Finding copper source

[Dorado]

Last month, I lost a large established acro colony and after testing all my parameters with normal results, I immediately sent in an ICP. Everything looked pretty normal except for one thing, copper was reading 3.96ug/l. I started checking powerheads and pumps, magnets anything that could be the cause. The only thing that I found was a frag rack magnet that looked a little suspicious, so I got rid of it. I then bought some cuprisorb and put it in a mesh bag in the sump. Hoping I may have found the culprit, I waited a couple of weeks to see if the cuprisorb did its job and then sent in another ICP. Much to my dismay, the copper reading this time is at 7.86ug/l!!! Both times the tests for my RO/DI water showed 0 copper. How do I go about finding the culprit? Any tricks or ideas? Most of the corals look pretty good with nice polyp extension, but there are a few that are not as happy as they used to be. The tank is a 140g, been up and running for 2 years now.

 

[fishguy242]

Pump in mixing container ?
Trace amounts in any regular used additives?
Would recommend metazorb over cupisorb .

 

[Dorado]

Pump in mixing container ?
Trace amounts in any regular used additives?
Would recommend metazorb over cupisorb .

Thanks for the heads up, I just ordered metasorb and it should be here later today.

I checked the mixing pump, looks good.

I am a moonshiner so I add quite a bit of elements along with a couple KZ products. I also occasionally add a few bottled bacterias like PNS and microbacter. I would hope none of these have copper but no way of knowing. I also add phyto from someone online, but I have stopped dosing that just in case.

I’m going to do another check of pumps and power heads but besides doing a spot check of exposed parts, what else can I do? Dismantle each pump? I might try running a magnet through the sand to see if it picks up anything

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

FWIW, I would not be convinced those copper values are either accurate or a problem even if real. I’ve had my copper higher.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Which icp company?

 

[Dorado]

FWIW, I would not be convinced those copper values are either accurate or a problem even if real. I’ve had my copper higher.

I had read that you had said that in another thread which is a little comforting. That being said, I have had 10 ICPs in the last year saying that copper is at 0 and then all of a sudden 3.9 and then 7.8 which suggests it’s building. If I had gotten a 0 values with some low numbers occasionally thrown in there, I would be more inclined to think they were errors/inaccuracies.

 

[Dorado]

Which icp company?

ATI, is there another company you prefer?

 

[Dorado]

So, I've been racking my brain to think of anything else that I've added to my tank or done differently lately. One thing that came to me was that a couple months ago I ordered a live sand "seeder" along with a few other things from a popular online reefing website in an attempt to increase biodiversity. I had placed this live sand in the sump and today I ran a magnet through that sand and found several magnetic rocks. Could these rocks be the answer to my problem? I know that copper isn't magnetic, but it might possibly be mixed in? Regardless, I plan on cleaning out that section of my sump.

 

[Dorado]

 

[bluemon]

I doubt that is the source of your problems. Especially if you are concerned with it somehow leeching ionic copper as copper isn't magnetic.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

ATI, is there another company you prefer?

I have no reason to think that one is an issue, but I have a slight preference for Oceamo based on interactions here with the owner who knows what he is doing.