The brass fitting mistake!!!!

[moviepastor]

So I made a rookie mistake and put a brass fitting in a sump return for my tank. Soon after my corals died, my zoas closed, some snails died, an anemone died, two are kind of sick. I discovered the fitting last night after a couple months of use and pulled it out and re-plumbed that section of the sump.

I did a water change (10% was all the salt I had on hand Sunday night).
I run a carbon filter.
I dosed with a chem claiming to remove heavy metals like copper (kordon novaqua - made my skimmer go nuts).

The chemical reaction of Brass (copper and zinc) with saltwater create cuprous chlorides, hydrochloric acid, and cuprous sulfide. Probably some zinc compounds too.

I read that GFO will help with zinc??? I'll add gfo back to my reactor tonight.

I've read that certain poly pads claim to remove copper but not down in the 30 part per billion range which still may be toxic to inverts.

There is a resin media called cuprisorb by sea chem. I am going to pick up some of this to see if it can pull the copper. Kent marine has a toxic metal resin too (but they dont have it on amazon and im unlikely to find it locally)

has anyone had this problem and what else have you done? Any need to trash the substrate or live rock to prevent leeching or can it be pulled with filtration, chems and time?

I cant believe I did this! The good news is I moved my zoas to another tank and they rebounded.

Ack!!!!

 

[ReefMadScientist]

At this point, if it were me, I would just drain the tank, ditch any live rock and sand, clean the powerbeads and sump with good RODI water and start new.

Sorry man that sucks.

 

[moviepastor]

I put some cuprisorb in a HOB filter and the improvement in 24 hours is amazing!

 

[vlangel]

I put some cuprisorb in a HOB filter and the improvement in 24 hours is amazing!

Glad that things are turning around plus that is good to know for the rest of us.

 

[Texmex1951]

I’ve been struggling to figure out what is happening to my inverts and corals. I e run all kinds of water tests with now sign of imbalance. Your forum post is a mirror image of what I’m going through right now.

I have now removed my brass fittings and did about a 25% water change. I will be trying to get my hands on curprisorb now that you have mentioned it had good results. Thank you for sharing this learning!!!! You may have saved my tank!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Sorry this happened, but good you found the source.


Here is a good read to help. One thing I will throw in is Metasorb. I highly recommend using it

Two Little Fishes MetaSorb UHC Metals Adsorbing polymer

Two Little Fishes MetaSorb UHC Metals Adsorbing polymer Heavy Metal Thunder? An excess of heavy metals in the water is toxic to aquatic life. These metals may come from the water source, from foods, from artificial seawater mixes, corroding metal equipment, magnets, pumps, etc. Sudden...

www.aquacave.com

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