Did I just ruin 70lbs of Live Rock?

[Rewd]

So i had a royal gramma and a clown with Ich. Nothing major but I wanted to get rid of it and I wasn't concerned with setting up a QT to treat them at the moment because I'm moving them all to a new tank anyway so I just dosed the copper right in to the DT.

Currently they are in a 40 gallon breeder with 70lbs of live rock. I treated the tank with one dose of coppersafe by Mardel. I've read that this is a very diluted form of copper but it worked for the ich problem.

My question now is did I ruin all of my live rock by dosing it directly in to the tank? I was planning to use all of this LR in the new 75/90 gallon I'm setting up very soon. This new tank will become a full reef.

I new the copper would absorb in to things like the tank sealant and such but it never occured to me that it would absorb in to the LR as well. Also, how about the powerheads and such too?

[coralfish]

Copper will kill all the inverts on & in the rock. Powerheads will be fine, but the rock will not.

[Rewd]

DAMN!! Thats very disapointing. Basically $250 worth of LR I ruined because I'm a moron.

[Pistonkev]

Copper at any level is not good.

[JR719]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9509595#post9509595 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rewd
DAMN!! Thats very disapointing. Basically $250 worth of LR I ruined because I'm a moron.






Hmmmmm....... Basically.......

You won't want to use that rock for a reef. You'll have problem after problem, you could use it in a fish only tank without problems.

[Rewd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9509604#post9509604 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pistonkev
Copper at any level is not good.

Agreed, and I would have gone the extra step to just get a QT tank going if I'd known it was going to ruin my LR. I'm not worried about the tank itself because after the new 75 or 90 gallon I'm getting is set up this one was going to go freshwater.

I usually research everything thoroughly but def dropped the ball on this one.

[Pistonkev]

If it makes you feel better we have all done some dumb things that has blown more then 250.00

[Rewd]

Yea you're right. At least it didn't put any of my livestock at risk except two snails and one hermit crab I had in there. The snails didn't make it but the hermit crab is alive and doing well oddly enough.

[Rewd]

How can I make sure my powerheads are ok? If the aquarium sealant can absorb the copper why won't the plastic the powerheads are made of?

[ionredline0260]

the silicone should be fine, think about it, you would have to keep a super high concentration of copper for a long time before they would absorb any thing and even then the amount absorbed is minimal

[Scuba_Steve]

personally, i wouldnt risk them. Sell them on a freshwater forum or something. Same with the tank. Sorry man, we all make mistakes.

[Rewd]

Eh powerheads in a freshwater aquarium is no good for me. It's heavily planted. Unlike this end of the hobby water movement for that tank = no good. :P

I haven't found any evidence yet that powerheads absorb copper like the other porous stuff does. If anyone has any actual experience with this I'd appreciate some input.

[BAYONNEREEF]

just start all over again dude

[virginiadiver69]

Can't he just cook the rock? At the very least he will have 70 lbs of base rock that can be seeded in the new tank.

[markandkristen]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9518089#post9518089 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by virginiadiver69
Can't he just cook the rock? At the very least he will have 70 lbs of base rock that can be seeded in the new tank.

usually from what ive read even after being cooked the inverts start dying for no aparant reason only to find out that copper was used on the live rock previously

[Pistonkev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9518089#post9518089 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by virginiadiver69
Can't he just cook the rock? At the very least he will have 70 lbs of base rock that can be seeded in the new tank.

No cooking won't rid the rock of all the copper.

[L and L]

Not to put blame towards others... but, did you buy that coppersafe at your LFS?

Sorry to hear about that also.

Here is the Chemistry guru Randy Holmes-Farley on Copper.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1020205&highlight=copper

[Icefire]

run some poly filter pad, it will remove most copper

[amike5]

I would just put the rock in some hydrocloric acid a few times and call it base rock. HCL should rid any copper, though it will eat at the rock some. I wouldn't get rid of it, just neutralize it.