Had a heater explode a year ago

[bige]

About a year or longer ago, I had a heater explode. Fire and everything. Killed everything in my tank. Ran tons of extra carbon and even used heavy metal removing media for a while. I would buy test coral but only Xenia and Gsp would live. Kept changing water and about 6 months ago started adding things back. Fast forward to today and there is zero growth. Color is less each day. My water is pristine.
Calcium 420
Alk 3.2
Mg 1500
Nitrates 0
Phosphates undectable
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0

Always deflated acan

I have two clown fish so lite bioload.

What can I do. I'm being patient but nothing seems to make coral happy.

 

[ritter6788]

I would guess there must be some residual metals in the water. Copper possibly which I've heard can be bound up in silicone and live rock/sand and released later. I'm not sure how truthful that is but it certainly sounds like a possibility in your case. Have you tried running Polyfilter pads?

 

[bige]

I didn't try poly filter pad but I did run that seachem heavy metal media for 3 months. Is there a test that can show every thing in the water?

 

[wysiwyg]

it might be mercury depending on the heater. but most likely some copper residue leaching from somewhere

 

[Loki]

You could take it to a lab. A local college may be a good starting point, and it shouldn't cost anything/much

 

[ritter6788]

I have no experience with it but I thought there was some pad (polyfilter? maybe someone else can chime in here) that changed colors if copper was present in the water. I might be way off here but seems like I've read about it before.

 

[wysiwyg]

here you go if it is copper here is a poly filter i found
[h=3]5. Poly-Filter Pad[/h]PriceGrabber
With the Poly-Bio Filter Pad by Poly-Bio-Marine, Inc., water impurities like phosphate, nitrate, copper, silicate, and even ammonia are absorbed. The pads can be regenerated by simple rinsing in saltwater (saltwater use can be regenerated by the reverse, rinsing in freshwater). Simply roll or cut the pad to any shape, place it inside a canister filter or incorporate it into any type filtration system to easily remove troublesome elements in saltwater aquariums.Read Review

 

[bige]

Thanks everyone. My friend use to be a chemistry professor at UT but he moved. Maybe I can see if he still knows some people. There use to be a web site that did all kinds of water tests. Does anyone know the site?