[swansondan]

Hey Everyone, My brains and my diasy cup corals died, I thought it was the lights, they were overdue. I replaced them and did a 40 gallon water change. Everything seemed fine for a while but I got a copper test kit, and it shows trace elements of it. My new brain is not looking good at all anymore and my 2 bubble tip anenome's are kinda shrinking. So basically how do I get the copper out of my tank, I did another 2 25 gallon water changes since then, I also put some carbon in the filter sock. What else can I do to get the copper out of my tank?

Thanks for your time!

Dan

[demonsquirt]

Copper is a natural element. What was its level? THough idought it was from this unless you added some knowingly or not.

Whats the tank size and age?
Whats used for water flow in there?
What type food do you add?
Whats the lighting?
What other readings do you test for and there level?

[swansondan]

It was under 1.0, the lfs tested it for me and said it was ok...but brain is dying again, it is a 90 gallon reef, about 14 months old, I have 3 Koralia 2's circulating water, also a 600 gallon per hour return pump. I acutally just upgraded the return pump to a 1340gph pump, hope that might help a little. I feed mostly flake, but I mix that with dried cyclopleeze, dried krill, and spiruluna. 2 Metal Halide 250watt 15k bulbs, brand new. Everything else test pretty good. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, phoshpate
.02 or so. Calcium 420.

Thanks!
Dan

[demonsquirt]

Your flow sounds a little low but if LR and powerhead placement are good then it should be fine.

They would like small meaty bits of food like cyclops and brine and similar. Also it feeds whene poylps are out and they open after lights out half the time so adding food a few hours after dark will be needed. Do you see the poylps extending during the day. Also they like good calcium levels.
Its best to feed a good mix of food from flake to mysis and feed more often less amounts.Also good lighting. This might help.

www.asira.org - Coral CareÂ*

[swansondan]

Yeah, thanks for the info, I have had brains in the past for about 4 months or so and they have always done great, until real recently, when I first put the brain in, it swelled to a huge size and looked great, then 3 days later it is a tiny little shrunken thing that is a quarter its size, plus the 2 bubble tip anenomes don't look that great, everyting else looks exellent.

Thanks
Dan

[swansondan]

So I need to know how to get the darn copper out!...or do you think I have another problem?

[Br14n55reef]

Originally Posted by swansondan

Yeah, thanks for the info, I have had brains in the past for about 4 months or so and they have always done great, until real recently, when I first put the brain in, it swelled to a huge size and looked great, then 3 days later it is a tiny little shrunken thing that is a quarter its size, plus the 2 bubble tip anenomes don't look that great, everyting else looks exellent.

Thanks
Dan

Dan, This sounds like trouble to me and another thing is 2 anenomes in a small system dont work specially with corals. I bet there stinging each other. Replace small amounts of carbon every 4 days and I bet things look better.

[pogodzib]

Copper in a reef tank is never good. It will set sucked up by your live rock and tank silicone and can take a very long time to get out. Usually, when people get copper in a reef tank, they need to end up tossing the rock in they want to keep corals or inverts. First off, do you know how the copper got into your tank (Tap water, chemical treatment, etc...) and have you checked for copper using a different brand of test kit to verify that you really have copper in your tank?

The first thing I would do would be to put a polyfilter in your tank and replace it on a weekly basis of at least a month or two and possibly add some CupriSorb