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[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?

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by danny zubot

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

It's pretty simple.

There isn't very much chlorine in the water because it is pretty clean to start with. Chlorine will not remain in solution very long, agitate the water a bit or let it stand overnight and it's gone. Get a test kit and try it.

Chloramine does stay in the water but they don't use it here.

[danny zubot]

How long is long though? Long enough to negatively effect corals?