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Tank Emergency-Need Help


uwwmatt

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This happened sometime between 5pm yesterday and 2pm today. My battery powered backup air pump fell off its shelf and into my sump. At around 2pm today I noticed all my corals where looking funny. I started to get stuff ready for a water change when I noticed that the pump had fallen into the sump. It has 2 D batteries that operate the motor. The pump was still running when I pulled it out, so I would assume it wasn't in there for to long or I would guess it would have broken and stopped. Even so my colony of hammer coral is a definite goner.

 

I have removed as many of the corals as I can and put them into buckets. I am getting ready to do a 20% water change. I am also running several fresh bags of carbon.

 

What else do I need to do?

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Ouch. There are tons of things that a D battery can add to a system that can't easily be removed. Like Copper. Other than running Carbon, I'm not sure how much you can do. I'll look around, I think something similar happened with some one else and the question was answered on WWM.

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Hmmm im not sure.I think i would do atleast 50% to be safe though.You have some bad luck with that tank.

 

Tell me about it :tears:

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I would look into severl large water changes, and sunning some kind of metal absorbing resin.

 

Besides that, just good housekeeping. I don't think there's a whole lot else you can do.

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If its copper I would be more worried about your inverts.

 

Another issue may be electricity, the pump was plugged into the wall. That is how it knows to kick on when the power fails. I unplugged it as soon as I realized it was in the tank, but I don't know if stray voltage is what was irritating the corals. The batteries, have discolored a little bit on the ends. I don't know if that is just because of the salt water or, if they are actually leaking something.

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If you have a place where you can use a Poly-filter where it will not be bypassed, that might be real good. Not only would adsorb some possible contaminants, but could identify metal contamination w/ color change.

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Damn Matt that is the last thing you needed today and the last thing I wanted to hear. You know how fond I am of your tank. I did a little research and think the ends of the battery is from saltwater.If they stayed in alot longer than you said I think you would have to worry about them leaching out stuff. But a few hours I don't think they did. I am with you I think the stray voltage may of shocked the corals a little and irritated them. Run the carbon and do a big water change like another poster said. I would personally do a 40%. There isn't much you can do from what I read in the last few minutes of research other than running carbon and a waterchange. I think with the carbon and a WC it will be alright. Keep us posted.

 

Brad

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I would guess the electrical charge they got was bad but probably not as bad as the metals could be, the shock was only temporary, they metals could be in there a lot longer.

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I am getting ready to do another 20% water change as soon as the water is ready.

 

 

All my corals have been moved to a new 10G tank that is running carbon right now. The corals that I could not move out of the main tank (mostly zoas) are still closed up.

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How is everything looking? All closed up? How about fish etc?

 

Brad

 

 

I just finished my second 20% water change. All of the fish are still alive, as is my cleaner shrimp. I saw my sexy shrimp and bumblebee shrimps about an hour ago. Hopefully they are just hiding.

 

I have my light off of my main display and it is now on the 10G tank with the coral. Everything is still pretty closed up, but that is probably because they where all thrown into a new tank without being acclimated. My clam still seems to be OK. It has opened up a little, but will still close if I disturb it.

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Think your doing the right thing with wc and carbon.

I would also kill the main lights for a couple days.

Everything just got majorly stressed out so killing the lights will help calm 'em down.

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I would think it is a good sign.If those batterys leaked anything I would think you would of already had dead loss specially inverts. Sucks this happened and you have to work tonight. I am sure the wife will babysit the tank all night. :lol: I can see the apartment now. :D

 

 

Brad

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Besides trying everything mentioned, I was thinking, and maybe this is stupid, but would putting a magnet (sealed in a bag or something of course) where you're return chamber is do anything in terms of trapping metals.

 

 

Just a thought.

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Besides trying everything mentioned, I was thinking, and maybe this is stupid, but would putting a magnet (sealed in a bag or something of course) where you're return chamber is do anything in terms of trapping metals.

 

 

Just a thought.

 

I don't think that would do anything. Unfortunately copper is what I am most concerned about right now, and that isn't magnetic

 

After a bit of research I have found that copper is not even an ingrediant of these batteries. It was a duracell alkaline D battery.

 

In an alkaline battery, the anode (negative terminal) is made of zinc powder (which allows more surface area for increased rate of reaction therefore increased electron flow) and the cathode (positive terminal) is composed of manganese dioxide. Alkaline batteries are comparable to zinc-carbon batteries, but the difference is that alkaline batteries use potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an electrolyte rather than ammonium chloride or zinc chloride. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_battery

 

Is it possible that the battery caused a PH swing, which was stressing the corals? How about the other ingredients from the battery, they are not copper but are they just as bad?

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Battery would have to be leaking to cause a ph swing, but if it did, the swing would be dramatic. I'm surprised your hammer died so quickly. do you have pictures of the pump and the tanks rxn

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I know the battery was, because I when I opened the battery door a bunch of water came out. I may have been premature on claiming the hammer was dead. Since it has been in the new tank it has still remained closed but the flesh seems to have fluffed up a bit.

 

I little more reading and I found that if in act there was anything leaking from the battery it would have been potassium hydroxide. Now the other issue is the motor of the air pump itself. It is possible that that contained copper, or oil for whatever gears it might have.

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