Rough summer/concrete dust
 

For reasons I won't get in to here, I recently had the porcelain tile floor of my main floor replaced. About 2500 square feet porcelain tiles and an inch of self leveling cement below them were jack hammered out and replaced. Whole process took 6 weeks, during which time I barely had enough access to feed my fish every day, so no water changes or water testing (I spent all of August in a hotel).

I noticed coral damage around the third week, when my entire house was covered in a half inch thick layer of dust. We had the tank enclosure wrapped in plastic, but I had to leave the vent in the bottom cabinet door uncovered so the exhaust fan could keep the tank from cooking. As a result, the inside of the cabinet got as covered in dust as the rest of the house. Frighteningly, the dust appears to have been somewhat magnetic, as I can clearly see the outlines of the magnets holding all my various sump doo-dads through their plastic casing in the dust that settled on them.

Im at about 80% coral losses at this point, and it looks unlikely the remaining 20% will survive. I've been doing massive water changes every day since I've had access to the tank again, but every morning another badly damaged colony has rtn'd to white skeleton, and I'm not seeing any signs of improvement.

Does anyone know if self leveling cement/porcelain dust has any metals in it that could nuke a tank? The tiles had a special metallic finish that made them look like polished steel, but they were otherwise standard porcelain.

Anyway, looks like I'm going fish only. If I could brick the whole thing up and forget it ever existed, I would. The tank had finally turned a corner from my early 2014 troubles, and now the coral damage I was seeing back in February/march looks like a tank of the month compared to what it is now.

Sorry to hear about your tank. I think it would be the silica dust that did the nuking. Porcelain tiles usually get their colours from glazes, which could have any number of nasty ingredients, including metals.

What a year. :(. Really sorry to hear about this latest misfortune. I've been following along with all the ups and downs. I've alway been impressed with your approach to reefing, and the time you take to document and share the highs and the lows. That you haven't immediately taken a sledge hammer to everything aquarium related in your house is yet another sign of your patience and passion for the hobby. Once the literal and metaphoric dust settles I'll be anxious to see what your next project will be.

As to the contaminates, I agree that the glaze may be the culprit. There are some really horribly toxic substances used in some paints and glazes (cadmium, etc), in addition to a myriad things that would not count as super toxic to humans but would play havoc with a reef.

Again, very sorry for your loss.

- Ian

Rough summer/concrete dust
 

If it's the glaze that might explain why this didn't start until 3 weeks in. Most of the original tiles popped right off the sub floor with a single whack with a chisel (hence why they were being replaced - they weren't really attached to the ground ver well), so not many got jack hammered. The major work was the self leveling cement below them that had to be removed. However, for about 5 days before I realized what they were doing and stopped it, they were cutting the new tiles (exactly like the old ones with the metallic finish) in the dining room, right next to the tank. Looked like half the cuts were made with a handheld grinder thing, not one of those water cooled table-top cutters, so yah, lots and lots of metallic finish porcelain dust wound up in the house. I think they started doing that about 4 or 5 days before the corals started to get damaged.


So what do we think - is this salvageable with water changes, or is the rock potentially wrecked? I'm not even sure what to be testing for, or if there's anything I could test for.

And thanks. This either makes me want to quit the hobby, or use this as the excuse I needed to drain the tank and redo the overflows like I've wanted to do for a year. As frustrating as this year has been, I still can't imagine not having a tank.

Hardware stores used to sell a product called SenSafe Water Metals Test Strips, they did a lot of the ones that you would be worrying about. Thing is, you already know you have a problem. Water changes will get some of it but anything living in there will have taken some of it up and will release it over time. You could use a metal absorbing/adsorbing product and leave it in there. You can test for silica levels and see if they are insanely high.

Best bet for short term is a couple of 50% or larger water changes over a few days.

Charles

I must say if you are facing a total coral wipeout due to dust sized particles of unknown composition I don't see how any rock or sand could remain. For that matter, I would also redo the plumbing. Anything that I could not clean for certain would go.

I don't know how litigious you are, but you have experienced a loss due to the actions of others. If they were licensed contractors they should be carrying insurance that they may be able to use to cover damages. You should be compensated for rock, sand, plumbing, and possibly some amount for corals (no clue how that would get assessed).

Again sorry for you loss. Either you are apoplectic with frustration or you have the patience of Job.

it more likely from the self leveler,the dust from it..the self leveler contain some pretty nasty chemicals in it which in the moment when you start hammerit starts to get in the air and if you had the vent hole it might get in trough there and then combining with the water turns it in pure poison for you corals..the self leveler contains Ethylbenzene which is known to cause cancer and contains Butyl Benzyl Phthalate known tocause developmental reproductive toxicity..another component is the TITANIUM DIOXIDE which the same it might affected your water....probably the best solution would be to take all the corals out the water and the fish to and empty your tank and start it all over...the rock will contain all this substances to so a good bleach and cure of the rock would be necessary in order to get all the toxic chemicals out..
this is my advice as professional tile setter and fish keeper..

that is very hard to win a case like this..just for the simple reason that you really can't prove that any of his actions caused this problem,except if you are willing to send your water to a laboratory for a complex analysis plus a sample of your self leveler to see if they find toxic chemicals from the self leveler in the water,and probably would be a super expensive test...is just sad to hear about such a big lose..

Found this data sheet for the self leveler..states clearly that affects the aquatic life.

Signal Word.............................................. ..... DANGER.
Hazard Classification.................................... . Skin Irritant 2. Eye Irritant 2. Skin Sensitizer 1. Reproductive 1B. Acute Toxicity 4. Aquatic
Chronic 1.
Hazard Description....................................... . H315 Causes skin irritation. H317 May cause an allergic skin reaction. H319 Causes
serious eye irritation. H332 Harmful if inhaled. H360 May damage fertility or the unborn
child. H410 Very toxic to aquatic life with long lasting effects.

Underlayment Self-Leveling contains silica, crystalline
quartz; portland cement; calcium aluminate;
anhydrite; limestone, calcium carbonate; aluminum
oxide; limestone; gypsum