jamesdean3 Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 made a very rookie mistake and used a copper fitting over night on my return line as a replacement ball valve. Today everything in my tank, zoas, Xenia, hammers, all look terrible !! zoas are closed up completely and xenia are looking transparent and are definatley suffering, fish do seem fine and no death of snails/hermits/shrimps. Do you think that a NEW copper fitting would cause all this trouble if ran for such a short period of time( less than 24 hrs) and if so is the tank salvagable? Any advised would be helpiful thanks everyone in advance p.s. performed a 20 % water cahnge now and plan on one tomorrow. Did add some meliplex for corals and a copper removal additive to the water ; also copper test did not show any amounts of traceable Cu. Nitrates nitrites ammonia phosphates, 0 & sal 1.260 and average temp around 78-80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemirn Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 (edited) made a very rookie mistake and used a copper fitting over night on my return line as a replacement ball valve. Today everything in my tank, zoas, Xenia, hammers, all look terrible !! zoas are closed up completely and xenia are looking transparent and are definatley suffering, fish do seem fine and no death of snails/hermits/shrimps. Do you think that a NEW copper fitting would cause all this trouble if ran for such a short period of time( less than 24 hrs) and if so is the tank salvagable? Any advised would be helpiful thanks everyone in advance p.s. performed a 20 % water cahnge now and plan on one tomorrow. Did add some meliplex for corals and a copper removal additive to the water ; also copper test did not show any amounts of traceable Cu. Nitrates nitrites ammonia phosphates, 0 & sal 1.260 and average temp around 78-80 You should wait for the experts to reply, but I would put some of the inverts and some of the coral in another tank (if you have some salt water prepared) since they are easy to catch, in case your main tank's inverts/corals don't make it. Copper binds to organic stuff, so I'd run a skimmer continuously and keep changing the water even if the copper test shows zero. I think the main concern is the copper getting into your LR and sand, but one night of running that fitting doesn't seem like it would do too much. Edited March 10, 2011 by nemirn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 I like the idea of continuopus protein skimming. I would also use carbon. While carbon does not remove copper, it does remove a lot of bad things. I am not familiar with hobbiest test kits for copper. It is obvious by the behavior of your corals that copper is in the water. Use a better test kit, maybe bring a sample to a state lab or the chemistry classroom at school. Plenty of other micro-inverts are going to be in trouble. Continue with the partial water changes. From the point of view of money lost, I would find a temporary home for the expensive corals. I assume that you have already removed the copper/brass valve from your system. If you neet a place to store your corals, I have a 75 G tank that at this time has no fish or corals. I use it for growout of seaweed as well as coral growout. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 What they said, "Poly Filter" should pull copper out and I'd use it in addition to the carbon and water changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesdean3 Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Thank you everybody who has repsonded so quickly.... Today i work up and did another 20% water change and have been running the protien skimmer full blast. I did another dose of NovaAqua Plus and am hoping for the best. Checking the tank i haven't seen any snails/hermits/or shrimps suffering or dying at all and my zoas are starting to open up slightly, ( lights haven't come on yet so this makes me feel a little better they are already opening up). Plan on doing yet anohter 20 % change tonight after work and see what happens.... I keep everyone posted on my situation, and PLEASE any more advise will be grealty appreciated novice or expert. Thanks again everyone, moments like these make me really appreciate this club being there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+etannert Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 +1 Polyfilter. It will pull out any contaminants and better yet, it changes colors based on what the contaminant is, so you will know in a day or less if you have copper in the water. They have it at AquaTek, I think it's less than $20. And keep running a lot of carbon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonSequitur Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 All I can suggest is water changes, polyfilter in an area with a lot of water turnover (the more water it comes into contact with, the better chance it has of absorbing the contaminants) and skimming. As Subsea said, plenty of micro-inverts are going to be having trouble, so skim aggressively to keep your nutrients under control as they die off, but expect another cycle (how big of a cycle is impossible to know). Adding amquel can help detoxify ammonia, but can cause your skimmer to foam, so use it with caution. If you have the option of temporarily relocating your corals and other sensitive inverts, that would be an excellent idea. It sounds like you're doing the right things, the only other ingredient I can think of is time for your tank to heal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesdean3 Posted March 10, 2011 Author Share Posted March 10, 2011 Does anybody Think because my snails and hermits are doing well this might not be bad as I am panicking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Does anybody Think because my snails and hermits are doing well this might not be bad as I am panicking? In my opinion it is a good sign that snails and hermits are not suffering. Keep the Faith Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wa1tx Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Any update? How are things looking? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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