Omar is back...

Have only had chance to "peek" in the forum for the last month...

Work and an extended "wilderness" trip on very Nortwest coast (50 mile hike along coastr from La Push, WA to Lake Ozette, WA - all Natl forest wilderness beach) have kept me from visiting much at my "favorite "reef" neighborhood" - but have seen incredable things in last couple of weeks...)

Lots of catching up to do. (had great need to escape all things "technology" & fish tank related...)

No way to read all posts made in last month...hopefully someone will point me to anything of great import I may have missed. Will try to start working my way thru past posts this weekend.

I think one of the greatest reasons for extended and abrupt departure/escape may have been do to my 'great tank failure.'

The good news is that my fish are all doing great.

The bad, is not a single invert, with the exception of a few very hardy hermits are still alive.

Was a long slow cycle of "death" that had me both bewildered and in a nearly hysterical daily state...

In retrospect, cause was probably obvious, but was not to me at the time.

Shortly after my "ozone experiment" my snails started to die off. - Of course hidden away and difficult for me to tell what was going on, except for great spike in NH3/NH4...

I of course go into the "water changing" mode, eventually changing up to 1/3 of tank (125 gal) every couple of days...

To no avail...things kept getting worse....

Snails, then clams, corals, etc.. then everything else but the fish.

Only great volumns of water changes kept them alive.

I checked daily, even a couple of times daily, for water conditions.

Of course everying looked bad, and kept getting worse.

Emotionally I was wrecked...but kept changing water anyway to keep fish alive.

And amazingly enough, all still are. Did not lose a single one. --- After everything settled out, fish are ok...just nothing else living in tank...NOTHING! (except for those few big hermits)

After returning from trip (had relative keep tank topped off while gone) I finally found "problem" ---- "Cu"!!!

Somehow I had gotten a large dose of copper in the tank. Deadly to everything but the fish.

Source???? Am not certain, but here are possiblities...

Kid or "someone" dropped penny in tank....??? - if so, have yet to find it...

I (again stupidly may have used a "twist-tie" with a copper wire on a filter bag)...??? - don't think I did...but is in "imagination" I may have...no sign of one now...

Right after starting ozone when first signs of problems were in tank I did a major water change. Being "lazy" - or worse, thinking I was "smart" - I removed and replaced a large volumn of water directly from the tank with with a small well pump I had out in garage. --- of course now, am imagining all the "brass" fittings and valves that water passed thru to get to my tank.

From where "for sure" else it came from am clueless...unless was very careless letting in some water from a "LFS shipping bag"

Anyway...am now down to less then .05 mg/L of Cu in the tank (using a fasTest kit)...still deadly to inverts, but much better then it was.

Am using "Cuprisorb" and "polyfilters" to get rid of the last...will make another trip to Seattle and make a major water change this weekend to hopefully get it down to nothing...

Whew...

What a story...hopefully someone else can learn from or provide advice on where to go from here...

I have a very nice 'fish only tank,' with about 100 lbs of very "dead" 'moon' rock - which was once beautiful living coral...all water params look good, except for the Cu.

How do I get a good nitrogen cycle going again and start getting life back to those rocks without risk to the fish which have seemed to miraculusly lived thru all this without any adverse effect at all.

:-/

ScottD
Silverdale, WA



Is a "baking" here in PNW...have the room "chillers" going full blast...

 

If the fish are still alive then the Nitrogen cycle is functioning, no worries there.

I don't know much about the effects of copper to offer any help regarding that, but good luck

John

 

Wow........That's a story. Sorry for your loss Scott. I'm not sure if you can get rid of the copper completely since it may have been absorbed in your live rock. I have heard of boiling lr and then using it as base rock. I think the copper will still be an issue in the rock. Maybe others can confirm/deny my assumption.
Good Luck........Heat's going up for the weekend.
Scott 8)

 

:'( :'(
So sad! Sorry to hear of this!

Don't you get your water from the public Aquarium? Perhaps they were treating fish only with copper and you got some of that water? Is that possible?

I am glad you are going forward with your tank. You have such a great passion for the hobby and the creatures in your care...you always have uplifting words for us when we need you! Karma for you! Glad you are back

 

Wow Scott!
Hang in there.. what a shame, but glad to hear the fish are ok.

Also happy to have you back on the site, I figured something was keeping you away.

Perhaps we can all put our heads together and figure this out.

Once we do, maybe we can have a frag-a-thon and get your tank started again! [smiley=idea.gif]

 

Bummer O sorry to hear. glad you havent given up yet.
Good idear on the frag-a-thon Matt.

 

Matt,

After reading a bit about Scotts problem I started reading about copper and the problems that it can cause.  Also about how it can be taken up by calcium carbonate.  

Assuming that copper is the culprit, how do you think that could effect the tank in the longer term if the rock work and sand were retained?

John

PS NICE SIG MATE!

 

That's the million dollar question as pointed out by the other Scott too. Need to do some homework. Last time I had copper, I had introduced it to kill ICH I think in my fish only tank ions ago. Didn't have corals at the time and was ignorant about the effects on biological filters.

 

Yeah, as I wrote, I have no experience at all in copper but it would be a real shame to set up the tank again and have the rock or sand leach copper back into the tank some time in the future.

I did read about some copper remover, but I guess that it could only work on the water.

John

ps I REALLY DO LIKE THAT SIG

 

Thanks all for thoughts...

Birdlady...you may have thought...yes I do use Seattle Aquarium water almost exclusivily for water changes...maybe picked up the Cu in the transfer process somewhere....???

Anyway, lesson learned...NO WATER whasoever goes in tank nohow...unless tested first....

JohnO...think you are right about Nitro cycle...ORP has been raising for last week...and finally seeing some algae growth!--- who would have ever thought one might cry tears of joy over that!

My fish must be some pretty durable critters...after what they have gone thru...Clowns have found a nice piece of flat rock to call home after anenome went...gobies and tangs never seemed bothered a bit.

"Cuprisorb" which I first used did not make a dent in the Cu level...but those "Poly Filters" are amazing...they look like something I may want keep in tank all the time. They suck up ammonia, phosphates and metals like a sponge...and you can see them change color depending on what they are collecting...if coppoer, bright blue (red with iron, green with ammonia, etc...)...adds nothing to water...is stricly an aborbant...

Again...THX...

Scott