Major issue, copper experts please chime in!!!!

[brad s1]

I woke up two days ago to a buzzing noise in my tank, upon closer inspection it became apparent someone at some point in the night tripped over a power cord which was left out in front of my newly setup 65 reef... Careless on my part to have wires out in front of the tank.

Without going into too much detail I found my fuge light had fallen into the fuge, I lost all my inverts and the fish were sickly looking.

I tested the basics at first and it all seemed normal, until I tested for copper which was nearly off the scale... Within two hours of making this discovery I did a full water change, re-tested, and copper levels dropped to a readable level, ".15," which is apparently a, "normal," dose. The fish returned to normal, but the corals are obviously still not happy.

Day two of this fiasco I added a bottle of NovAqua which is supposed to remove copper, I added 4 large poly filters, and two bags of chem pure in addition to another full water change, copper at the tap was zero.

I tested again last night and copper is now down to between zero and .10

Is it a lost cause attempting to remove copper through filters, chemicals, and water changes? Should I just start over? Somewhat upsetting since I lost corals and shrimp that have been with me for years and years, not to mention the large investment I just make in live sand and rock for a 65g tank.

Anyone deal with copper issues like this before? Any info would be great!

[bertoni]

I'd use a lot of fresh activated carbon, water changes, and a PolyFilter or two.

This type of problem does happen from time to time. It's always unpleasant.

[demonsp]

A full water change is very bad and can cause a recycle or mini cycle that fish could tolerate much more then coral.Changeing anymore then 33% at a time is very dangerous. I lost an expensive light timer to water damage which only happened a few days after i purchased and i didnt mount on the wall yet. You need to get the powercords up and with a loop and use a powerstrip with a built in breaker to help prevent this.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Cuprisorb might also be a good choice.

[brad s1]

Originally posted by demonsp
A full water change is very bad and can cause a recycle or mini cycle that fish could tolerate much more then coral.Changeing anymore then 33% at a time is very dangerous. I lost an expensive light timer to water damage which only happened a few days after i purchased and i didnt mount on the wall yet. You need to get the powercords up and with a loop and use a powerstrip with a built in breaker to help prevent this.

Eh, never had an experience where a huge water change killed anything I could see. I have experienced a re-cycle based on a large change but in this case it's the lesser of the two evils wouldn't you say? 33% wouldn't have been nearly enough to get copper down to an acceptable level... Even when the tank does recycle, I watch the chemistry and make changes too quickly for a spike to get too toxic.


I woke up this morning to the return in the sump dry... I have a baffle in the intake to return section which is full of poly pad... in one night they turned green and water is hardly flowing through them now... There is alot of copper leeching out of the system still.

Unless someone has another idea my strategy is to just keep it fish only while checking the copper levels over the next month, doing water changes and keeping up on copper removal media... I hope in a month or two I can hold it at zero.

A friend picked up what was left of my inverts and corals, so it's fish only, with just a harlequin shrimp who hasn't molted in a while.

[brad s1]

Originally posted by Randy Holmes-Farley
Cuprisorb might also be a good choice.

I have to check to see if the store stocks that... I did read about that last night and it seems like another good option.

[hypernesia]

If you have live rock in your tank it most definitely is taking up some of the copper in the tank, you may want to replace the live rock

[brad s1]

Update for you guys, the poly pads removed all the copper in the water down to zero ppm.

I made my fuge closed loop for now, washed it, replaced the substrate and I've got several small inverts living in there zero ppm copper.

I'm using acid on sunday for my live rock, and laying a new display substrate...

Looks like I might be in the clear!

[bertoni]

Sounds good so far! Good luck!

[hypernesia]

Good luck