Grrrrrr

Well this is really just a venting thread. As some of you know, I have been recycling my 150G system since last year, after it's crash of 2005. When it crashed back then due to the paint getting into the system from neglient contractors working in my home, the tank was never right since. I had fungal infestation, black algae, etc. You name it, this tank had it. I recently had an outbreak of some weird gray algae that nobody has ever seen, not here nor my LFS. I looked deeper into it this weekend and realized that it is a fungus. I used Coppersafe to try and remedy it and all my snails bit the dust by Sunday morning, even though it said "safe for all reef and invertebrates." I have come to realize that this fungus will not go away and will keep coming back.
It also has come time for me to bite the bullet and just accept that this tank needs to be completely nuked and restarted. The only life on the rocks is this God forsaken fungus and diatom algae, so I'm not losing any type of coral, and much of the coralline algae is now covered in this gray fungus and diatom. I'm going to drain the water and bleach/vinegar the tank and the sump. Should I toss the 120lbs of sand or should I just nuke or boil the sand? It's a ton of sand to deal with. How should I nuke the piping, sump and the equipment? I'm figuring to just do it piece by piece. It's gonna be tough, since I can't take the tank down to rinse since the darn thing weighs over 300lbs completely empty. This just sucks as an entire year of cycling is wasted, not to mention all the RO/DI water and Pro-Reef salt that was also wasted. Any ideas that may help with this is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

 

If you used copper in that tank I don't think I would ever use that tank again.

 

I have gone the road your considering, we nuked the rock as you indicated but chose to pitch the sand... a small price to pay to ensure that we are starting clean, again...

As for having run Cu in the tank, just make sure to run a Cu absorption pad in your filter for as long as it takes...

 

It was a copper alternative, I'm very much against using copper at all, especially since I owned a stingray.

 

Charcoal will help with the copper...when i bought my tank it had copper used in it and was recommend to put charcoal in my Mag 350 canister filter. in 3 weeks I have seen a difference in the copper amounts reduced. The tank was totally cleaned and the sand replaced, so about 40 lbs of LR was all that was added back to the tank, that had been exposed to the copper. ( sump,hoses and tank cleaned ). copper was like 15...now below 5

hope this helps

 

VENT AWAY MAN. If anyone deserves to be able to vent its you. I cant believe your trajedy. One thing that is clear is that you love this hobby. I think any other person would have thrown their hands up and walked away. May you be blessed by the reef gods on your further endeavors.

 

OK, I know you are a little PO'd already, but I want you to listen to this VERY CAREFULLY. Coppersafe is NOT a copper alternative. It IS IN FACT a COPPER BASED MEDICATION.
This qoute is from both the manufacturer and Drs. Foster and Smith:
"CopperSafe, a unique stabilized form of chelated copper, is designed to maintain a therapeutic level of copper..."
I'm sorry if you read an article or were told that it is a copper alternative. But it's not. It's the atypical copper based medication. So yes, you have polluted the tank with copper.

I would tend to agree with this, and the same goes for the rock, sand, pipes, etc. But, you could have the aquarium disassembled to be completely re-siliconed. The glass itself doesn't hold the copper in, the silicone does. On a big nice tank, I think I would have this done.
I have no idea as to the safety of re-using the equipment. I would assume the plastic/acrylic and all rubber peices, stuff like that, would hold copper. One thing I would NOT do is count on some form of the copper remover. How much water do you think those reactors will trap as all the other water in a high gallon, high flow tank like that? Not much, most of it will pass right on by. It wouldn't be worth it IMHO. You would have way to much invested in the tank before you would even find out.

 

Thanks for the responses. The stuff I used was actually this stuff and not Coppersafe, not that it makes any difference:
Seachem Cupramine 100 mL
I used about 1/4 of the recommended doseage. I just tested the Cu levels and right now it is sitting about .10 ppm. I'll find out who can be able to go about re-siliconing my tank properly and safely. I really don't want to find out that I have 150G of water on my floor down the road. So now, I have to start draining my tank and going from there. As for my equipment, well I'll just have to deal with replacing the stuff if needed. At least I don't have too much going on in my tank and removed the chiller and UV filter before using the stuff. This sucks.

 

Well, thinking on it, you can always just fill it up with some fresh and try the copper removers. Test it maybe every 72 hours and see what it does? Might even try filling the tank, sump, etc separately and running the stuff. At this point it wouldn't hurt and may be worth the try.

 

I'll do whatever I can at this point. I'd really hate to gut the system completely. I'll give it all a shot and get some Cu absorbers and see how it goes. Thanks Pack.