Copper Poisoning ??

[pscott99]

Originally posted in majano zapper thread.
Can a few ions of copper cause my softies to go into revolt.


Original post below.



Aiptasia zapper. I think I over did it.

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I made my own using a laptop power supply. I tried to make the lead pencil work but got no voltage from it so left it bare wire. Power is 20 volts.
I killed 20 or so with the power on the whole time. Fish and inverts are all fine. But my softies are in revolt and it may or may not have killed a clam. It had been not doing well. My softies have shrunk down now for three days straight. I did a water change at the same time so maybe there was too little water in the tank ? ( about 15 gal ) Maybe the aiptasia kill bits are toxic ? Or the more obvious too much voltage ? Any ideas. The softies are shedding but I hope they will come back. I've done worse and they have survived.

[disc1]

When you put electricity through a bare piece of copper wire in saltwater copper ions are going to come off. The toxic level for copper is something like 50ppb. That's the equivalent of about 20mg of copper in a hundred gallon tank. So yeah, I think that might cause problems.

[bertoni]

I agree. Copper poisoning is a possibility. I'd run some CupraSorb.

[pscott99]

Thanks so much for the replys. So I would have 5mg in approx 50gal with sump for my tank to be toxic. Still seems a lot off a 1/2 inch copper wire. I did another 10 gal water change last night. I also have a copper test kit, which for what it's worth, tested zero. All other tank parameters normal. My leather is shedding a layer this morning and still shrunk. All other fish and inverts normal as well as most other corals. Can anyone comment on the 20 volts ??

[bertoni]

Copper tests generally don't read low enough to be of value. They are designed more for watching the copper level when treating fish, which are far more tolerant of copper in the water.

I agree that copper poisoning is less likely than other possible problems. How much risk you want to tolerate is up to you. At this point, running some fresh carbon probably would mop up what carbon might be in the system, if any.

[pscott99]

This is over a week now. My PO4 had jumped to .22 so I changed GFO and also added the filter pad you recommended. My leather is slowly growing back shrunk as seen in the pic. My other softy is still covered in black growth and not doing well. Has anyone seen this black growth before. I still don't know if the copper did all this or something else is going on. All fish and inverts and other corals are fine and normal. The two in the picture seem to have suffered the most.

[bertoni]

I can't see the black growth very well, but it might be a sponge. Does it fall apart when touched? If not, I'd guess sponge, but it could be a lot of things.

[pscott99]

Stray voltage in the tank: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2182599


This really answered my voltage questions. Great thread. My tank is slowly recovering well. The green softy with the black "mold" has lost almost all of the mold and is still struggling to get back to what it was.

I changed GFO out again. Last reading went up again to .25