| Author |
 Topic Search  Topic Options
|
Trevor40 
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
 Post Options
 Thanks(0)
 Quote  Reply
 Topic: Brass fitting? anyone done this by accident?
Posted: November 12 2011 at 2:25pm |
After months of wondering why snails and corals don't like my water I began to blame it on the tank not being mature. After 4 month I realized that I have a brass fitting in the water on my return pump(can't remember what I was thinking to add it to the tank). I immediately changed it and have fresh carbon and GFO in the reactor.
Have any of you done this before or know if I can possibly save my tank without replacing sand and rock? I have a Cu test kit and it reads at 0.  |
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
 |
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 12 2011 at 2:26pm |
|
Funny how 7 years of experience can be ruined by a piece of metal. Now I know that brass is made of copper and zinc.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Sculpin
Guest
Joined: May 16 2008
Location: Kaysville
Status: Offline
Points: 1480
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 12 2011 at 3:07pm |
|
you can go get a copper test and find out what your levels are.
|
|
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 12 2011 at 3:38pm |
|
I have one and it reads 0. Im wondering if its an old test kit even though I bought it last month. My crabs are doing fine so maybe the levels are so low they are undetectable with a test kit but high enough to hurt coral and snails.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 12 2011 at 10:55pm |
|
I guess no one has made this mistake but me here on the forum. Anyone heard of this happening and what they did to recover? How long before adding corals after taking the brass out, ect?
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Sculpin
Guest
Joined: May 16 2008
Location: Kaysville
Status: Offline
Points: 1480
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 13 2011 at 2:33am |
Tthis did happen to me as well years ago when i first started. i built a home made calcium reactor with a brass fitting. I noticed after a few weeks something was wrong. i asked around about brass and was told to remove it imediatly. i did and also did a 15% water change. i got my water tested and it came back zero as well. after about a week everything returned to normal. mind you this was in a well established 225 gallon tank though but i think if you give it time everything will be fine. its not like you were dosing copper.
good luck and sorry for the miss spellings, im writing this with my cell phone in bed after a night of some pretty heavy drinking.
Micah
|
|
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 13 2011 at 10:31am |
Sculpin, I hope what you are saying is the case in the future. Im hoping that in a month everything will be as if there was no brass fitting. Ive been reading online about people tell others that they need to replace the rock and sand after they has one in there for a few months. They had high reading from their test kits though and I am reading zero copper.
I do have pods growing on my glass and my crabs are doing fine so I think this is a good sign. I will be adding a polyfilter in a few day when it gets here as I have heard they change color when metals and copper is absorbed.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Ahanix
Guest
Joined: February 11 2010
Location: Eagle Mountain
Status: Offline
Points: 1670
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 13 2011 at 11:20am |
|
I was told that Cuprisorb will help pull it out of your water, in addition to water changes... Good luck, that's good to see that you figured out the problem, at least your fish are healthy and disease free now :P
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/CupriSorb.html
Edited by Ahanix - November 13 2011 at 11:20am
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 13 2011 at 4:13pm |
|
would Cuprisorb work better than copper and a polyfilter?
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 13 2011 at 11:15pm |
If I took out the live rock and place it in vinager, scrubbed it with a tooth brush and them let soak in RODI water for a week before curing it for a few more weeks, would that take copper and other metals out that might have obsorbed from the brass? 
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 8:56am |
I asked my Chemistry professor at BYU today about removing the copper and he agreed that vinegar would do the trick. I am going to do this to most of my rock, wait a month and then try and add a snail to see if it survives.
Im debating on replacing all my sand with fresh live sand.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Jeffatpm
Paid Member
Joined: September 23 2010
Location: West Jordan, UT
Status: Offline
Points: 1740
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 9:36am |
Gosh taking out all the rock and sand, to me sounds like more work than needed. if your corals are find I'd say keep doing water changes and it will continue to depelet if it's even a level high enough to cause a problem, which it sounds like it's not. Up to you though, I know we all want our tanks perfect and are almost willing to do anything to make it happen. LOL
I realized I had a metal spring in my check valves, granted not brass, but I did it as well.
|
|
210 Reef with loads of LEDS
Large Fishey Room
Located Near Jordan Landing in West Jordan.
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 9:53am |
|
Thats the thing, corals die in my tank.! Within 12 hours my candy coral looked like it was dissolving a few weeks ago so I moved it back to my other tank. Thats why I want to figure out a way to get rid of any traces of Cu.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Sculpin
Guest
Joined: May 16 2008
Location: Kaysville
Status: Offline
Points: 1480
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 9:55am |
In the words of my favorite Ent- "Don't be hasty". Unless there are any immediate threat, give it time and do water changes. I would guess you'll be just fine, especially since you are not getting any copper readings from testing.
|
|
|
|
Jeremyw
Guest
Joined: April 09 2009
Location: Utah County
Status: Offline
Points: 8513
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 10:48am |
|
Personally if it were me, I would pull it all and start over! I would be to worried about copper being in the rocks and leaching slowly over time!
But like Micah said, if you arent getting in copper readings..... you should be fine on the worry of copper. Did you use a different test kit than the one you have? I would go like up to reefrunners and have him test it and maybe even a third to double and triple check that copper really isnt the problem. But that is just me.
Be careful with the vinegar if you rinse your rocks (I assume that is what you are saying your going to do) in vinegar, I would wash them really really well with water before putting them back in. YOU COULD HAVE A really really BIG issue if you dont!
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 11:35am |
|
I first went to Reef Runners to get it tested but he didn't want to open up a test kit so I bought his dusty kit off the shelf and am left wondering if it even works. I would like to get it checked somewhere else! Any one have a Cu test kit in Utah County? If not I might go to another fish store but it seems like no one has a test kit where they will check it once due to no one really checking for Cu.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Jeremyw
Guest
Joined: April 09 2009
Location: Utah County
Status: Offline
Points: 8513
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 11:38am |
|
Ya I would def. check it again. What is the date on the box?
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 14 2011 at 12:25pm |
|
The date is so faded that I can't read it. Even if it was reading zero would it be because of the obsorbtion in the rocks? I read that if I continue to use a poly filter, it will be safe for inverts and coral as the the copper releases from the live rock it will all be obsorbed. I read that it turned blue if there is copper in the water so I ordered one and it should be here in a few days.
I've already cleaned all my rocks with vinager that were in my sump. They had some cyno on them which I read was a sign of copper.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
Trevor40
Guest
Joined: April 28 2011
Location: Woods Cross
Status: Offline
Points: 1653
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: November 18 2011 at 3:06pm |
|
Good news! After adding a poly filter and Coprisorb, last night I added Zoas and today they are looking great! I'm thinking that everything will be fine and in going to keep the filters I
for a few months just in case.
|
|
Call or Text (801)834-3119
|
|
