Need help with high zinc and copper

seerad · Mar 24, 2023

Welp, I migrated from a 29g Biocube to a secondhand 75g custom tank with sump (and some rock to supplement what I had) a couple of months ago, everything level wise has been pretty solid for the most part minus some elevated phosphorous (which I used phosguard on). But I lost a lot of coral. Lots of tests at home (with Hanna equipment) and at LFS (a very reputable national company) were all good and within reason for a new tank. They eventually recommended an ICP test to do a more thorough check of my water. I did the test and then a 30% water change after. I just got the results and my chlorine is slightly elevated, but my zinc and copper are really high. I see no exposed metal anywhere, I thoroughly cleaned the tank with citric acid and rinsed, i buy my water from the LFS, I don't wear lotion or spray any fragrance in the room. I'm at a complete loss for how it's elevated and how to best get it back to a safe level.
I also have a handful low but those are manageable with dosing and I think touching on thriving coral not surviving coral.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 25, 2023

If real, the copper is still very high. Zinc may also be a concern at that level.

Chlorine is chloride and just means the salinity is high.

My suggestion is to use a metal binding materials such as a polyfilter, metasorb, or cuprisorb.

Any chance the rock or sand got exposed to copper treatments?

Rabidsquirrel · Mar 25, 2023

My procedure for removing copper after dosing my 210g for ich:

1st round: 500 ml of cuprisorb - exhausted itself very fast, brought copper from 2.5 down to 1.75ish
2nd round: 500 ml of cuprisorb - exhausted itself slower, brought copper to under .5
3rd round: small poly filter, turned bright blue, brought copper lower
4th round: 500 ml of cuprisorb - removed most of the copper, hit the lower limit of the Hannah checker. Added back snails and corals. No snails died, some corals were angry.
5th round: small poly filter again. No 'visible' copper on the poly filter after a week. Previously angry corals are now happy.

All in all, it took about 2 months to remove the 16+ ounces of copper power I put into the tank.

seerad · Mar 25, 2023

Thanks all. Figured this out and tank is being treated with cuprisorb and activated carbon.

One of the connectors in the return plumbing had been replaced with a brass connector. I saw on another thread that brass = copper and zinc and immediately checked every connector and sure enough. Hate it happened, glad it’s figured out and I just finished swapping it

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 25, 2023

seerad said:
Thanks all. Figured this out and tank is being treated with cuprisorb and activated carbon.

One of the connectors in the return plumbing had been replaced with a brass connector. I saw on another thread that brass = copper and zinc and immediately checked every connector and sure enough. Hate it happened, glad it’s figured out and I just finished swapping it

Sounds like a good plan.

Good luck!