Advice needed on LED falling into tank

KevinMs

KevinMs

Reefing newb
So today is one of those days where everything that can go wrong, has. I arrive home from work to find my 50g saltwater holding container has sprung a leak, luckily its in the garage and even luckier the drain off is headed out of the garage and down the driveway. I know, not really that bad. Figured I would walk in the house, check everythng out like normal and run get another container..
When i get to my display tank I notice the lights are dimmed, and then I notice one of my radions has somehow came loose and fallen into the tank. When I lifted it out, a good bit of brown milky looking water came out. I am now worried about the effect this has had on my corals. Most are shriveled and some have expelled some of their
​​​​Zooxanthellae alge, at least thats what i thought all the white strings all over the tank were.
I managed to get a 30% water change done with the last of bit of saltwater that hadn't leaked out of my container and toss a bag of carbon in the sump. I dont know much about LED lights and I am wondering what harm the unit has done during its submersion. I do know its not working anymore and I am not sure if I need to be in a rush to replace. Is my tank pretty much ruined now? The earliest I can do another water change will be 2 days from now. Any insight, advice or thoughts on this is greatly appreciated.
Almost forgot, I have a huge sps order from live aquaria coming tomorrow :frustrat: when it rains, it pours.
 
Damn dude!! Sorry to read about all your troubles. If push came to shove and no way of getting any RO/DI water I would find some RO or distilled water at Walmart or somewhere and mix up some more saltwater if needed. I have no idea what short or long term effects the LED being in the water would be other than metals and electrical current until it tripped. Maybe the light was off when it fell? You got carbon in the sump so that is a plus. Any local reefers that could help you out with anything? I looked on the map and you are a few hours from me but I would be willing to do what I can to help you out.
 
Wow, that sucks! :(

If you have an LFS nearby, I'd go and see if you can buy some water from them pre-mixed and do another water change tomorrow. I'd also get some chemipure, a polyfilter pad, and an ammonia pad and run them in your sump. I'm concerned about the colored water and white strings you describe, especially since you have an order of SPS arriving tomorrow. I think anything you can do to get your water clean before you add them to the tank the better. You will likely need to replace the light. Sometimes placing electronics in a container of dry rice will suck out the remaining moisture, but I suspect the damage from the salt in the water will have created pretty substantial corrosion. You probably don't need to replace it tomorrow, but if you wait longer than a week you will probably need to move your corals under the remaining unit, particularly the SPS. Good luck!!

And +1 on finding any local reefers who might be able to help you out!
 
Thanks for the advice Fishy and Nick! The Radion unit is pretty much toast. In an attempt to temporarily compensate, I moved the remaining one to the middle, raised it a few inches higher for greater light spread and turned up the intensity through the lighting schedule. Hopefully this will suffice till I can get another ordered.
Now to more worrysome problems, water. Our LFS is not the most reliable and is more of a general pet store. I just don't trust them. Going to grab some distilled water from wal-mart and do a mix with the intent of an afternoon change tomorrow.
On a up note, all three of my fish seem to be ok for the moment. Maroon clown, Yellow tail miniature great while shark damsel and watchman goby all seem to be alert and moving about as normal. I did notice a few pods dead and floating within the current, although my cuc seems to be ok. Time will tell and keeping my fingers crossed for a recovery .
 
Wow, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles, and I wish you the best. They've given you some solid advice, so just do a few more water changes and add some chemi pure elite, and pray for the best. That's a good sign that your fish and cuc is doing well.
 
Day 2 and 2nd water change. Lost my sabae nem earlier, it detached and was completely shriveled and unresponsive. Birds nest and stylopora completely bleached white: Mushroom leather continues to shed mucus layers. Favites and open brain both covered in white webbing. Other assorted mushrooms shriveled and off color, zoa's completely closed. Fish and cuc still doing well and oddly enough, my queen conch has resurfaced from the sand bed. Haven't laid eyes on it since introducing it couple of months back and watched it bury out of sight.
Placed more carbon in the sump and have chemi-pure on order from amazon. Doused with amquel earlier( supposed to reduce ammonia )not sure if it works but at this point i'm beginning to find myself a little on the desperate side. Will post test results in a little bit
 
Is there anyone in your area that can take your new SPS? If not, can you get a 10g tank, small heater and small powerhead to quarantine them in a separate tank for a few days? I am so sorry this is happening for you :(
 
Kevin,
You seem to be doing everything you can do. It sucks to lose any livestock especially in a situation like yours where it seems everything that could go wrong did go wrong. As hard as it is just keep focusing on the positives as they are right now. I was serious about my offer of doing anything I can---- bring you RO/DI water, salt, shelter some livestock for you or whatever. Just say the word. Stay positive!
 
Fishy
I don't know of too many reefers close by, but I did resort to an old salt bucket(what salty dosent have a gazillion of these stacked in a corner somewhere) a powerhead and heater. Hopefully this will suffice till i can clear up my main.
Nick
Thanks for the words of encouragement! I'm finally starting to stock a small surplus of water and should be sitting pretty good by the morning.
I need to stop procrastinating and start nitrate and ammonia testing. I'm a little unsure when to consider some of the coral beyond revival(if thats even possible given the situation). I would hate to begin yanking questionable suspects if it is possible to regenerate and come back.
Tomorrow is a new day!
 
Day 3 Water is cloudy. Fish and cuc still active. Tested ammonia and nitrates, both came back with 0ppm. Chemi-pure should be here today, another water change incoming. Now turning focus more on replacing radion unit..ouch.
 
My concern would be how the LED strip was built. I have done quite a bit of electronics in the past and would be worried about 3 things if my LED strip fell into the water.

1st, most times when soldering up a circuit a flux is used and I would not want that in my water. If it is a soft soldering job then something like a rosin-based flux is used. If it is a mass produced product then it may have been done in a wave pool. With that the flux is applied to the board and sometimes used to hold the parts to the board while it is passed over a pool of solder that has waves in it where the tip of the wave goes across the bottom of the board. There are some rather nasty fluxes out there but the worst of them are not used in electronics. Plenty of water changes and carbon will really help that.

2nd, if there was any wiring in the water then it could cause a problem too. Depending on where the LEDs are from, the cheap wire used is a copper wire. While I am still researching and learning before sitting up my SW tank, I have learned that any copper in the tank can harm your invertebrates. I don't know how it would affect coral. I also do not know what it would take to get the copper out of the tank if any was actually there.

3rd problem would be stray voltage. Depending on your controller, once the contacts of the circuit hit the water they would become a short in the circuit and that will allow alot of current to flow through it. If your controller did not see it as a short then it could have let the current continue to flow. I know that it really pisses the fish off, but I don't know what it would do to coral.

----

After reading about this issue here I think I will be putting the mesh screen that keep your fish from jumping out on my tank. If they are made right, it would also keep things like your lights from falling into the tank as well.

I am sorry about your troubles, but thank you for posting about it here. It allows us to all learn and to consider ways to avoid the same issue.


Tim Sapp
 
Over a week and many, many water changes later, zoa's and gsp are beginning to open along with some small tentacle extension from my torch and duncan. Still limping along with one radion, probably purchase another by the end of the month. Sadly none of my sps but at least it wasn't a total loss
 

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