Copper at 25 mg/l in ICP

Beats001 · Feb 18, 2019

Copper at 25 mg/l, It must be from used live rock. Strangely all softies, lps and fish are good. Tho is this the cause of my sps issues? I have had snails die, but crabs, cucumbers and fire shrimp all good.

Liron Mishal · Feb 18, 2019

impossible. 25mg/l means 25ppm. this will kill everything. are you sure it's not 25u/l? (micro gram / liter)

LouieP · Feb 18, 2019

Test your water source. If you have a house with old copper pipes it could contribute to your copper issue.

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

Liron Mishal said:
impossible. 25mg/l means 25ppm. this will kill everything. are you sure it's not 25u/l? (micro gram / liter)

Thats what i thought too. Here are my ati icp results. I measure zero copper with salifert. I don't think they are correct either. They have my nitrates at 120 mg/l, I measure at zero with api and about 20 with red sea test kit.
//lab.atiaquaristik.com/share/53498ae564b422e42856

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

Included results as pdf here View attachment Analyse34922.pdf

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

Might be easier this way.

AcroNem · Feb 19, 2019

That copper reading is in ug/l or parts per billion. So yours is .023mg/l
Nitrates do seem very high. But if you have another new and mostly accurate kit to give you a ballpark I'd check that again.

Liron Mishal · Feb 19, 2019

LOL.. that's what i thought.. micro, not milli..
huge difference. i wouldnt do anything, 25 microgram / liter is

Liron Mishal · Feb 19, 2019

LOL.. that's what i thought.. micro, not milli..
huge difference. i wouldnt do anything, 25 microgram / liter is nothing to worry about

2una · Feb 19, 2019

High copper + zinc - you sure you don't have some brass fitting somewhere? On the RO unit maybe?
Any tunze solenoids used?(their brass)
Did the RO test have copper & zinc or just the tank?
Copper will make problems for your sps if too high - it makes them expell their zooxanthellae.
I think it can also nuke bacteria which won't help your no3 coming down any.
Seachem Cuprisorb will pull it out of the tank, somewhat the zinc also.

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

AcroNem said:
That copper reading is in ug/l or parts per billion. So yours is .023mg/l
Nitrates do seem very high. But if you have another new and mostly accurate kit to give you a ballpark I'd check that again.

Ah rite, I thought the funny symbol was a u. Thats good to know. I have emailed ati, for clarification.

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

2una said:
High copper + zinc - you sure you don't have some brass fitting somewhere? On the RO unit maybe?
Any tunze solenoids used?(their brass)
Did the RO test have copper & zinc or just the tank?
Copper will make problems for your sps if too high - it makes them expell their zooxanthellae.
It'll also nuke your bacteria which won't help your no3 coming down any.
Seachem Cuprisorb will pull it out of the tank, somewhat the zinc also.

Ok I will try the cuprisorb thanks for the tip. The RO results were all good except barium was elevated at around 2.7 And yes I do have a brass connector on one of my reactors, i'll take that straight off. Gonna do their reccommended 3 20% water changes. I am running a bag of carbon too. Thanks for input everyone

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

Beats001 said:
Ah rite, I thought the funny symbol was a u. Thats good to know. I have emailed ati, for clarification.

An m i mean not a u.

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

The guys at ati test nitrate using ionchromatography. And they reccommended salifert as the most accurate home test kit for nitrate. I have been using red sea. BRS rate red sea nitrate very accurate but hard to read.

AcroNem · Feb 19, 2019

2una said:
High copper + zinc - you sure you don't have some brass fitting somewhere? On the RO unit maybe?
Any tunze solenoids used?(their brass)
Did the RO test have copper & zinc or just the tank?
Copper will make problems for your sps if too high - it makes them expell their zooxanthellae.
I think it can also nuke bacteria which won't help your no3 coming down any.
Seachem Cuprisorb will pull it out of the tank, somewhat the zinc also.

The Cu level in OP's system is not harmful. It's almost not even there.

Beats001 said:
Ok I will try the cuprisorb thanks for the tip. The RO results were all good except barium was elevated at around 2.7 And yes I do have a brass connector on one of my reactors, i'll take that straight off. Gonna do their reccommended 3 20% water changes. I am running a bag of carbon too. Thanks for input everyone

And running activated carbon is a good idea either way, it'll be fine. Definitely do those water changes for No3 though

2una · Feb 19, 2019

AcroNem said:
The Cu level in OP's system is not harmful. It's almost not even there.

Be nice to see someone's icp that uses Zeospur that pushes the limit to see what it actually is , i've been 4-5 area before & its ok but that was from brass solenoid leaching. Up 20 area not for this kid.

Beats001 · Feb 19, 2019

AcroNem said:
The Cu level in OP's system is not harmful. It's almost not even there.

And running activated carbon is a good idea either way, it'll be fine. Definitely do those water changes for No3 though

What about my other parameters? I wander is any of them of concern specifically to sps? I think i will stop using lanthanum

2una · Feb 19, 2019

Watch the Tin also - some people have problems with low levels others can be high before they see problems, other than that nothing i see other than dose some iodine might help things along.
Lanthanum i don't know

Beats001 · Feb 20, 2019

2una said:
Watch the Tin also - some people have problems with low levels others can be high before they see problems, other than that nothing i see other than dose some iodine might help things along.
Lanthanum i don't know

What about zinc and barium, do you think these are anything to worry about?

2una · Feb 20, 2019

Beats001 said:
What about zinc and barium, do you think these are anything to worry about?

Yep , for me i wouldn't be comfortable with the zinc + copper or the tin levels.
If you going to follow thru & do the recommended waterchanges & run some cuprisorb it will lower them anyway.
Tins a wild card as to whether the level is a problem or not but should go down with the waterchanges.
The barium often comes with gfo use far as i recall - don't think i ever had it that high but maybe someone else has & can comment.
Aluminium based phos remover(white one) pulls it out i think....
GFO adds barium...AL phos remover adds aluminium....some switch back & forth between the 2 to stop either elevating too high