Not new but have issues.

[Wes Brown]

Ok so here is the deal, been out of the hobby for around 7 years. Back in and all of a sudden tank crashing. I'll list the set up below including water parameters. Long story short, topped off sump left for the weekend. Returned 48hrs later topped off sump watched corals die within a week and water has a red tint to it.

120 gal RR Planet Aquarium. Cycled and running for 4+ months
130 lbs Dry Fiji previously used in 3 other tanks
Trigger 39 sump w/ fuge Cheato and Gracilaria both growing.
Reef Octo classic 150 skimmer, BRS dual reactor w/ small amount of GFO and carbon.
2 250w MH with 20k Radium bulbs and T5's
Mag 12 return, with dual linked vortex MP10's running at max.
RO water for top off and water changes

Went out of town on the 4th of May and returned on the 5th. On the evening of the 6th (Monday) everything closed up, zoa's, torch, GSP, and some various monti's. Tues water has a red tint to it nothing opens. Tested water SG 1.026, ph 8.2, dKH 9.8 NO2 0, NO3 not 0 and not 5 ppm. PO4 one test 0 next test .25 (ordered Hanna Checker). Ca 450, Mag 1480.

Mix up 25 gal of RO and red sea coral pro and perform water change. Find Rivet from lighting in overflow. poly filter in sump, turns bright red for Alum. Water continued to darken with red tint. Today 17th performed water change of 30 gals. Will add photo of water removed shortly. Corals wiped out, 3 Monti's, 1 torch, two acro frags. GSP and Zoas closed still. Acan echinata still holding it together. All fish seem unaffected, clowns, chromis, coral beauty, lyretails. Shrimp still good, astraea snails went about day 3 or 4. Lights off for two days no change to water color.

Sorry for the long post. I am leaning a few different ways so please share some insight to help me out.

1. Aluminum rivet
2. stripped all nutrients w/ fuge, gfo and carbon algae bloom in water column
3. kids dropped something in the sump or tank. cant find anything.

 

[Aco5000]

What do you mean not 0 or 5 nitrate? Higher than that? Phosphate test seems inaccurate so no help there but if it was .25 you'd think to see nuisance algae, if it is aluminum ive heard gfo can bind it and some forms of mechanical filtration can remove it but it seems unlikely from one rivet

 

[Aco5000]

Nothing artificial in the tank or sump that could possibly being degraded? Super weird man

 

[Wes Brown]

Aco5000 Nitrate using a API test which I know is not the greatest. But its defiantly not 0 and not dark enough to be a 5 lol so there are a small amount of nitrates in the tank. No nothing artificial. There is some algae that would grow on the sand throughout the day then be gone by morning. I feed fish twice a day (for Kids) cheato is growing like a weed and probably needs to thinned out. It blows my mind, set up is a mirror image of my previous tank that I ran for 5 years and moved 3 times.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Interesting. Never seen water with that red tint to it. I'm guessing once you figure that out you will find your problem. I would be it jas no relation your nutrient levels however.

 

[Wes Brown]

I also put some water from the tank into a white cup and set it outside in the sun for the whole day. Water Color stayed about the same, only a tiny spec of Cyno showed up in the glass.

 

[tehmadreefer]

Have you tried a search on here and/or rc, for others with red tinted water?

 

[iron_mike_gt]

Have you verify that you have zero TDS coming out of your RO unit? Aside from algae, rust in the water that oxidizes is the only thing I’m aware of that would cause it to turn red like that.

 

[ludnix]

Is it the aluminum reacting with the polyfilter and that leaching into the water? Is this the color changing polyfilter that helps remove heavy metals?

 

[Wes Brown]

@iron_mike_gt I have not checked TDS Meter is on the way. I have a 70 gal RO tank and was half way through it when this started.

@ludnix the corals started to die, water turned red. I added the poly filter it turned bright red. I put it in on Monday and removed with today water change.