Copper in Newly made SW

[ramabama]

Hello all. My display tank has been up for over a year with fish only and just added corals from a smaller tank I have. Corals are doing terrible. All parameters are in check except NO3 was very low. Got this up to around 10 (slowly over a 2 week period) and has had zero impact on corals.

So I have the Hanna High Range Copper tester I use for my QT. I thought what the heck lets test and see what we get. Test from display was .22ppm. I was like that doesnt sound good but honestly dont know. Further testing:

• Display .22ppm
• RODI water 0.0pp m
• Newly made SW .17ppm

All this to ask, What is the acceptable level of Copper in DT?

 

[Crabs McJones]

What salt mix are you using, and what are you mixing your saltwater in?

 

[ramabama]

Using ESV salt and mixing in a plastic container like you use for storage. Do 10 gallons at a time and immediately do water change. Mix with a pond pump I picked up on Amazon.

 

[Idoc]

Using ESV salt and mixing in a plastic container like you use for storage. Do 10 gallons at a time and immediately do water change. Mix with a pond pump I picked up on Amazon.

Try mixing a batch by hand and then testing for copper... maybe the anazon pond pump is the source.

 

[ramabama]

Try mixing a batch by hand and then testing for copper... maybe the anazon pond pump is the source.

Def gonna give this a shot and see. I will post back with findings.

 

[ramabama]

Can someone confirm .22ppm in DT is unacceptable and needs to be addressed?

 

[ramabama]

Ran out of reagent for my Hanna tester. I wont be able to do further testing until Friday.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Can someone confirm .22ppm in DT is unacceptable and needs to be addressed?

If accurate, it is too high.

 

[Oberst Oswald]

Per Triton... is 3.33 ug/l also too high that I should be worried about more than usual? I'm now doing my six 15% water changes to bring it down. After 6 weeks I'll send another test to Triton. Found a 2 Little Fishies nori clip with a rusty magnet. We'll see if that was to culprit or if there are others.

 

[ramabama]

Got more reagent and tested DT again. DT is down from .22 ppm to .12 ppm using Hanna. I have been running cuprisorb for five days.

I am going to do more testing today mixing salt to see if I can narrow down the source.

 

[ramabama]

Mixed one gallon of SW by hand and got .01 ppm copper on the Hanna. Thats within +/- of the accuracy. Going to mix a batch with the pond pump and test.

 

[beaslbob]

From what I hear that level of copper is unacceptable.

Check the pump to see if anything touching the water is copper.

my .02

 

[ramabama]

Mixed 10 gallons with pond pump. Hanna test was .01 ppm.

Only other thing I changed with my mixing process was I used two clean cups to measure liquid component A and B.

Before when I was getting the copper readings in newly made SW I used one cup and washed it out with tap water between measuring A&B. I guess I could have been sloppy and left some tap water in the cup. Crazy to think that would cause it but its the only other variable I can think of.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Per Triton... is 3.33 ug/l also too high that I should be worried about more than usual? I'm now doing my six 15% water changes to bring it down. After 6 weeks I'll send another test to Triton. Found a 2 Little Fishies nori clip with a rusty magnet. We'll see if that was to culprit or if there are others.

For an in tank value, I would not assume it is too high.