Metal contamination - water changes to lower it

[Tidywork]

Hi

I have 300l tank. Fairly new, bought second hand. Struggled with everything, eventually first icp showed copper and nickel.
copper at 87ppb and nickel at 24ppb

I did triton detox, applied Cuprisorb.
also did few water changes since a bit better generally yet still there’s something not right judging by the corals.

I can only think of rocks leaching either copper or nickel that’s been absorbed earlier. I keep Cuprisorb to help with copper but nickel has to be removed with water changes

now questions
What’s against me doing more frequent water changes instead of weekly one. I was thinking one every two or three day depending on how corals look ..
Would I do something wrong ?

 

[KrisReef]

Match the water change parameters for the big 3 to your tank and the plan should not cause any issues other than the desired reduction of contamination. Be careful not to eliminate nutrients if you are running uln.

 

[WheatToast]

My solution might be very incorrect, but could it be possible to combat the presence of these metals with tap water conditioner as many claim to neutralize “heavy metals” (though this term seems quite vague)?
@Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Snoopy 67]

POLYFILTER

 

[ZombieEngineer]

Carbon will remove both. I would run that in addition to the cuprisorb.

Polyfilter will also work really well for this but is quite pricey. Worth the cost though if you see declining coral health as it acts pretty fast.

 

[Tidywork]

Thanks for replies

tap water conditioner - I know it exists but no one ever suggested and because of that wouldn’t like to try so not to loose more corals.

carbon yes of course I’m using it - it’s sooo slow to do anything though

Cuprisorb doesn’t change colour. I had it for some time and beads colour it’s pretty much like new.

Poly filter… I’ve read good things about it in internet however local expert in one of the shops says it’s useless - way worse than Cuprisorb. Yet he might have been using some other type of poly filter because there’s so many of them ..

I’ve done triton detox , done some water changes. Keep Cuprisorb and activated carbon in. All is better for sure yet it’s still some way from ideal .. corals that were impacted by these metals are looking quite miserable but one goniopora I got yesterday looks ok, quite good I’d say .. so looks like water is better than before.

anyway I’m still not sure if one can do too many water changes .. in terms of nutrients ( nitrate and phosphate ) I can simply add more fish food and these will be high again in no time ..

Lastly what’s actually worse in my case. Copper or nickel.
again to remind you guys
Copper 87ppb
Nickel 24ppb

triton advises about nickel quote “Your Nickel levels are dangerously high.”

thanks for all your input

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for replies

tap water conditioner - I know it exists but no one ever suggested and because of that wouldn’t like to try so not to loose more corals.

carbon yes of course I’m using it - it’s sooo slow to do anything though

Cuprisorb doesn’t change colour. I had it for some time and beads colour it’s pretty much like new.

Poly filter… I’ve read good things about it in internet however local expert in one of the shops says it’s useless - way worse than Cuprisorb. Yet he might have been using some other type of poly filter because there’s so many of them ..

I’ve done triton detox , done some water changes. Keep Cuprisorb and activated carbon in. All is better for sure yet it’s still some way from ideal .. corals that were impacted by these metals are looking quite miserable but one goniopora I got yesterday looks ok, quite good I’d say .. so looks like water is better than before.

anyway I’m still not sure if one can do too many water changes .. in terms of nutrients ( nitrate and phosphate ) I can simply add more fish food and these will be high again in no time ..

Lastly what’s actually worse in my case. Copper or nickel.
again to remind you guys
Copper 87ppb
Nickel 24ppb

triton advises about nickel quote “Your Nickel levels are dangerously high.”

thanks for all your input

Which icp company? Not all give reliable data.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

This discusses the issue a bit:

How We Use ICP-OES Results Of Unknown Accuracy And Precision

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE This article was authored by @Dan_P, @taricha and @Rick Mathew. We collaborated in the development of the experimental methods, the cost of the project and the analysis of the data. The project was started in August of 2021 with the purpose of understanding the quality of the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you think the results are accurate, and cuprisorb didn’t help, I would look carefully for exposed metal parts in the water.