Help with Copper Levels

bhbbhb · Sep 4, 2014

I am trying to determine if my Copper Levels are an issue. I have used Aquarium Water Testing to test my tank water. The Readings have been between .04 -.06 PPM Copper. I have a decent RO/DI unit with new filters. I have used the product Cuprisorb and activated Carbon. In order to try and determine if the copper level was increasing from the time water comes out of the sink until it has been in my tank for a while - I took several water samples. One right from the faucet - one right out of the RO/DI unit - one after I prepared the salt and of course one from the tank.

Well it seems the levels really are about .04 thought the whole process. The RO Unit is not reducing the tap water's copper content - the activated carbon and Cuprisorb are not reducing the levels and nothing in the tank seems t be adding to the copper level.

Should I be concerned about this level of copper? I have some corals - fish - fire shrimp and live rock. I was having some issues with my Hammer Coral and my Torch Coral and thought perhaps the copper levels had something to do with his. My other test results seemed ok.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
Bruce

redfishbluefish · Sep 4, 2014

Cuprisorb should remove any and all copper...both inorganic and organically bound. That leads me to believe the testing at Aquarium Water Testing is at or near the limits of their machine if a treated sample came back with no change. Did they mention the test method and machine used to determine copper. I would guess they are using ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) with either mass spec or optical emission spec. I think the machine we had had a limit of around 30 PPB. Also, ICP is measuring all copper......both inorganic (free) copper (the dangerous/more poisonous of the two), and organically bound copper. I would venture to say that the majority of copper in your tank is organically bound, and if not right away, shortly after it has been introducted. Accordingly, this will be partially removed by skimming and GAC.

Following along to hear from those with more knowledge.

beaslbob · Sep 4, 2014

copper could be affecting your corals and your copper levels and actually low but best to check the kit and the ro/di unit.

a refugium full of fast growing macro algaes will greatly help in maintaining low copper as the macros filter out the copper which is then removed by harvesting.

my .02

bhbbhb · Sep 4, 2014

Thanks for the input.
Bruce.

mcarroll · Sep 7, 2014

Copper is a necessary element of seawater, being crucial for some biological processes....think yours might be in the correct range.

Looks like .0009 ppm (or .9 ppb) is the natural level. Check out the first two links in the general chemistry section of my post up in the stickies section

-Matt

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 8, 2014

If you are still concerned, running a polyfilter and looking for a color change would be my approach.

bhbbhb · Sep 8, 2014

Thanks for the input - I have ran poly filters. Noticed no color change. My shrimp seem to be doing fine. I guess I will just watch it.
thanks again
Bruce

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 8, 2014

You're welcome.

I personally wouldn't worry then. I also don't know how accurate AWT's copper values are.

Happy Reefing.

redfishbluefish · Sep 8, 2014

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
If you are still concerned, running a polyfilter and looking for a color change would be my approach.

Randy, I was under the assumption that polyfilters worked well at relatively high doses of copper (i.e. a copper treated hospital tank), but were poor in removing very low levels of copper. OP's tank supposedly only has 40 to 60 PPB....note, that is a B as in billions.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Sep 8, 2014

Right. I tend to agree, but I've never heard of anyone having a biological problem from copper where a polyfilter didn't change color. I'm not sure what copper level they change at (or if it isn't just a matter of waiting longer for a change at lower levels) or even what copper levels are just enough to cause a biological problem (may depend on how the copper is bound by organics, as Ron Shimek found in his studies of copper toxicity in salt mixes).

I also do not know if Boyd still adds copper to Polyfilters they way they used to claim. They previously claimed they were pre-equilibrated with 31 ppb copper, and wouldn't lower it further. But I've not seen them claim that in a long time, perhaps because folks are now more concerned with adding it than with removing too much.