Copper still kicking my butt in DT

[Cristy17]

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.

Except his corals are dying...so maybe something else going on...

 

[Apotack]

Where were the corals that you lost? How long has this tank been running?

 

[mfinn]

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.

I would contact either the vendor where you got the hanna checker or hanna themselves.

 

[Marc2952]

Where were the corals that you lost? How long has this tank been running?

Tanks been running for 7 months so far, i started with some zoas and mushrooms which where doing great ( my bobmarley grew from 5 polyps to 10 in less then 2 months) but then evrything started going downhill once i got dinos. Now only GSP, xenias and a leather coral are doing good. The corals that i got i had them on a frag rack almost on the sandbed for about a week and brought them up 1 inch each week but they started to fade in color and die.

 

[Marc2952]

I would contact either the vendor where you got the hanna checker or hanna themselves.

Interesting i will deff try that out, i will also test the water with someone elses hanna checker perhaps the LFS to be sure. This is so strange to me.

 

[Marc2952]

Have marinepure blocks been known to leech copper? I heard they can leech aluminum but hanna copper checkers wouldnt read that as copper right since its also a metal?

 

[Apotack]

I’m still sure you don’t have copper problem as it would be affecting all corals. Not sure what your issue or issues are but it’s not copper.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Also my 2 blood shrimp and all my snails are doing perfectly fine, infact i see my nassarious snails laying eggs all the time.

From my experience, if the copper was high enough to kill your corals, it would kill your inverts first. I'd be surprised if your ICP came back with anything other than 0.

 

[Marc2952]

I’m still sure you don’t have copper problem as it would be affecting all corals. Not sure what your issue or issues are but it’s not copper.

Yea good point, im at a lost here can dinos really kill corals like that? Its mostly on the sand now and slowly going away.

 

[Marc2952]

From my experience, if the copper was high enough to kill your corals, it would kill your inverts first. I'd be surprised if your ICP came back with anything other than 0.

Good point i always thought inverts would start dying too but instead they are doing perfectly fine, blood shrimps moltin every month ( which always freaks me out lol) once the test comes ill post it here to see what can be lacking.

 

[kyleThatGuy]

You said most of your fish was wiped out maybe because there’s no more fish the water was stripped of nutrients that’s all I can think of if everything else is perfect

 

[Marc2952]

You said most of your fish was wiped out maybe because there’s no more fish the water was stripped of nutrients that’s all I can think of if everything else is perfect

Yea i had to leave the tank fallow for 76 days, i just added the 3 fish left alive 2 days ago, but i have been dosing phosphates and nitrates to keep them at:
Nitrate 10ppm
Phosphate: 0.10 ( it was at 0 during the dino outbreak a couple of months ago somaybe that was the culprit

 

[kyleThatGuy]

Dino normally shows up in ultra low nutrients tanks and you said they slowly died over like 3 weeks so could just be slowly starving to death

 

[kevin_e]

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

I would wait for tge icp test then. Not a clue.

 

[Marc2952]

Ok lets see what this icp test shows! You guys are awesome btw

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

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

Yes, quite a few folks are getting what I think is a bad reading.

I do not think this checker is suitable for copper measurement in an operating reef tanks.

I've not seen a single person report a confirmation of such a reading by ICP,
and it is extremely rare to see anyone report such a reading by ICP (I don't recall any, but there might be some), while these checkers seem to do it all the time.

My conclusion: stop using it. Stop looking for copper sources. Get an ICP test if you are worried.

 

[Marc2952]

Yes, quite a few folks are getting what I think is a bad reading.

I do not think this checker is suitable for copper measurement in an operating reef tanks.

I've not seen a single person report a confirmation of such a reading by ICP,
and it is extremely rare to see anyone report such a reading by ICP (I don't recall any, but there might be some), while these checkers seem to do it all the time.

My conclusion: stop using it. Stop looking for copper sources. Get an ICP test if you are worried.

Thanks for the help hopefully the icp test comes this week, now im worried because ive been using that hanna checker for my QT aswell so theres a possibility that it was reading the right amount of copper for the treatment of velvet and ich.

 

[Marc2952]

Good news the icp finally arrived and there is no copper in my system as you guys said. The only thing that is high is aluminum and antimony? Iodine seems to be pretty low aswell. Any suggestions?

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Good news the icp finally arrived and there is no copper in my system as you guys said. The only thing that is high is aluminum and antimony? Iodine seems to be pretty low aswell. Any suggestions?

Forgive me if I'm missing something, but all I see in the report is a bunch of ∅ readings. How can that be?

 

[Marc2952]

Forgive me if I'm missing something, but all I see in the report is a bunch of ∅ readings. How can that be?

Oh i apologize i posted the RODI analysis, this is the tank one