Corals dying, Urchins now DEAD, and unsure about Peppermint Shrimp!!!??!

Ok, so it's been about a week since I last posted about my 2 urchin's just sitting at the bottom of the tank deflated & lifeless. I thought they could make it back, but now they're most definitely dead. At the same time my Mushroom polyp's became deflated & haven't opened up ever since.

Now I found my peppermint shrimp's exoskeleton floating at the bototm of the tank, it is White but could possibly be a Molt? If so, let me know. I haven't seen him yet though.

I cleaned off my algae in my tank with what I think may have been a copper sponge. That was about a Month ago, and ever since then I have been noticing these problems...but nothing with the fish. My damsels & blenny is fine!

Could using that metalic/maybe copper sponge cause this?

 

Copper kills inverts....got a copper test kit? I'd like to know the level you're at. Do some water changes and remove the dead guys.

 

aye, and test your water params

 

Yes test your parameters. We often think everything is okay until we test and find out something is in there we didn't even know about.

 

I once had a heater break and a tiny piece of copper fell into the water --all my inverts started dying. It doesn't take much copper at all to kill your inverts!

 

What kind of sponge did you use? Do you remember the brand? Link to it?

 

Sounds like one of those copper scouring pads for cleaning out dirty pots and pans. But that is most likely the culprit.

 

People with copper in their tanks have used poly filter and the right media to get the copper out with success. I would not necessarily assume you need to get rid of all your rock. The sand might have to go through.

 

You should take the sponge to somebody that knows things about metals (maybe a junkyard or something). And if it is, definetly get a copper test kit. .05 ppm of copper can kill sensitive corals easily, .1 ppm can wipe out a tank, so it doesn't take a lot.