Potential issues with RODI (Copper?) - please help identify this fitting

[jkobel]

Hello all,

I've been trying to figure out what's going on with my water for a while, like really for over a year but thinking back maybe more.

I moved into this new house 4.5 years ago and set up my current tank about 9 months later. its been established for a solid 3+ years. It grows LPS very well but I've been trying to grow SPS and I have very little luck. SPS often will suffer RTN and rarely last more than a week and I have bought from very reputable sources, both online and local. Further, I have noticed over the last year or so that I can't keep CUC alive. I feed plenty, but crabs and snails all seem to die off fairly quickly (hours to days) and in some cases immediately (as in an emerald crab is living while drip acclimating for 2+ hours and when I put it in the DT it instantly dies and just falls to the bottom. Same with shrimp.

I have identified that my nitrates and phosphates are a little high but I have never heard of that killing CUC - maybe its a thing and I'm just not aware.

I realized I got very lazy with replacing the media on my RODI and made that change a few weeks ago, since then, I have done 2 - 20% water changes. system volume is about 140 gals. Also got lazy with keeping the sump clean and ran without the socks for most of the last couple of years, I believe this contributed to my phosphate and nitrate issues, I installed a reefmat this weekend.

The guy at the LFS suggested maybe there's something in the water so I started looking into it, I tested for Copper last night with Hanna and got 0.08ppm (two readings of .07 & .09 averaged). Started with Copper since its the only contaminant I'm able to test for at home.

This started me thinking:

1. Is .08ppm a dangerous level for inverts and corals?
2. How is it getting in?
3. What else is in here?
4. How do I get it out?

So, last night I ordered an ICP test to answer the question of what else is in here. I went with Fauna Marin after a lot of reading and this was my choice specifically because they send a vial to send back your RODI for analysis along with the system water. That should arrive tomorrow so that will answer the question of whether it's coming in via RODI or is it somehow coming in thru another vector. I do not mix LFS water with my water when onboarding new animals.

I can read more on here about how to get Copper out but of course, I'm wide open to any direct input or feedback here in this thread.

What I'm looking for is help identifying this fitting which I installed when I set up my RODI, what I've learned over the last 24 hours is that you want to avoid using brass fittings because they can break down into Copper and Zinc. This would seem to explain the Copper, and I need to get the test back to see the larger picture but is this a Brass fitting?

This is what feeds my RODI - what is a suitable replacement, if this is a no-no? I have used fittings like this in the past (past homes) and have had mixed reef tanks thrive for many years without issue so this is new to me.

Here are my params as of last night: (currently working to lower nitrate and phosphate so I am aware they are high)

Sal - 1.026
Ph - 8.12
temp - 78.3
alk - 8.7
ca - 357
mg - 1297
nitrate - 4.22
phosphate - .87
copper - .08ppm

So, long post but my questions are:

1. If this is a brass fitting, whats the best thing to replace this with?
2. Are these Copper levels harmful - how focused should I be on this as the potential smoking gun?
3. How do I best remediate this and is there an end - or does this type of contamination persist?

Thanks for any and all input

 

[jkobel]

Just realized that I have a Tiger Shark glass cleaner in my tank, I leave the wet side in there 100% of the time. I haven't noticed any cracking in the casing but can this also lead to issues with the magnet?

 

[kyreefville]

Looks like a brass fitting but like most homes I see copper pipes that’s almost unavoidable. So if system isn’t removing copper have you replaced filters and media?

 

[jkobel]

Looks like a brass fitting but like most homes I see copper pipes that’s almost unavoidable. So if system isn’t removing copper have you replaced filters and media?

I replaced media last month and thought it should remove the copper that comes from the pipes, or else 85% of reefers would have this issue. Although it was severely exhausted.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The Hana copper checker appears to not be accurate near the low end of its claimed range and often gives false positives that do not show up by icp.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I replaced media last month and thought it should remove the copper that comes from the pipes, or else 85% of reefers would have this issue. Although it was severely exhausted.

Exhausted media can release what it has bound, but as noted above, you may not have elevated copper.

 

[cgoochce]

The Hana copper checker appears to not be accurate near the low end of its claimed range and often gives false positives that do not show up by icp.

The HANA testers work well in general however the copper test in ppt I won’t say is trash, but it’s definitely misleading ICP testing is more realistic.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The HANA testers work well in general however the copper test in ppt I won’t say is trash, but it’s definitely misleading ICP testing is more realistic.

I'm not saying the Hanna is not perfectly suitable at therapeutic levels (I don't really know, but i have no reason to doubt it). All I'm saying is that at the low end it is not sufficiently accurate to test a normal reef tank, and folks have ICP vs Hanna data showing that.

I'm not sure what you mean by ppt, but Hanna has copper checkers that read in ppm (the high range) and ppb (the low range).