Copper still kicking my butt in DT

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

Ive had other threads not long ago about having a copper reading of 0.10 up to 0.15 in my tank with the hanna checker consistently for the past couple of months. Im still waiting for the icp report but in the meantime i have tried absolutely everything, from draining the sump to check for any screw or anything, to using polyfilter, cuprisorb the works. I have new equipment on everything and so far nothing is rusting, no heater, mp40s, (highly doubt my return pump has any metal). Rocks i got them dry from marco. I used live sand and apart from all my sps dying my parameters have been very stable. For the past month ive had my alk at a consistent 8.2- 8.6 aswell as my calcium and magnesium. I even took a picture of my polyfilter after a week and it has no trace of copper since its not blue, my cuprisorb bag that ive had in my overflow box for the last month has also stayed the same color. Now ive tested my RODI which has 0 tds and has no copper reading aswell as my tropic marin pro saltwater with the same hanna checker. Now i am getting good coralline growth and all my inverts are fine, have a ton of pods and critters on the glass at night so im totally in the lost here, have any of you guys experienced this?

Apotack · Apr 25, 2020

test Kit giving false reading?

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

Apotack said:
test Kit giving false reading?

I thought about that but then i took multiple tests of my RODI and then my tank water and its consistent with those numbers. Sometimes the copper reading in my tank fluctuated between 0.10 all the way down to 0.03 but then after a day goes back to 0.10.

kevin_e · Apr 25, 2020

wait, your rodi is giving you the same numbers?

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

kevin_e said:
wait, your rodi is giving you the same numbers?

No my rodi is reading 0

Apotack · Apr 25, 2020

Might want to get a few cheap frags as a test

Hugh Mann · Apr 25, 2020

Have you tried testing a fresh rodi/salt mix? Doubtful, but maybe your salt was contaminated?

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

Hugh Mann said:
Have you tried testing a fresh rodi/salt mix? Doubtful, but maybe your salt was contaminated?

Yea i tested fresh tropic marin saltwater and it read 0, the only thing i can think off is my marinepure blocks? Has it been known to leech copper?

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

Apotack said:
Might want to get a few cheap frags as a test

Yea i got a $5 birdsnest that slowly bleached out after 3 weeks, ive also lost a slimeball anacropora that i got from WWC live sale aswell as a purple aussie acro, rainbow monti and orange montipora setosa, all my cyphastreas have also died, chalices among others. The only thing thats thriving right now is GSP and xenias. Even my zoas are all closed some have even melted and they used to be fine before.

kevin_e · Apr 25, 2020

Was this a used tank by chance?

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

kevin_e said:
Was this a used tank by chance?

No its a marineland 75 gallon that i bought new from petco about 8 months ago.

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

@Randy Holmes-Farley have you ever seen something like this happen?

bubbaque · Apr 25, 2020

This was happening to me with the Hanna checker as well. I sent out an icp and copper came back as 0. I wouldn’t stress about it.

Reef-Tank · Apr 25, 2020

could be some metal rusting inside the aquarium.

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

bubbaque said:
This was happening to me with the Hanna checker as well. I sent out an icp and copper came back as 0. I wouldn’t stress about it.

I was thinking that maybe the hanna just reads my tank water wrong for some reason since the polyfilter and cuprisorb arent showing anything strange.

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

Reef-Tank said:
could be some metal rusting inside the aquarium.

Maybe but must be something else the the equipment since i checked everything.

Apotack · Apr 25, 2020

If you have inverts and pods that are unaffected, polyfilter and cuprisorb not showing copper I don’t think you have a problem with copper. Your problem is something else. What’s your lighting like?

mfinn · Apr 25, 2020

Did you try getting a different box of testing reagents for the hanna checker?
Did you add copper to the tank at one time?
If not, why did you test for copper?

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

Apotack said:
If you have inverts and pods that are unaffected, polyfilter and cuprisorb not showing copper I don’t think you have a problem with copper. Your problem is something else. What’s your lighting like?

Well i currently have 4 kessil a360x getting 300 average PAR on the upper rockwork and 200 on the sand at %70 intensity with a 12 hour light cycle. Also my 2 blood shrimp and all my snails are doing perfectly fine, infact i see my nassarious snails laying eggs all the time.

Marc2952 · Apr 25, 2020

mfinn said:
Did you try getting a different box of testing reagents for the hanna checker?
Did you add copper to the tank at one time?
If not, why did you test for copper?

I ha e bought 3 different boxes, 1 from amazon and 2 from my LFS and they all show the same thing. Also i have never added copper to my DT, infact i didnt even have a QT until recently when most of my fish died to velvet, had a dino problem that got really bad but im currently beating it since ive gotten my phosphates up to 0.10 ( i know its a little high but i had to do it do help with dinos.