Derry Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 (edited) My closed loop went down about a month ago when the motor on my OM Super Squirt burned out. I just got the replacement motor today, installed it and restarted the CL. You could IMMEDIATELY smell the sulfur from the water that had stagnated in the pipes while the CL was shut down. I just did a full changeout of my carbon, and I've got good aeration from the overflow, skimmer and surface agitating K4s. What else can I do to prevent a full carpet-bombing of my tank from the sulfur dioxide? Edited March 14, 2010 by seahorsejl Corrected the title. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Posted March 12, 2010 Author Share Posted March 12, 2010 And, yeah, I meant hydrogen sulfide, not sulfur dioxide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 You are already doing the big part. Lots of Aeration. Lots and lots. If your not already running a skimmer go ahead and start. I would also IMMEDIATELY start running some GFO and carbon. I keep some on hand for just such an emergency. You can get from any of the local pet stores if you do not have it already. The Carbon will adsorb the sulfer compounds. The GFO binds with it to form Ironsuphate, which will make a harmless black dusting on your sand bed that you can vacum off in your next water change. I saved a tank running GFO when I had the same thing happen. Also... 50% water change or so if you have the water ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Posted March 12, 2010 Author Share Posted March 12, 2010 Well, by the grace of God, I seem to have dodged the bullet on this one. By 11pm, the sulfur smell had dissipated dramatically. I moved the K4s up closer to the surface to increase agitation there, and I kept the skimmer going full bore. I put two cups of new carbon in the media reactor, I added another two or three cups to the skimmer chamber in a bag, and I already had two cups of GFO running in another reactor. I did a 15% water change once the new water temp matched the tank temp, and I'll do another 15% this evening just to be safe. Lessons learned: If there's a problem with a closed loop, find a way to keep it limping along until the full fix can be put in so that you don't end up with stagnant water in the pipes. (I don't know why it never occurred to me to simply reinstall the super squirt - at least it was still moving water!) According to Randy Holmes-Farley, aeration, carbon and GFO all help remove hydrogen sulfide from the water (good call, Z), so it's good to have an emergency stash of carbon and GFO on hand. If at all possible, have a batch of new SW mixed and ready to go. If that's not practical, at least have a plan for how to get some mixed up in a hurry (which was the route I had to take). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 On the closed loop item, I have one that I not only use as a CLM but also to hold my rock work up. I can just hook up a maxi 1200 to the thing to keep it nice and clean when i am servicing the pump it is normally hooked up too. For everything you might ever need with dealing with HydrogenSulphide go to reefkeepings' great article on the subject at http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/rhf/index.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Posted March 12, 2010 Author Share Posted March 12, 2010 You mean Randy's article that I linked to in my last post? Can you tell I'm feeling punchy after staying up until 2:30 babysitting the tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zarathustra2 Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 Ha ha. Didn't even notice the author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+o0zarkawater Posted March 13, 2010 Share Posted March 13, 2010 Derry, I'm glad to hear you got your tank under control. I wanted to say thanks for posting this thread. I added a media reactor to my 55gal tank about a month ago and ran it for 2 weeks. The pump I was using however I had borrowed from my 10gals skimmer, so I needed to put it back on that tank. I did not disconnect and drain the reactor, just pulled the pump out, and left the hoses in the tank and water in it. I finally got a pump specifically for the reactor this week. I was originally going to just hook it up and let it run. I thought about it a bit and decided I at least needed to put the output hose in a bucket to catch the old water. After reading your thread I decided to take it all apart and start fresh. BOY THAT WATER STUNK! Went ahead and threw out the GFO and carbon that was in there and started everything fresh. New hoses and all. Thanks for your thread, had I not read it I may have poisoned my tank, or at least freaked out once I smelled the sulfur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derry Posted March 13, 2010 Author Share Posted March 13, 2010 Hey, if my screw-ups can help someone else not to make the same mistake, I'm all for it! Glad to hear that it helped you out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted March 14, 2010 Share Posted March 14, 2010 Fixed the topic title for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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