RE: Cheking your equipment

[loismustdie]

RE: Cheking your equipment

I was having issues with poor polyp extension on my SPS. 3 of my acro frags were also losing tissue. With all the things going around about acro eating flat worms and red bugs, I brought myself into a slight state of panic. Keep in mind, I did have a problem with monti-eating nudibranchs. I removed the infected colony and the 2 closest monti frags and the problem seems to be gone at the moment. I will continue to monitor though.
I decided to pull an acro frag out that was showing tissue recession and freshwater dip it to see if flat worms or red bugs were my problem. The frag was left in freshwater for over an hour and no flat worms or red bugs were found. Yes, this frag was a sacrifice since I had 2.
Thanks to you guys and your threads about checking things like Mag Drives and Ground Probes, I believe you solved my problem. First, I checked my mag drive that runs my calcium reactor. I didn't think it would be a big deal since it has only been on my system for a year, but sure enough, the screws showed no signs of rust, but there was literally rust deposits all over the base of the unit. I opened the housing to find it rusted out. Next was my ground probe showing signs of rust. Not as bad as the one showed on the other thread, but definately signs of rust.
Both have been removed and my polyp extension looks great. I was afraid of everything from flat worms to red bugs to thinking maybe my lighting being too much. After reading your threads, I checkd my equipment. My Sequence is fine as well as my Sedra pump that runs the Euroreef. My Blueline that runs my closed loop also checked out fine. Thanks for the help guys. House of Laughter had already posted that it is sad that equipment we rely on should fail on us like that, but anything can happen when you add metal to water. Even if it's "stainless".

 

[ctxmonitor]

Great to hear Chris. Those mag and heater really causes alot of problems.

Peace of mind is always a great thing to have, even though you scarfice the poor little frag

 

[jackson6745]

Glad you found out the problem Chris. I don't know what the rust does to the tank but it really wrecks your corals.

 

[NYPDFrogman]

Glad you found out the problem Chris. I don't know what the rust does to the tank but it really wrecks your corals.

Rust is a byproduct of oxidation. the oxidation removes dissolved oxygen from the water

since I set up my Ozone reactor I've been checking dissolved o2 wityh a lamotte test kit.
before the ozone addition my dissolved o2 was 4.5 PPM in the early morning 5AM, at 5PM ( lights on approx 4 hours 1/2 my photo period) disolved o2 was at 5.5 PPM according to lamotte test kit this was acceptable range 5-6PPM being OK for fish habitants. my ORP was between 400-450 MV on avg.

one week after the ozone was set up (controller set to go off at 450MV)
my disolved O2 was 5.5PPM at 5Am, and 6.8PPM at 5PM ORP was 450MV constant temp was consant at 76-78degrees

everything was fine and dandy for about a week after that last week I lost a few frags, xenia stopped plusing.
fish looked OK but not out aggresssively looking for food as they normally do when I'm near the tank.
I did all my tests , amonia nitrate, PO4, ca alk and disolved o2
all were fine accept dissolved O2 it was at 4 PPM.
Orp had droped to 275MV

I did a water change, changed out carbon, change filter socks

couple of days later noticed the socks were orange, thats when I found my ground probe rusted, checked for copper and had trace of copper in water even with 2 lbs of charcoal!
removed the probe, cleaned out sump water change, new charcoal
disolved o2 is back up to 5.5PPM tank overall is looking like it should, ORP is at 375MV and climbing

I'm no chemist, I might be wrong but the the whole oxidation process and the by products of such has to be very detrimental to a closed enviorment.

 

[loismustdie]

Frank, it has to be something. My polyps are wide open right now. 3 pieces that I have that seemed to be very light in color are darkening up. All I have done so far was change my polypads. I didn't have salt water mixed up(I know, rookie move), so I'll hold on the water change.
The only thing that makes me wonder is how they manage to dump military tanks into oceans and reefs build themselves on them. I'm no chemist or scientist either. Actually, I'm pretty dumb, but you'll never see a Mag Drive in my tank ever again. I know you can change over to the nylon screws, but the company claims they will break. I'm not willing to take that chance since you know I will be on vacation when it breaks. Again though, thanks for the posts. Goes to show that even a little ground probe can mess things up.

 

[loismustdie]

BTW, my ORP was in the 260mv area. Right now it is in the high 270's according to my Octipus Controller. I have never calibrated the ORP probe, but I'm going to do that ASAP.