Can the buildup of metals in tanks be countered by flushing the system with NSW?

[billn]

Hi Dr. Ron,
thank you for your excellent articles on metal buildup in tanks. About 6 months ago I suffered a microfauna collapse due to copper buildup in my tank which had been running for about 8 months at the time. It is a 300 gal system. It was skimmerless but I tried to compensate with large regular water changes with artificial salt. Unfortunaly, metal built up very quickly in those 8 months and I lost all pods, shrimp, and worms within a period of 3 weeks. I tested copper in the range of 25 -50 micrograms/L which seemed to be the obvious cause of microfauna collapse.

I was devastated and decided to make some changes. First, I added a skimmer. Secondly, I switched to NSW. I knew I had a lot of copper in my tank so I thought the best approach short of tearing down the tank and rebuilding it would be to flush it out. I purchased a system for collecting and transporting large amounts of NSW and began doing large water changes for a period of 3 weeks. By the end of a three weeks I had flushed my 300 gal system with about 1800 gallons of NSW, changing out 50% of the system volume each water change. Copper was then not detectable by my test kit after those water changes. For next 6 months and to this day I continued with a bimonthly 30% NSW water change and continuous low skimming (I like to feed a lot of plankton and rotifers and do want to strip them out of the water quickly). Copper is still undetectable and after adding a fauna kit my microfauna has come back to levels greatly exceeding those of when I first established the tank.

What are your thoughts regarding trying to turn a tank around by flushing it and do you feel that the tank will sustainable in the long run by switching to NSW for water changes or will metal buildup rear its ugly head again? Thanks.

 

[rshimek]

Hi,

I think I would have broken the tank down and decontaminated it, but flushing with large volumes of NSW obviously did work. There still will be adsorbed copper throughout the system, however, the copper concentration in NSW should be sufficiently low that the small releases of copper that might be occurring should not be a problem. I suspect continued NSW use would give you a tank that should be fine for a long time. It is possible that if for some odd reason you get some sort of acidic spike, then enough copper could be released from the tank's surfaces to cause problems, but I think the likelihood of this is small and the probability is that the amount of copper will continue to drop with time until even this possibility would be remote.

 

[md14fish]

NSW

NSW

Dr. Shimmek,

Do you then recommend water changes with natural seawater instead of synthetic salt mixes?

I live in Long Island,NY and am 10 minutes from the ocean.

Thanks,

Mario

 

[rshimek]

Re: NSW

Re: NSW

Originally posted by md14fish

Hi,

Do you then recommend water changes with natural seawater instead of synthetic salt mixes?

Yes, see this thread.

 

[Paul B]

I have been using natural sea water from Long Island for thirty years and I find it much better than artificial. I take it from the Sound but I would rather take it from the ocean side. It is very clean and you can put it right in after you adjust the temp. and check the salinity. It is usually low. I use artificial water in the winter for obvious reasons but the algae in my reef starts in the winter when I use artificial.

 

[md14fish]

NSW

NSW

Thanks for the advise and I agree.
I have used both for water changes. I do two 10% changes monthly,one with synthetic and one with NSW in my 90 gal reef. I am going to use only NSW for a while and see what happens. I live in Hampton Bays and the ocean is less then ten minutes away. The specific gravity is always 1.026 and the water is crystal clear in the buckets.

My friend has done only NSW in his 15 gal nano and the tank looks stunning.

 

[Paul B]

If I lived in Hampton Bays I would use nothing but NSW. Sometimes I drive the 75 miles to get water from there.

 

[md14fish]

NSW

NSW

I always see the Atlantis Marine World Truck going down there to get water.

When I go to Montauk I always make it a point to bring some 5 gallon buckets. But the water here seems just as good. I guess if its good enough for Atlantis its fine.

 

[Evergreen]

Reviving old thread relevant to my question!
We are ordering a large 500 gallon capacity water bladder. I live in Middle Island. Are you allowed to just pull up and take water from beaches on the South Shore? Where might be a good place to get it from, I get the idea that pulling up to a boat marina or dock might be bad since the vicinity could be polluted a bit...
Anyone know of anywhere maybe in Moriches, Patchogue, Smith Point, etc? (Can email me if you want)

 

[md14fish]

NSW

NSW

I have been taking water for my tank at a spot under the ponguogue bridge in hampton Bays.

The water is crystal clear,and has a specific gravity of 1.025.

I don't no if it is legal. I am sure if you ask they'll say you need some ridiculous permit.