How much copper is too much/a cause for alarm?

[gray808]

I have an RO/DI system, and make my saltwater from that.
I've been settingg up a QT tank, so was using my Hanna HR Copper checker to ensure I had that dosed with Copper Power correctly.
I'd only used it once before, when I first got it, on my DT.
Today, I decided to run a full gamut of tests (my goal is to run a full set every couple weeks, so I have a baseline to track in 5-6 months when I start to think about corals). No fish or CUC in the DR at all.

Today I ran a copper test on my tank, with the Hanna reading 0.02ppm, the exact same it was 3 weeks ago when I gave it a test run on tank water.

What's the line with when to worry about copper? I assume 0.02ppm is negligible and shouldn't have any effect... correct?

--Gray

 

[dwest]

I have an RO/DI system, and make my saltwater from that.
I've been settingg up a QT tank, so was using my Hanna HR Copper checker to ensure I had that dosed with Copper Power correctly.
I'd only used it once before, when I first got it, on my DT.
Today, I decided to run a full gamut of tests (my goal is to run a full set every couple weeks, so I have a baseline to track in 5-6 months when I start to think about corals). No fish or CUC in the DR at all.

Today I ran a copper test on my tank, with the Hanna reading 0.02ppm, the exact same it was 3 weeks ago when I gave it a test run on tank water.

What's the line with when to worry about copper? I assume 0.02ppm is negligible and shouldn't have any effect... correct?

--Gray

The Hanna copper checker is great. But I’ve read at least a couple of times that is not accurate at low levels. But if you have used copper in your display you’ll likely need to use cuprisorb and poly filters to be able to grow corals.

How To Remove Copper From DT

First of all, best practice is to NEVER dose copper in a display tank, and to use a quarantine tank. It is much easier and safer. Copper in a DT can heavily dampen your nitrogen cycle in your tank, and will leach in to your rock, substrate, and equipment. As a result, the amount of copper...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[gray808]

Nope, no copper ever been used in the tank.
I've thought about getting their Low Range (0 to 999 ppb/0-0.99ppm) to replace the HR I have ( 0.00 to 5.00 ppm), though it works fine for the range I need for a QT.

--Gray

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The Hanna checker is NOT (IMO) suitable for measuring whether copper is low enough. It appears to be far to noisy and inclined to show copper when none is there. Many folks get nonzero readings near the low end, then see far lower or no copper when testing by ICP.

Use it for medication levels, not for reef tank levels.

 

[gray808]

... this still leaves the question unanswered: How much is too much?

I'm fine with a little noise (and 0.02ppm sounds like noise to me), as long as that background noise level is lower than whatever the "start to worry" level is, which is what I am trying to find out?

Also: what is ICP?

Y'all seem addicted to acronyms

--Gray

 

[piranhaman00]

Get the low range one.

 

[MastaMind82]

... this still leaves the question unanswered: How much is too much?

I'm fine with a little noise (and 0.02ppm sounds like noise to me), as long as that background noise level is lower than whatever the "start to worry" level is, which is what I am trying to find out?

Also: what is ICP?

Y'all seem addicted to acronyms

--Gray

I believe they are referring to ICP Testing.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Get the low range one.

No, do not buy any copper kit or device for use in a reef tank. They are not accurate at the low levels required.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

...Also: what is ICP?

Y'all seem addicted to acronyms

--Gray

let’s not get carried away. Only chemistry nerds ever use anything except the term icp. You would be no more enlightened if I used the term inductively coupled plasma.

I didn’t give a level of copper that is Ok vs not ok because it doesn’t work that way. The toxicity of copper is highly dependent on the organics that bind the copper, and you will not know what those are in any given tank. It also depends on the organisms in question.

10 ppb is likely ok. 100 ppb is likely not ok.

 

[gray808]

let’s not get carried away. Only chemistry nerds ever use anything except the term icp. You would be no more enlightened if I used the term inductively coupled plasma.

I would, actually, since the only ICP I'd heard of til now was Insane Clown Posse. Googling "ICP" will find a lot of posse, while Googling "ICP Testing" will get closer, and "inductively coupled plasma" would be specific enough to know it was (probably) not what you were talking about.

I'm only a low-grade chemistry nerd, though I liked it enough to try (and fail) to get a degree in molecular biology .

I didn’t give a level of copper that is Ok vs not ok because it doesn’t work that way. The toxicity of copper is highly dependent on the organics that bind the copper, and you will not know what those are in any given tank. It also depends on the organisms in question.

10 ppb is likely ok. 100 ppb is likely not ok.

Thanks, I was looking for exactly that: a rough, general guide as to whether I should immediately worry about 0.02ppm, and the answer seems to be: If the 0.02ppm is correct, it's within the range that I don't need to freak out.

Do you have any citation to where I could read that the Hanna Low Copper checker is not reliable at low amounts?
And does it NEED to be accurate? I mean how inaccurate is it? Is a reading of 1ppb likely to actually be 1000ppb?
Wouldn't it still be useful to tell me if I've suddenly spiked from 0.02ppm to 1.000ppm?

--Gray

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

My corals looked bad at.14 on my Hanna. I had a bit of an issue with my ro. My tank runs .03 when I test and my sps are rocking. .02 will be fine and the test runs a .04 + or - error. Hope this helps. Put in some corals.