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Copper??!?!!?

Hello everyone! I haven't posted in forever and ever, hope everyone that is still around is doing wel.

I need some thoughts and help -- I've downsized my 180 and am moving to a 57 gallon Edge. In the inbetween time, I've moved some rock, my three remaining fish and a few softies into my old 29 (it's always been SW - the tank I started with 15 years ago)

I moved all my snails and shrimp over to the 29 a month or so ago. Within three days everyone was dead (just the inverts). On a lark, I tested for copper and guess what, detectable levels of copper. I've NEVER used copper in this tank so I can't figure out where it came from. I did notice that when I put my new light fixture on the tank, that the old one had some corrosion around the back edge - could that be the source? I did massive water changes and it's less, but stilll slightly detectable.

I'm obviously not going to use any of this water in my 57 BUT is it safe to use the LR? I'm going to scream if I can't as it's all at least 15 years old and I saved the most beautiful pieces for my new tank.
 

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
When you say detectable, at what level are you detecting it? Even if you had once used the 57 with copper, once the tank was cleaned, all the copper would have been “washed” away. Copper doesn’t stick to glass or silicone. However, if rock was exposed to copper, it’s done unless you wish to repeatedly soak and rinse in fresh water. So it’s a mystery where this copper came from. The corrosion from the old light fixture, is that copper? I would think that the only way highly oxidized copper form a light fixture could find its way into your tank is if you had continually drizzled saltwater through the corroded portions.


The other though I had about your snails dying simply from transferring to a new tank without acclimation. Snails are intolerant of even the smallest fluctuations in water parameters and therefore require slow drip acclimation when going from one tank to another. I’m assuming you had all new water in the new tank when you set it up. If you used the old water from your 180, now I’m really scratching my head.
 
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