Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board  

Go Back   Canreef Aquatics Bulletin Board > General > Reef

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 07-19-2009, 07:00 PM
Zoaelite's Avatar
Zoaelite Zoaelite is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Calgary
Posts: 2,461
Zoaelite is on a distinguished road
Default

Besides;

http://www.healthvitaminsguide.com/minerals/copper.htm
If a natural source of copper is shell fish (which is an invert) then it's safe to assume that the shell fish is storing it in its tissues, if copper is highly toxic by itself then it must be in some sort of compound. I have a feeling it's these types of compounds your finding in the NLS.

Last edited by Zoaelite; 07-19-2009 at 09:53 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 07-23-2009, 05:03 AM
midgetwaiter midgetwaiter is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Calgary
Posts: 546
midgetwaiter is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Myka View Post
I like the math. Although I'm sure it's safe to assume that daily exposure to copper would be damaging at a lower level than 0.4 ppm.
Well you're right about that but again inputs due to food are basically irrelevant.

Shimek found pretty significant impact on urchin larvae at .01ppm , issues with coral fertilization at 0.014 ppm and reduced feeding by nassarius snails at .05ppm

If we pick this level where invert or coral larvae are affected (.01ppm) we have a problem. Referring to the AWT salt study again we can see that there is only one salt (Kent) that has an average concentration of copper below our target when freshly mixed. All of the others are between .02ppm and .03ppm. One of the Kent samples was at .01ppm but the other dragged down the average.

What do we pick as a target if our salt mixes are already too high in the first place? Do we disregard the harm done to the most delicate larval life stages and pick an arbitrary level?


Quote:
Originally Posted by zoaElite View Post
Are any of you chemists that have done studies on the effect of "Copper sulfate" or any other copper compounds on our reefs for that matter? If not, please stop accusing NLS (and every other company that has a copper compound in there ingredient list) of trying to kill our reefs, because that's just plain ridiculous.
Copper sulfate is a bad example because that is the compound found in most copper treatments designed to be toxic to inverts. Copper bound to some sort of organic molecule is probably not toxic so your point is well taken.

I was bored and decided to poke around for more information on this and what I found will hopefully kill this discussion.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-0...ture/index.php

Tables two and three in this article list the copper concentrations found in some commonly used foods, here's some highlights:

Formula One 2.3ppm
Formula Two 1.8ppm
Brine Shrimp 1.3ppm
Plankton 10ppm
Nori 3.0ppm

Unfortunately NLS wasn't analyzed but let's face it there is a certain amount of copper in everything we add to our aquariums. It's not an issue specific to NLS at all.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 07-23-2009, 12:38 PM
Myka's Avatar
Myka Myka is offline
Moderator
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Saskatoon, SK.
Posts: 11,268
Myka will become famous soon enough
Default

Great post! Thanks for the link. This is very interesting information. I am interested that according the Randy Holmes-Farley, Kalk will actually purify itself if used properly. The Kalk when mixed up will precipitate the copper out. I have been considering adding a Kalk drip to my tank lately since it has been eating up the Calcium and Alk pretty quickly.

Quote:
Originally Posted by midgetwaiter View Post
Well you're right about that but again inputs due to food are basically irrelevant.
I think if you read my above reply you would note that I agreed with you.


----------------------------------------

It's funny though that the more midgetwaiter posts information to support that copper input due to foods are irrelevant, the more I am wondering if Doug (fishytime) might be onto something with the "little bit here, little bit there" part. It seems like fish food in general must have a fair amount of copper just because the marine life added to the food often has significant amounts of copper in them, but it looks as though fish food is just one card in the deck.

I wonder in what ways Cuprisorb would be effective in my tank, as Randy-Holmes Farley suggests that the laboratory testing done on some of these products is irrelevant simply because it is tested on freshwater or plain artifical seawater, and often not tested in hobbyist reefs. Very interesting subject.

I'm starting to get on the boat with Doug in the theory about old tank syndrome, I wonder...

Dang, I wish I was rich and had a laboratory. If I was rich, that's what I would do. If I win the lottery one day you can bet there will be a reef laboratory built near me. It would satisfy my uber nerdy need for information.
__________________
~ Mindy

SPS fanatic.


Last edited by Myka; 07-23-2009 at 12:41 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 07-29-2009, 03:26 PM
RD RD is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Red Deer AB
Posts: 80
RD is on a distinguished road
Default

Joe Yaiullo, one of the pioneers of reef keeping in the USA, and the curator/co-founder of Atlantis Marine World in NY has been feeding NLS (daily) in his reef tanks for the past 10 years. You can view his 20,000 gallon reef set up (the largest in NA, and 4th largest in the world) in the link below, where he also mentions feeding New Life Spectrum.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/2/aquarium

Joe is one of the world’s most highly regarded Aquarium authorities. He has consulted with many public Aquariums worldwide, and has also presented reef-keeping lectures throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.


Bob Fenner, who is widely known through his various published works on aquatics, as well as his wetwebmedia website, has stated that New Life Spectrum is a nutritionally complete food, to the point of it being the best food, period. http://wetwebmedia.com/foodsppt1.htm

Bob's bio can be found here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/WWMAdminS...ex/bobfbio.htm

Charles Delbeek M.Sc., senior biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco also feeds NLS at their facility. You can view Mr. Delbeek's bio in the following link.
http://www.jcdaquariumdesign.com/Pages/about_us.html

The gentlemen mentioned above are not only highly respected, very experienced long term reef keepers, they also hold one or more degrees in the various related sciences, and would most certainly never use anything in their systems that even had the potential to harm any type of life form.

Also, none of those individuals have any type of vested interest in New Life.






FYI - the form of copper used in all NLS formulas is copper proteinate, some of the older labels may show copper sulfate, but that form of copper hasn't been used for a couple of years or so. It's simply a case of older labels being used up instead of throwing out several thousand $$$ worth of labels. Not that it mattered either way with regards to this discussion (both forms are a non-issue at these levels), just thought I should point that out.


Also, please keep in mind that almost everything and anything can become toxic at high enough levels, including some vitamins. No nutritionist would recommend completely eliminating vitamin A, B, D, E and K from the diet just because at higher levels these substances can be toxic to a fish, yet this exact type of logic is what's used when some hobbyists discuss essential trace elements such as copper.




HTH
Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 01:31 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.