Resolving issues caused by copper in the water...

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kittyhazelton

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 25, 2007
693
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16
Upper Valley VT/NH
So, it's been a few months since I've moved to my new house. My tank has slowly been rolling downhill...
Well, we think we may know why. It was discovered that we live not-too-far from a copper mine. The water in our well obviously has traces of copper in it as is noticeable from the lovely green stains I have to clean off of my shower every once in a while, and a rather metallic-y taste in my drinking water. The amount of which we aren't real sure of, but over the course of 5 months we've LOST the following...
Snowflake Morray Eel
Engineer Goby
Green Carpet Goby
a huge rock that was covered in Anthelia
Pulsing Xenia coral
Atlantic Anemone
at LEAST 5 turbo snails
Blue Tuxedo Urchin
Green serpent starfish
And my big toadstool leather coral looks like it's on it's way out. doesn't stick out it's tentacles as much as it used to, and just in general appears a little deflated
The remaining fish seem more than healthy, our cleaner shrimp seem to be doing fine as is noted by the frequent "sheddings" we find in the tank, our hermit crabs seem active and happy. We have a rock covered in green waving hand polyps that seem to be doing great, mushrooms seem fine, and our ricordia mushroom rock seems to be happy.
Standard test kits for PH, Phosphate, Nitrite/Nitrate, Amonia, calcium, etc. do not reveal anything unusual. My freshwater tanks are doing excellent, even my catfish are fat and happy, but my SW tank is limping along. Does anyone have any good ideas how to resolve this? What can I do to help out my tank, or do I just have to be very cautious of what I put in the tank from here on out as far as it's tolerance of copper goes. Advice would be great, I've lost a lot of money in this.
 
the coral and inverts should have died LONG before the fish did and if the fish are dying it's probably more than just copper (you need like a .5 ppm ammount to start killing fish)

also with the size reef tank you have it's just a smart idea to get an RO/DI filter anyways
 
agree. www.drsfostersmith.com usually carry cheap units. Mine is just a coralife unit and it produces 24gpd which is plenty for my 120. www.thefilterguys.biz also sells good quality units, but can cost slightly more. they also have great customer service and will answer any questions you have.

I would recommend a solid test on your water to see what every level is. even straight well water will contain a lot of water city tap water will just in less elevated levels. RO water will remove all of these chemicals and will increase the stability of your tank.

After you figure out what your going to do with water, hold off on adding anything else until you get your tank stable. Id say around 3 months of strong water changing habits and testing to ensure everything is were it should be, and you will probably be in the clear. Have patience, test the water and post your findings.

levels to test for:
ph
salinity
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
calicum
ALK/DKH
and of course get a copper test kit, as thats what your currently suspecting. one thing to keep in mind that copper is usually in a tank to stay, once its introduced. google it and read up on some of the information listed.
 
sweeTang21;2745781; said:
levels to test for:
ph
salinity
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
calicum
ALK/DKH
and of course get a copper test kit, as thats what your currently suspecting. one thing to keep in mind that copper is usually in a tank to stay, once its introduced. google it and read up on some of the information listed.
Click to expand...

See this is the problem. I have used both the dip strip and liquid test strips on my water and niether of them have revealed anything "out of the norm" regarding what is USUALLY tested for. This is why I'm confused as to what's going on. Fish themselves seem to be doing ok, but any of the scaleless fish I had before the move ended up dying off which I've suspected was due to the copper levels. Freshwater fish seem unphased by the water though, so I don't know. I haven't added anything new to the tank since the move eccept for a very grumpy clownfish and a couple of chromis, and those seem to be doing perfectly fine. Anything I've lost so far was stuff I had before the move, so I don't know if it's just a shock to them or what. Also, mind, this didn't happen overnight. I've been in the new place for about 5 months now and kept very careful eye on the reef tank during the "start back up" process for fear of going through a mini-cycle after breaking down and putting back up the tank. I had a bit of a spike early on (within the first couple weeks of the move) but since then stuff that your standard test kit tests for has been normal.
 
If I were you I would start by getting the tap water tested at a place where they sell water. They will give you a list of minerals and other stuff that are present in your tap water. After knowing the levels of different minerals in your tap water it will be easier to find the problem.
 
it is a weird situation. Id say just test your cooper and we'll go from there. once we have that level we'll know more about what could be happening and even if it is cooper in the first place. We'll wait and see.
 
and to add to all of that.... throw out the dip strips. They are unreliable and do not provide the correct information. Invest in a true test kit. Then get us the readings from that.
 
kittyhazelton;2744206; said:
.....It was discovered that we live not-too-far from a copper mine. The water in our well obviously has traces of copper in it as is noticeable from the lovely green stains I have to clean off of my shower every once in a while, and a rather metallic-y taste in my drinking water.......
Click to expand...


Thats a sign of limescale, hard water....not copper....This does not sound like an issue with copper..

Out of interest, what size aquarium is this?
 
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