Cali Kid Corals

Found: flashlight in sump

Thanks again. I still am concerned. And that ricordia -- it is my only one. Not that it's a big loss, but given N=1 I assume the worst. At least for that species and any similar that I might add in the future. When it bounces back, I'll feel better about adding more of anything to the tank. Until then -- no DBTCs for me! : )
 
1. While I would do a water change, run some polyfilter, etc. if you don't see any obvious signs this far out I would not panic and do anything drastic like say a 95% water change. A lot of awful things have been done to reef tanks (I lost a hose clamp in one and it basically dissolved to nothing, I knew a guy who kept a rusty spear fishing spear he found in the tropics in his SPS reef, etc.) We often get away with them, so no sense causing a problem fixing a maybe issue.
2. I would be more worried about any copper plating on the contacts that corroded off. Once upon a while ago I had a salt water and circuit board experience. I distinctly remember a lot of the traces basically dissolving off of the board.
3. I wonder about tin on the solder as well. At some point Randy Holmes-Farley suggested to me over on R2R that Cuprisorb might be a good way to remove tin, so that's an option if water changes alone don't make you comfortable.
4. In addition to water changes, if you're running macro it may be a handy export method. Only a freshwater reference, but at a talk years ago in Indianapolis Dr. Diana Walstad (Ecology of the Planted Aquarium) mentioned that she had high zinc in her tap water, and that it was causing an issue in one of her aquariums. She noted that many of the faster growing plants would absorb heavy metals. I think her end test was to "treat" the water in one of these fast growing aquariums before putting it into a more sensitive one, and it seemed to work out. Point being, you might see if there is any documentation about macro soaking things up. If you're one of the people that occasionally feeds macro back to tangs in a display (yours or someone else's), maybe skip that for a little while.
 
Thanks @jccaclimber. I have enough nutrients in my tank now and things have stabilized where I can benefit from some macro. So your suggestion is sounding good. It'll get me to do it; lamps and such.

And the stories you shared are reassuring. Appreciate that. I didn't open-up the light to take a close look. Wish I had to see how bad it was. I was pretty mad at myself and trashed it.
 
Worst I ever dealt with was an occasional shock and GFCI trip on a tank I used to service. After nearly a year of not being able to track this down (the shock did not always repeat, no oddly high stray voltage measured in the tank...still haven't figured that one out, there wasn't a ground probe. I noticed that the carbon reactor was no longer working. It was run by a cheap small pond pump that predated me and I figured it was time to clean the pump. I unplugged it, then proceeded to take the cord out of the tank.....without the pump still being attached! At some point the cord insulation had failed and the combination of a now short circuit and salt water had completely dissolved at least 6" of the copper. No blue or reddish spot in the sump, just gone with the now hollow plastic insulation left behind. The amazing thing is that while there wasn't anything really amazing, there were a few softies, a mushroom, and a euphyllia that were unaffected. The only thing I can think of is that some combination of the macro algae and 50% water changes I did took it out over whatever time period it had failed in. It had been working the previous month, so presumably the wire dissolved in that time period.
I've seen evidence of sunscreen doing bad things to tanks and copper toxicity is well documented, but sometimes we get luckier than we deserve.
 
Holy crap! ^^^ There's many a lesson in the post above. ^^^ Wow!

Interesting too: resilience... and luck. Good reminder re sunscreen.
 
Squist said:
I'll look into this more. Thanks. There's also Triton Detox. Getting the ICP in place prior though. @ofzakaria : you gave me an old bottle of yours when we met back in the dinoflagellate battle days as part of a possible strategy, though didn't go that route. Will loop back after ICP results.
Click to expand...
I do not remember what bottle I gave you. Can you remind me what was it?
For metals, as @xcaret suggested Kent product is good. Also Triton has product called detox that is for similar purposes, i have un-opened bottle o can give u, if you like. Come pick it up any time
But honestly I personally would not add these products now that its been a while since this happened, you did water changes and added the biofilter.
I would do ICP then judge cause you might have took care of whatever made it to the tank if any.
I would have added these chemicals on day one, but since its been a while, I do jot see much harm from waiting 2 days on thw ICP.
Now the ICP return is like 2 days cause you send it to unique coral in LA and they do the test in their facility there...
 
how are the inhabitants of your tank?
super large water changes (at least 50%)
every day if necessary
you can't do too many or too large...assuming new water is ideal
"the solution to solution is dilution"
 
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