blue poly filter?

[azguy]

Hello, I have been trying to figure out why I have lost my inverts. (fish are fine. ) People on this board suggested testing for copper. (I live in a hard water area). I did not detedt any copper with the salifert test. I dropped in a poly filter, and 3 days later, its BRIGHT blue. any ideas??

 

[ophiura]

IMO, that is the WRONG color to turn. Same thing happened in a tank I cared for where inverts were dropping like, well, poisoned snails. Generally does indicate copper or, I reckon, some other heavy metal. At least it should not turn that color and one can therefor assume, IMO, that that is the cause of the deaths.
The next issue might be to see if the manufacturers of polyfilter knows of other metals that may result in that coloration.

 

[azguy]

Thanks for the response...anyone else expereince this? Is this something I can correct with a 100% water change? (from a known good scource).

 

[ophiura]

The problem is how much has leeched into the rocks and such. That is really frustrating. Just shooting in the dark - no issues with plumbing of your chiller or anything, is there? There are a couple of manufacturers of resins that will removed some heavy metals but I can't think of them at the moment. Kent may have one.