Used kitchen/bath silicone.

So last year I built a sump and I ran out of silicone so I bought a tube of kitchen/bath silicone to glue my last baffle in place. For the past year my sps died a month after I put it in, the lps died very slowly over the past year and my soft corals have never grown but are not dying. My fish are doing fine though. Do you guys think the silicone can be causing some coral to die while stunting the growth of others?

What are the effects of mold inhibitors on livestock? Most people said it killed all their fish and others said it killed only their coral which I can't really agree with because it's either all fish should die in all tanks or all coral, not fish sometimes and other times coral. The thing is there is also yellow fungus/algae with pink spots growing on the GE silicone ll.

 

Personally, I think that one came from people using their tanks or sumps before the silicone was completely cured. RTV silicone (room temperature vulcanizing) is what should be used. It fully cures in a short time, and is much stronger than the stuff in the box stores.

 

Yeah I'm not sure what's wrong with my corals. Ever since I've started running reef tanks with a sump and skimmer, my corals never grew. I used regular silicone on my last sump and the corals didn't grow either. I'm not sure if all of the non aquarium silicone leaches something or is it something completely different.

My first tank had an hob filter, tap water and no skimmer and it did better then all my current tanks with all the bells and whistles.

 

From my past mistakes, I would look closer at water chemistry and consistency. You are probably doing something basic wrong, but don't know what it is yet. Using this mentality made all the difference for me.

 

I'm really flustered by this issue. For one year I've been dealing with this and its very annoying. I've tried lots of water changes, no water changes, less light and more light, using phosphate and not using phosphate.

Some things that I have on my mind is something leaching from my Rubbermaid top off or maybe I use too much gfo. My alk/calc has always remained stable since I don't dose and they don't fluctuate much at all.

 

Are you testing salinity with a refractometer and calibrating solution?

 

Yes, salinity is currently at 1.025

 

Either that is your specific gravity or you are off. Salinity is measured in PPM and should be 35PPM.

 

I'm pretty sure it's at 35ppm. The refractmeter measures both, and the 35ppm is right across from 1.025.

 

my meter measures salinity in ppt. what is ppt?