My new coral graveyard...lessons learned

[Jon Lazar]

Just a public service announcement to check your tank and sump for electrical devices that might fall into it!

 

I used to use a 6" fan to cool my frag tank through evaporation.  I thought I was being careful by attaching it securely to a 2x4, making sure the gooseneck was tight, and minimizing slack in the power cable so there'd be no way it could end up in the tank.  Well, last week the plastic clamp broke in half at some point during the night, allowing the fan to fall partly into the tank.  The fan was plugged into an Apex Energy Bar and didn't trip any circuit breakers, so the current just kept flowing.  This resulted in the copper in the wires and fan dissolving from electrolysis, effectively dosing the tank with copper.

 

 

When I saw the frag tank in the morning, the water was completely clouded over and had that dead coral stench.  I immediately used all the mixed saltwater I had on hand to do water changes.  I drained and refilled the tank (100% water change), then did another ~50% water change.  I also added a couple of Poly Filters in the tank to absorb any last traces of copper.

 

The losses were heartbreaking.  All the small acro frags were dead within a day.  The birdsnest and larger acros hung on a few more days, but within a week almost all of them were dead too.  The worst part was that most of the acro frags were newly acquired specimens, waiting to go into the display tank.  So now I don't have any of those corals at all.  At least my zoas, acans, and LPS corals came through ok. 

 

 

 

 

Learn from my misfortune!

 

- Take a look at your own setup and see if something similar might happen to you.  Light fixtures, frayed powerhead cords, things like that.  Maybe even battery-power autofeeders?

 

- The electrolysis and copper poisoning happened pretty fast.  The fan fell in the water sometime after 1500, and I saw the wreckage the next morning at 0730.

 

- Keep saltwater on hand for emergencies.  If I didn't have enough to do a complete water change, I could've filled a bucket with clean saltwater and dumped all my frag tank corals into the bucket.  Better a jumbled pile of frags than letting them sit in a toxic bath of copper.  I'd even mix up new saltwater with dechlorinated tapwater, rather than leave the corals in copper.  While the sps died despite the water changes, the other corals pulled through ok.

 

- Keep Poly Filters in inventory and ready to use.  I knew exactly where mine were so I didn't have to search everywhere for them. 

 

- Consider keeping your frag tank on separate plumbing and water than your display tank.  My approach is for the frag tank to be an ark so I'd have a replacement frag if a display tank coral RTNed.  But if my frag tank had been plumbed to the display, I would've lost all those colonies too.

 

- Not sure yet whether a grounding probe would've tripped a house circuit breaker, stopping the electrolysis.  

 

[gastone]

darn Jon, haven't been around in a long time and I popped in to see this at the top of my feed.  Sorry for you guys.

[lowsingle]

So sorry to see this….thanks for sharing 

 

Darren

 

[YHSublime]

Always a good reminder! Sorry to hear it though!

[nburg]

Sucks to see this. Good reminder to double check things. Im always afraid of my light mounts giving way and falling into the tank. 

[Jon Lazar]

Thanks everyone for the condolences.  Live and learn!

[Origami]

Hey Jon. Sorry. Been in a similar, heartbreaking place. Picking yourself back up can be tough, but live, learn and move forward.

Good luck and my best to you and Maureen.

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