Copper Poisoning Corals

[MrCaveman]

Something has gotten in my tank. I am not sure what it is but I have never seen corals reacting this way. This started two weekends ago and is most apparent when the lights are off. They are not feeding. This is tank is actually in a store system and we are worried there is copper or other chemicals intentionally dosed into this tank. We have done a 50% 150 gallon water change. Placed in several poly filter pads that are still in the system. I have no idea what copper poisoning will look like and how a coral will react. It looks as if white mucus is being expelled from the surface of the coral's tissue. Scollies, goniastrea, chalice, and acans were most affected. This tank is plumbed into a series of frag tanks, however this tank was hit the hardest and we suspect was the place of initial introduction. These pictures were taken 30 minutes after the lights turned off. We turned them back on just for these pictures. Other corals in the system haven't reacted because we acted quickly with the water change and poly filter pads placed through out the whole system. Any info is greatly appreciated, as I have never purposely put copper or irritiating chemicals into a reef tank.

 

[mcgyvr]

It is very common for corals to expel a white mucus when stressed..

Have you actually tested the water for copper? Is the poly filter changing colors?
Why did you leap to copper?

 

[64Ivy]

Get yourself a Hanna Hi-Range tester and find out for sure. Who or what would intentionally introduce copper into your tank? That's something you might want to find out too.

 

[brian3]

The polyfilter would turn blue / blue-green if it were copper it was removing.

 

[dkeller_nc]

The very first thing I'd want to do if I was in your situation would be to get a Triton kit and take a water sample. The ICP-OES that the Triton system uses will be sensitive for copper down into the ppb range.

While ionic copper will not bind to activated carbon, organic-complexed copper will. So after you take the sample for Triton analysis, I'd run a liter of activated carbon for every 200 gallons of tank/system volume.

The problem, of course, is that once exposed, the coral will decline even after all of the circulating copper is removed. To really establish whether or not a copper poisoning took place, you'd have to sacrifice some coral tissue and have a competent laboratory analyze it for you.