Copper Toxicity

[SamS]

I recently had an entire tank crash on me and am trying to figure out what caused it. After some research, I have a feeling it may have been due to a new chiller with improperly sealed coils that contained copper.

The only thing stopping me from saying this was definitely the cause is that my fish started to show signs of distress before some inverts (crabs and whelks). There were some inverts (urchins and sea stars) that died before I even realized it was a problem (I assumed they had gotten ill from the old chiller breaking and having much higher water temps than normal).

I know that copper is a much bigger problem for inverts than it is for fish, so I'm wondering if its possible for copper to be my culprit given that some of my inverts were fine even though fish were not.

 

[Dmorty217]

Depends do you have a copper test kit you can check your water with?

 

[SamS]

I don't have one, but will probably be going to buy one soon. I've already dismantled and redone the tank though. No fish yet and only extremely hardy inverts (mostly snails and some crabs) and they don't seem to be showing any ill effects yet. (though they were the ones to survive unscathed from the initial crash)

 

[Dmorty217]

Seems odd, without the specific tank water it won't do you any good to test the water unless your using the same chiller that you think caused the issue

 

[ThRoewer]

If you use the same rocks and it was copper you may have copper leaching back into your system. So I would still get the copper test and check if you get detectable levels.

That said, most inverts would have been affected before the fish, but not necessarily all.