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[chwkreefer]

I'm with you for the copper. I had the same problem on a place I rented for a few years. The previoius place I was using water straight from the tap and the corals looked good. I had a bit of algae problem, but overall the tank looked good and their was no copper. I was still fairly new in the hobby at the time.

Then we move to this newer place and slowly (but not too slowly) my corals start to look bad. My mushrooms are always shrunk with their inside showing.

After doing some some reading and thinking it dawned on me it sounded like copper poisioning. I wasn't growing much for green stuff either so another reason to suspect copper. Sure shootin I tested the water and their were High levels of copper in the tap water. I picked up a Tap Water Purifier the next day which is carbon and a deionizer and started do water changes. I also picked up some PURIGEN and started running that in the tank as the rock had all absorbed the copper. All the calcium based rock had absorbed the copper. But things slowly improved. It took about half a year and adding some new live rock and dumping a few pieces that obviously were loaded with copper judging by the growth patterns from rock to rock.

I've been ramblin on so long I forgot the question forgive me, but all I can say is you can put me down for copper plumbing ruining your reef tank if you don't filter the tap water. I was fairly new to the hobby at the time. It would never happen now. Now I run a 5 stage water filter.

Bill

[christyf5]

Yep copper, I'd tear down the tank, replace the rock/sand and the silicone to be safe. Bummer.

[midgetwaiter]

This is interesting, given the higher pH of the tap water in Calgary I would think significant heavy metal contamination is unlikely. Lots of older places, like my house for instance have copper pipes.

Aquarium Pharm makes a pretty cheap copper test kit, I'm not sure how good it is but it would be an easy way to start. Be sure to test the tank and the tap water, it's always possible that a silly guest or an accident resulted in a penny stuffed under a rock somewhere.

Chlorine is more unlikely to be the issue here. Calgary uses relatively little chlorine (no chloramine yet) and naturally being a gas it will be out of the water rater quickly. I don't treat any of my FW or FO tanks at all when I do water changes or top ups and the reef tanks only get it because of the clams and only if I haven't mixed the water overnight for some reason. It is possible for chlorine levels to be increased for a short period, bad run off from flooding for example, and that could cause problems but certainly not chronic problems for 10 years.

[Nate]

Hey Danny,

Tell Larry that I second your copper thoughts, and could getyo the necessary test kits/cuprisorb of necessary.

I too took a look at that tank, and saw nothing really wrong with it. I suggested he use carbon regularly, and not just the ehiem carbon.

NOt sure if he ever took any of my suggestions, but the tank looked fairly good, aside from the lack of algae.

If it is copper, at least he has probably never had a problem with ich!

Nate

[danny zubot]

Well since there's feed back that this is a probable theory I'll ask him to test for copper. I guess the reason why he hasn't been treating his tap water for chlorine is because a certain LFS owner doesn't, and told him that he doesn't need to. I explained that this reasoning is pure economics and not in the best interest of the corals.

Thanks everyone for your feed back.

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by danny zubot

Well since there's feed back that this is a probable theory I'll ask him to test for copper. I guess the reason why he hasn't been treating his tap water for chlorine is because a certain LFS owner doesn't, and told him that he doesn't need to. I explained that this reasoning is pure economics and not in the best interest of the corals.

Thanks everyone for your feed back.

The LFS owner gave him that advice because he really doesn't need to, Calgary is an unusual case in this regard.

[StirCrazy]

I agree with a copper idea but not from the plumbing. if you run your water for a min or two befor you fill you are not going to get any copper from the pipes. now he has had the rock for 10 years where did he get it from then and has he ever had coraline. if it was from a fish only tank it could have been treated with copper or some lfs might have given him bad info to treat with copper based products for a problem. more history is needed here. the cloramine in the tap water might be a factor also.

Steve

[danny zubot]

The LFS owner gave him that advice because he really doesn't need to, Calgary is an unusual case in this regard.

I don't really agree with this statement, can you please elaborate?