I suspect my IO Reef Crystals contain something that shows up in the Hanna Copper Tester

[luu78]

For what it is worth, I found some cases that these copper testers reported copper levels from other brands of salts including Coral Pro at 0.05 ppm to 0.3ppm.

That’s good to know. Although I think this will not be a problem, one of my clean shrimps did die yesterday and I have them for the past 9-10 months. I found the fish were picking at what was left of it overnight. I am not sure it was predation or it was copper levels causing it to die.

 

[this is me]

Any negative effect you’re seeing in the tank?
Many flakes and pellets contain copper as an ingredient including PE pellets which I’ve used. You may be overthinking this. If the tank health is all well, doing drastic change like changing salt brand may result in bigger consequences.

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[dz6t]

To me, it is just an issue with this brand of copper tester.

 

[dz6t]

As for cleanershrimps, they don’t live very long.

 

[luu78]

I feed mainly frozen mysis and fish eggs To my fish and a variety of powder food to the corals along with amino acids. Rest assured I will not be making any drastic change to the system but proactively trying to reduce the existing amount of copper and confirm it’s source. Just in case the corals will experience light shock due to increased use of carbon, I have already turned them down 10% across the spectrum as well.

 

[luu78]

As for cleanershrimps, they don’t live very long.

LOL, and it had to die while I’m dealing with possible elevated Copper level. I’m going to try to get a different copper tester soon for situations like this.

 

[dz6t]

I will bet it is the tester.
As Randy said about the same tester in responding to a case that cooper was tested positive in coral pro sslt:

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes, it is not useful for the low levels found in reef tanks, despite the Hanna claims of accuracy, and has scared many folks unnecessarily.

 

[luu78]

TEST #1:
Copper reading of RODI in new bucket before salt was added this morning:

Copper reading after new RC salt (from a new unopened RC bucket) was added to RODI water bucket above: (mixed with a new wavemaker I have laying around, no heater)

Although the reading is low at 0.04, there’s definitely something in RC reacting to the Hanna copper reagent. Next step I’m gonna take is repeat the same test with the old batch of salt and see the reading.


TEST #2:

Copper reading of RODI in new bucket before salt was added:

Copper reading #2 - salt mix (old batch)

Well, this is unexpected but in a good way. I will carefully inspect the old mix pump and heater and run the old mix pump in place of the wavemaker for a few hours to see if copper level rise from 0.03

 

[this is me]

Ben,
These Hanna checker has a tolerance of +/-0.05ppm at 25C.
Those tests above are all within that. I really think you’re overthinking it.
change the salt if you’re not happy with the tank and have nothing else to blame. But I wouldn’t just change the salt or worry about that reading if the tank is doing fine.

 

[dz6t]

The testing method is via colorimetric testing. The reagents are not 100% exclusive to bind with copper and produce color. Other metals in the salt mix will cause the reagents to change color, but not as intense as when binding to copper.

 

[luu78]

It’s the inconsistency of the Hanna Copper Tester itself. I will conclude it at this point. The same water was tested this morning prior to submerging the old mix pump for testing and the result is so inconsistent at a lot higher at 0.12. For me, it’s a bit disappointing to find out that a copper tester we come to depend on so much to keep a therapeutic level of copper for fish disease treatment can be quite a bit off. I’m gonna leave it at this and move on enjoying my tank. Have a great week everyone! Thanks for chiming in and help me out greatly!

 

[this is me]

Yup. This is true for all their testers. There's a +/- to it.
I don't really much into the numbers when I test my PO4 with the Hanna or another test kit for that matter. As long as I'm in the range of what I want to keep for the tank. And as long as I can see a falling or rising trend in the number, I'm good with using it.
I've been using IO for years. Never thought about copper in the tank. My fish will break out in Ich if I dare to shut down the UV and the corals are doing well so I guess if there's any copper in my tank, it must be pretty low to care.

 

[kgstei]

I've enjoyed following the thread and I learned some new things as well.