is so frustrating....the not knowing. I have a feeling my anemone is on his last legs by the look of him.....my clowns are not looking happy.

Thanks...just found it locally at a store, so I'm on my way out to get it. Hopefully this will help.....I'm still very concerned about the anemone....thanks. Karen

No changes to the tank in over a year. What do you mean run a polyfilter? Is this something I put media in to remove something? Ben mentioned the stray current...however I have a ground probe in the sump. I also put my hand in the tank and tried touching several metal objects to see if I received a shock. I did not....thanks to Ben for suggesting I shock myself.... I actually tried to get my 20 year old to do it....he was smart and said no!

Neither Ben nor I have a test for copper...so we didn't test for that. No power outage, as I would have been able to tell by other things in the house. I do not have any equipment that records temp or anything else. I do have a filter bag in the sump that the water goes through when coming from the main tank to the summer. The skimmer was pulling some nasty smelling stuff but I think that was from all the stuff dying in the tank.

I have had a 72 gallon bow front reef set up for 5+ years. I came Saturday afternoon and glanced at my tank and was shocked to see one of my SPS totally bleached out and the lights haven't even come on yet. I then looked hard at my tank and lots of things look dead- or at least closed up tightly. I looked in the sump and the heater was on which I quickly unplugged and took out. As the tank was reading a temp of 82 all ready. I'm think the heater malfunctioned. Of course, my chiller was sitting right next to the pump for me to hook up that afternoon. I quickly started running test and at the same time called Ben at Petland and asked his advice. I ended up taking him a water sample to see if he could figure out what happened. He said all my water parameters were fine. Please don't ask me what they were because I didn't write them down and I was so stressed out I don't remember. His only thought was maybe there was an equipment failure. I only have the return pump, a skimmer and I'm running carbon also. I do have a doser but that appears to be fine, plus if it dosed too much then the water test would have shown that. I'm thinking it must have been the heater. Could it have spike the temperature overnight and in the am to the point that it would kill so many things? I did change 15 gallons of water immediately hoping that this would correct any thing that was off with the water. It is now 2 days later and the zoanthids are starting to open a little, the mushrooms never looked affected. However some of the snails died but some of the smaller ones did not. My fire shrimp and 5 fish are all fine. However I'm thinking my big red anemone is having issues. It did not look bad until late last night. It seems to be expelling a big blob of brown mucas...about the size of a golf ball..maybe a little bigger and it is not spread out like usual. Does this mean it is dying? Is there anything I can do for it? This is my favorite thing in the tank. I am just so confused at this point and don't know what to do. I'm hoping to stop anymore things from dying but If I lose my entire tank...it may just be time for me to take a break. Thanks for any help that anyone can provide. Karen PS. A big thank you goes to Ben at Petland for all his help....

I'm looking for a couple of fish for my tank and our school tank, so please let me know what you have for sale. Thanks. Karen