Ok so my clip in light for my refugium in my sump fell into the water last night and blew out. It is one of those Eco Terra reptile lamps and had a power compact 10w bulb in it. What do I need to look for or do? My orange cap has a white look to it this morning since my Actinics came on.
Aftermath of a light falling into water??
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light in water
Hey I am not sure. I am a 3rd shifter and came home to notice it. I left the house around 11:45pm and was back home around 8:15. It could have been in there the whole time. Corals not opening like normal and some seem semi bleached or have a white look to them. Any suggestions or advice? Please PM with info if I need to do something immediately as I dont want to loose a tank full of corals. Also Anemones look all shrunk and withered.
Dave
Hey I am not sure. I am a 3rd shifter and came home to notice it. I left the house around 11:45pm and was back home around 8:15. It could have been in there the whole time. Corals not opening like normal and some seem semi bleached or have a white look to them. Any suggestions or advice? Please PM with info if I need to do something immediately as I dont want to loose a tank full of corals. Also Anemones look all shrunk and withered.
Dave
You could start with a wc and just watch your corals over the next few days. Unfortunately electricity and water don't mix and it sounds like you're seeing the effects today. Remove any coral that's dead as not to contaminate your tank any more. I had a friend that his light fell in his tank too and it didn't end on a positive note, he lost 95% of his livestock. Also keep an eye on your fish and snails etc and remove any that are dead. You can feed your fish some garlic to help their immune system cuz they are stressed but there isn't really much you can do
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There isnt much you can do unfortunatly. The problem isnt like a chemical you can try to remove via water change or filtering. Its the electrical current that was running through your tank. Do you have fish? How are they?
dont forget any fluorescent light has chemical in it that looks like white dust when it breaks....might try and see if it blows off of them with a baster....if it does you might want to look at a big water change siphoning off the white chemical of the corals.. also dont forget the lights contain Mercury so that could be another problem.
i dont think you have much to be concerned about chemically. the tube contains mercury vapor ( very little if the bulb was near the end of its life) and phosphors. the mercury vapor would have bubbled out of the water and very ( i mean pretty much none) of the mercury would have gotten into the water. but phosphors are usually metallic compounds. im no expert on light bulbs so i dont know exactly what compounds is in those bulbs. but heavy metals would def do some damage. once again its doubtful that a harmful amount got into the tank.
but electricity is def not my forte. you have to understand that this is salt water, and it is an extremely good conductor. i believe that car batteries use salt water to carry currents but will have to double check. this is not like dropping a toaster in the bath tub. this is like dropping a transformer instead ( exaggeration but still.)
good luck, i hope the corals recover.
but electricity is def not my forte. you have to understand that this is salt water, and it is an extremely good conductor. i believe that car batteries use salt water to carry currents but will have to double check. this is not like dropping a toaster in the bath tub. this is like dropping a transformer instead ( exaggeration but still.)
good luck, i hope the corals recover.
So I am checking things out and the water feels extremly warm to me. I usually use the digital thermometer, built into heater. But realized that the light falling into the sump may have cause a issue with the heater. Is this correct? What are zome signs of corals getting too warm? My poor tank, corals look horrible, anems loom worse, fish all seem ok. So do snails, hermits and such.
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Sorry am so worried about my tank. If a stray current went through the sump would it make other electrical equipment not work at all, or could it make the heater work in reverse and overheat? My return pump, skimmer, heater and refugium light are all plugged into same powerstrip and everything is working normal as far as I can tell. Just water seemed warm. But now it feels normal. I dont know, maybe I am paranoid. I just hate the fact my tank looks horrible and I have alot of money and time into some of these corals. I dont want to loose them.
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There should not be much of a problem the electrical current will only flow to a ground. since the tank is not grounded the current will flow out of the fixture and right back into the fixture. The only problem I would see is if the fixture was laying on a coral or something else live. In taht case the damage is immediate.
If electricity doesn't affect corals then why have there been hundreds of tank crashes from something as simple as stray current from a pump or power head? Not to mention from a light falling in the tank itself, possibly for 8hrs or more....no one was affected by any of the examples given and no livestock was lost? By what you're suggesting, there were other reasons why their tank crashed and electricity had nothing to do with it?
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Remove what you can and place them in fresh salt water to clean them. Then do a water change. Naturally corals are built on highly reactive mineral bases that respond to magnetic reactions. All of the sea floor has a magnetic ion structure to it. But there is also the fact that sending an electric charge through your tank will create chemical reactions to occur that don't normally take place or speed others up. There is also the possibility of added contaminates from in or on the light itself. I would remove as much of the livestock as possible, both to try to save them and to prevent contamination if they do die. Do a water change, then asses your tanks parameters. That is just what I would do. I hope things turn out for the best.
Ok so this is the update, so far have done 40gallons worth of waterchanges. Have lost snails, probably my fireshrimp, and countless other inverts. Anems are progessively getting better, green palys fine, shrooms fine, pipe organ not sure yet, frogspawn looks alittle better. Purple palys look horrible still, lost a really cool sps.....orange encrusting with green polyps and a brown branching with white polyps. No fish show any sign of anything happening.
This *****.....still not sure of the total loss.
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This *****.....still not sure of the total loss.
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aftermath!!
So with all my loss and stuff if there are any kind hearted souls out there with a few extra frags they want to unload, or sell at a super reasonable price let me know please. I hope my large-ish colony of purple palys makes it, I liked them and it started with like 3 heads and is well over 30 now.
So with all my loss and stuff if there are any kind hearted souls out there with a few extra frags they want to unload, or sell at a super reasonable price let me know please. I hope my large-ish colony of purple palys makes it, I liked them and it started with like 3 heads and is well over 30 now.
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