If a med was dosed copper, can it house corals?

Reefdude3 · #1 02/14/2004, 02:35 PM

I need to find a place for my corals for 6 weeks while i restart my 120. I have a 20 with a HOB filter that has been used as a med. If it was dosed copper at one point, and i do a 100% water change and remove anything that could have absorbed copper, can i temporarily keep corals in it? Thanks

jbpig · #2 02/14/2004, 02:44 PM

the copper will kill all inverts. It dosent matter haw hard you scrub....the copper has leatched into the silicone and will leak back out. I wouldnt do it. I would get a rubermaid container and use that instead. HTH

Reefdude3 · #3 02/14/2004, 03:10 PM

darn, okay, thanks, i guess its better to know than put a $1000 worth of corals in and go, oh, that's what did it

bigevill · #4 02/14/2004, 03:15 PM

dude If you take everything out of that tank and do a 100% water change there is no reason you could not use that tank. I have used copper in my main tank just over a year ago and I have all sorts of inverts living in my tank. and I have not removed everything from my tank or done a 100% water change.

Reefdude3 · #5 02/14/2004, 03:17 PM

What about the HOB filter? Can it attach to plastic?

bigevill · #6 02/14/2004, 03:17 PM

now I dont have any coral but I do have snails, urchins, star fish, shrimp, and every kind of pod that you could find in a reef tank(just ask my madarins). this stigma about about copper ruining tanks is bunk in my opinion. just my opinion and observations....

bigevill · #7 02/14/2004, 03:19 PM

replace all the media in the filter and run fresh carbon in it. change the carbon every other week and even if there is a little copper leaching it will get sucked up by the carbon too fast to do anything.

Reefdude3 · #8 02/14/2004, 03:22 PM

Sounds like a plan!

bigevill · #9 02/14/2004, 03:28 PM

If you have access to stress coat soak the tank in water with a large amount of it mixed in and a good current for a day. i have found that stress coat tends to deaden the effects of copper by seemingly binding with it to some degree. this all hypothesis on my part, but I found when treating some of my fish for ick early on in my learning stages that the copper was not working well and it was because I kept doseing stress coat thinking it would help the fish cope with the stress of being infected by the ick....

Reefdude3 · #10 02/14/2004, 03:33 PM

Huh... Like Stress Coat for freshwater. Cuz i've heard its like taboo to add Stress Coat to SW fish

bigevill · #11 02/14/2004, 03:41 PM

well I have been useing it in my tank all along. My tank is not a reef like I said, but I do have sponges and all sorts of tube worms growing on my live rock. I also have a rock with some zoos on it in my fuge as an experement and it has thrived for over 2 months now even though I only use tap water and I only rarely use stress coat anymore. I just put the tap water in to top off and use the stress coat when i do water changes.

Lacey4178 · #12 02/14/2004, 04:36 PM

Maybe you could put a poly filter in the filter. Thats what I did they were coming out strait blue (it ment they were absorbing copper) but now they stay white turning brown. I had dosed copper then 6 months later bought a star fish well after he wasnt looking good I did a copper test well there was some in the water. He died.But it dosnt mean it was the copper. I do know after using the poly filter the copper was gone though I dont know about the silcone or the rock though. Figures I bought the poly filter for my phosphates.

Now I use phos ban for the phosphates. I hope to try again though this was 2 years ago. I wouldnt take the chance not with that many corals I have learned alot of things the hard way in this hobby. I guess thats too expencive of a lesson for me. If it were one or two I may be inclined to try it. Maybe find a local reefer see if they would borrow you a tank or try the rubbermaid trick. Let us know what you decide and how it goes, Good Luck
Lacey

Reefdude3 · #13 02/14/2004, 05:47 PM

Thanks Lacey, yeah, these kinda decisions drive me crazy!! Thanks you all for being here! I'm gonna keep thinking, any opinions welcome!

ericp351 · #14 02/14/2004, 05:55 PM

Austin, This is going to be one of your tuffest decissions to make. I had a 29 treated with copper when it was a fw tank. I later turned it into a fowlr tank and had no problems with copper leaching out. I had many inverts in that tank and didn't loose any until the temp went crazy (97deg).

Eric...

Reefdude3 · #15 02/14/2004, 06:03 PM

boy oh boy, yeah, 23 colonies on the line.....

Well, i've had a number of success stories, and no bad ones that point directly to copper so...... *slams head into wall*

jbpig · #16 02/14/2004, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by RichardScottRice
Running carbon for a few days will remove most of the free copper in the tank. However..... copper can bond with the live rock, elements in the sand, be absorbed by algae, etc and once in this state it cannot be removed until it becomes free again. Problem is that you won't know when this is going to happen. A change in AK, algae die off, change in SG, all these things can cause the copper to go into a free state again. At the very least I think you'd have to run carbon consistently if you're going to put inverts and corals in this tank and you should probably not put any of the ultra copper sensitive specimens in this tank. Safest way is to either make it a FOWLR tank or start over from scratch if you want to go reef.

I still would buy a trash can or a rubbermaid container. You can use it for other things when you are done like a fuge or to mix water in. JMO

Reefdude3 · #17 02/14/2004, 06:35 PM

Yeah, i was just trying to find something that i had heat, light, a filter, and is cycled. But i guess the risks of copper are more severe than doing a little improvation....