Recent content by DonCollins

There is little doubt this was/is the problem. Even the way he described how his fish were acting described my fish almost perfectly. His sterilizer was running for 1 month.....mine for 13. When I checked to make sure my equipment was working, I only looked to see the light was on inside the...

Ok, pulled the sterilizer and found a slight black residue present and the smell was -horrendous- to say the least. The main problem appears to be a broken seal, though. The color seen on the glass tube is the same color the Poly-Filter is turning, but I think I just overlooked that since the...

I think you may have just found the problem. I have that exact UV Sterilizer (JBJ SUBmariner 9watt) running in my sump right now. Going to go pull the sterilizer now to have a look.

Ahh, makes sense. I've never tried to introduce new inverts into this new set-up because originally I had holdovers from the old set up, so those were the ones that lingered, but finally succumbed to whatever's going on. I have a small clean-up crew in the QT that I purchased when I thought I...

I only used the Melafix this once this past time since one of the percs looked to have some sort of infection that I missed in the QT above his eye & I was grasping at straws. This was the first time ever I have used any medication in the DT (& since I'm not a fish disease expert probably the...

No chemical's have been used unless Melafix counts. I am really running out of ideas :(

Two more items that have come to mind. First, rust in the tank. Not sure what I was thinking, but I have a metal hose clamp securing the skimmer pump to its hose below water line in the sump. I think this clamp was used near the bulk heads in the previous set up as I used plastic clamps every...

Any recommendations for a lab to test the water? I found aquariumwatertesting.com and they look good, but not sure they test enough parameters to help in this case?

As I am looking through other forums to find other possible issues, one possibility came to mind with regards to the idea of an intermittent "live" charge OR a toxic substance being the culprit. The two return pumps and the pump on the skimmer are all 13 months old, should be fine, but the...

Missed this first part. I replaced the heater last night. It did create a significant drop in stray voltage (from 4.1 to .7) and I also determined the .7 volts are coming from the two Marineland return pumps. I don't think less than one volt could hurt the fish, but if I am wrong I can replace...

Nothing is transfered between the two systems. The QT used water from the DT to set it up 10 months or so ago, but since then the two systems have not had any contact. The QT consists of: Standard rectangular 20g tank Marineland Penguin over the back filter Prizm over the back skimmer 50w...

I did that last night. Everything was off. I let the damsels sit for about a half hour before I started slowly plugging items in to see if anything had an obvious effect on the fish. No one item produced the immediate effects observed on Wednesday evening with the Cardinal. This time, it was (I...

I did check the silicone, it is all dry. It is marine grade as far as I know (bought the tube at my LFS) and it was used to seal bulkheads only. Might the next step be to remove any excess silicone on the bulkheads and reseal with a new tube? Don

Forgot to add lighting info... 2x 48" Hamilton Technology Blue/White LED strips, 2x 24" Hamilton Technology Blue/White LED strips, 3x 6 watt LED night lights. All 7 items mounted to a marine varnished 1x6 suspended ~7" above the water line. Again, nothing that -should- cause a problem. Don

Same here. Another possibility that was mentioned was something leeching into the system. While I don't -think- this is the case, I will go through what happened since 2012. -Dismantled tank, put all live rock in a 32g plastic container with air and heat. -Reset tank. The only chemical used was...