Is my rock leaching copper?

raythereefer

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So I had some old rock which I got ages ago and couldn't remember where I got it from. I bleached it, dried it out and soaked it in a dechlorinator. As I was unaware what kind of system it had been used in I thought I would check for copper leaching.

My hanna showed a result of 0.1 ppm , after a bit of research I saw how the hanna could be inaccurate at low levels. To play it safe I left it a couple of days and re tested and now it shows 0.14 ppm. Obviously there is a margin for error in those results but just worried it's rising and I have no more copper test kits. The test water looked perfectly clear to the eye. Planning on adding it to my tank for a re Scape. Would you say these are harmful levels ? Would you leave it longer and get some more reagents and make sure? Or am I worried about nothing?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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The Hanna is not suited for this purpose. It often reads false high at low levels. It’s really only useful for medication levels.
 
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raythereefer

raythereefer

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The Hanna is not suited for this purpose. It often reads false high at low levels. It’s really only useful for medication levels.
Do you think the level really is zero then or is there a different test I should use to confirm ?
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Do you think the level really is zero then or is there a different test I should use to confirm ?

If you are concerned about copper, I’d suggest an icp test. If you do not have reason to suspect there is copper, I would not bother.
 

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