# Help. I'm puzzled.



## Coolguy1181 (Aug 24, 2015)

Hey guys. So I've had my tank since the beginning of September. I've had coral and fish. They all did well. As of late all my corals/snails have died and I can't for the life of me figure out why. My parameters are perfect (I'll list them below) do you guys have any ideas? I've been reading and thought maybe I got copper in my system so bought a test kit. It tests 0. 

I did all the tests myself as well as got the LFS to verify with their kit. 

70 gallon tank. 
Salinity: 1.026 (Red Sea pro salt)
Temp: 78-79 degrees
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
Calcium: 420
Phosphate: 0 
Alkalinity: 9

My lights have always been at the same settings. I lowered them a bit thinking maybe that was the issue but have had no improvements. All the corals that had died I removed and let the tank do its thing with just the fish for almost 2 months. Fish are all thriving. Me and a buddy bought a tyree leather. Both of ours opened up first day in his tank. Mine hasn't opened at all since moving and acclimating in my tank. ( I'm moving it back to his tank as a precaution) water changes are done once a week at 15 gallons a change.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*confused*

why did your fish die. where u buying them from did they just die was there a diesese... all your parameters looks pretty dead on .. whats missing here , seems real strange here .. so u have a tank running right now with nothing in it ..maybe list some of your equipment .. lighting ,skimmer ,flow..rocks ,sump...
my gut tells me if u think something is in the tank then there prob is , jmho.
where did the tank come from seems very weird ...


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

The tank might be a bit warm and also your salinity might be off a bit. Although that shouldn't kill the snails and such but you never know. Seems there is something definitely off and I would do a series of water changes over the next few weeks. I'd say 2-3 gallons per day for 2 weeks and see how that goes.

Good luck!


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## Coolguy1181 (Aug 24, 2015)

The fish are fantastic. No casualties. I have 3 Hydra 26 lights mounted 8-12 ish inches above the tank. I have 1 mp40 on one side of the tank and 1 mP20 on the other both were on random reef mode at a max of 30% ish I upped it to 60 this afternoon as a test. Using a reef octopus classic 100 skimmer. For fish I currently have 4 clowns who are paired off at different end of the tank. 1 green chromis. 1 yellow tang 1 powder blue tang.2 lytetail anthias. 1 4 spotted wrasse. 1 watchman goby. Hiding in my
Pistol shrimps caverns. He pops his heaD out. I'm running a HOB refugium with some chaeto in it as well as a canister filter with 2 medium bags of chemipure elite.(2
Months old). My RO water I've always got From a water store down the road from Me. Tests at 1-2 ppm max. The only casualties have been the corals I had which were Duncan, GSP, torch. After they died is when I let everything settle for a while. Then added the leather and another piece of gsp on Friday.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

I'd replace the canister with a reactor - or just dump the canister 
No place in SW IMO
I suspect that your nitrates are creeping up - next to impossible to have 0 nitrates


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*canister*

I agree with bullet scrap the canister ... in place u can find a good hang on back skimmer ..I know most don't like but if u are not running a sump then that's all u can do ... I ran two ac 70 with a hang on back fuge . no issues at all .. but then I went with a reef ready tank and a sump ...


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## Coolguy1181 (Aug 24, 2015)

Ya the canister was just there to clean up the remnants of the diatoms from the cycle. Had it from an older tank so cleaned it up and set it up as a temporary filter.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

This came up in another thread last week......do you have any brass or metal parts, valves, fittings, reducers or couplings on any aspect of your plumbing?
Are you sure everything you are using to supplement the tank is designed for reef tanks, and not just fish only systems?


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## Coolguy1181 (Aug 24, 2015)

Crayon you may be a genius... There is a single copper elbow in the canister. Which is the reason I bought the copper test. It tests zero. Could
This still be the reason why? If so after removing it what's the best remedy? Everything I have aside from the canister is meant for reefs


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Remove the canister, big water changes 3 or 4 times but not so much you will hurt the fish. Say over the course of a couple weeks. Yes, the elbow is the issue. Fish won't be affected, but your inverts and corals can't handle copper.
Depending on how long you ran the elbow, you might need to change the rock and gravel too because it can absorb the copper and continue to leach it way past the water changes.


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## deeznutz (Aug 21, 2013)

To my understanding a cooper elbow won't do anything, cooper has to be soluble to make a difference and impact a reef tank.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

deeznutz said:


> To my understanding a cooper elbow won't do anything, cooper has to be soluble to make a difference and impact a reef tank.


I think it would dissolve if it comes into contact with the water. Maybe you're thinking of copper pipes, but that's a difference issue. Copper pipes don't leach if you're constantly running the water, but that's because they don't leach fast enough for the water to have any significant copper presence. If you left the water standing in the pipe, you would have copper leaching.

If the copper elbow is on a canister and in contact with the water, then it's the equivalent of standing water in a copper pipe. The water may be running, but it's the same water running over and over through the pipe, so over time it will definitely accumulate copper ions.


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