MH wiring fell into tank and shorted, animals look injured

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I am hoping to learn from someone who has had the same unfortunate experience. Yesterday I smelled burning plastic in my apartment and finally tracked it down to my tank. Part of the wiring for my MH's was hanging into the tank, and water soaked into a splice. It shorted and burned through the insulation. Today, my xenia looks really bad, my derasa clam isn't as happy as a clam (get it he he), and my bubble coral isn't really expanded. I threw in some carbon, and am going to change some water. Any other suggestion?? Fish and several other hard and soft corals all look ok, and water chemistry is good. Any guesses if this is directly due to electrical current or maybe some noxious chemical released by the burning plastic?? Thanks for any input.

 

[Anonymous]

Adam,

You have just dosed your tank with copper. Do 100% water change immediantly. And move all your inverts, fish, shrimp, to new saltwater tank if you have one. Get some polypads in the water flow fast as well as carbon in the old tank and in the new set up if possible.

I had a heater break on me a few years ago and nuke my tank, this is almost the same. Poly pad will turn bright blue when it removes copper. HTH, sorry for your loses, I know from experiance....

Jeff Davis

 

[Anonymous]

Jeff,

Thanks for the info and the sympathy. The copper hadn't even occured to me. I will get poly pads asap. Removing the animals is probably not possible, and at this point may be too late. Everything actually looks as though it is improving, but I am not taking any chances and will proceed with water changes and poly pad. Thanks again!!