Copper got in Display.... how to remove???

BantyRooster97 · Jul 21, 2020

So I had a hospital tank on the floor of my office, treating some fish for ich. I think the spray from the hospital tank affected one of my display tanks that was only 2'-3' away. I left the cabinet door open for a while and I think it got int the sump.

Anyway, fast forward... hospital tank has been running for 30 days & now my zoas & nem in that tank are going downhill. I tested the water today and it was .10 for copper.

How do I get it out? I did a 20% water change today. Will do another tomorrow and move the corals out... but can't get the nem out. Will it soak into the rocks? Will carbon get it out?

thanks

MERKEY · Jul 21, 2020

Cuprisorb works great for metals.

I'm sorry for this accident...maybe try some water conditioner in the new WC.

BantyRooster97 · Jul 21, 2020

Anything I can do right away while I order some of that?

MERKEY · Jul 21, 2020

Very large water change...

Do you have any carbon?

How old is the tank?

@4FordFamily has a great thread about removing copper from your DT. You do need to remove everything.

BantyRooster97 · Jul 21, 2020

Tanks been running for quite a while... I have carbon & GFO on hand I could hook up to the tank tomorrow.

MERKEY · Jul 21, 2020

How To Remove Copper From DT

First of all, best practice is to NEVER dose copper in a display tank, and to use a quarantine tank. It is much easier and safer. Copper in a DT can heavily dampen your nitrogen cycle in your tank, and will leach in to your rock, substrate, and equipment. As a result, the amount of copper...

www.reef2reef.com

This is really the best route.

BantyRooster97 · Jul 21, 2020

Thanks. I looked that thread up... lots of good info. I'll add carbon tomorrow and order some cupri.
thanks!!

fishguy242 · Jul 21, 2020

BantyRooster97 said:
Tanks been running for quite a while... I have copper & GFO on hand I could hook up to the tank tomorrow.

assuming carbon and gfo...go yes carbon #1 asap ,,jmo..best wishes

javisaman · Jul 21, 2020

poly filter, cuprisorb, and a good deal of water changes. 0.10 ppm seems awfully high for incidental splashing though.

codycolina707 · Jul 21, 2020

BantyRooster97 said:
So I had a hospital tank on the floor of my office, treating some fish for ich. I think the spray from the hospital tank affected one of my display tanks that was only 2'-3' away. I left the cabinet door open for a while and I think it got int the sump.

Anyway, fast forward... hospital tank has been running for 30 days & now my zoas & nem in that tank are going downhill. I tested the water today and it was .10 for copper.

How do I get it out? I did a 20% water change today. Will do another tomorrow and move the corals out... but can't get the nem out. Will it soak into the rocks? Will carbon get it out?

thanks

way i got it out was cuprisorb in filter sock and polyfilter zip tied to my powerheads they would turn blue in about 3 days

Bepis · Jul 21, 2020

Okay so cupramine is to my knowledge the only copper treatment that is advertised not to absorb to the rock/seal of the tank. I'd throw in some carbon, and remove the sand (if you have)

What copper did you use

BantyRooster97 · Jul 21, 2020

copper power

Thats the only way I can assume the copper got into the tank. I checked my MP10, my return pump (eheim) and my heater (neotherm). Nothing else in the tank. Tank is a red sea reefer 170.

fishguy242 · Jul 21, 2020

carbon carbon carbon,add a sack,change out 2 days add another,repeat

javisaman · Jul 21, 2020

BantyRooster97 said:
copper power

Thats the only way I can assume the copper got into the tank. I checked my MP10, my return pump (eheim) and my heater (neotherm). Nothing else in the tank. Tank is a red sea reefer 170.

How large is the hospital tank? How much copper were you running? 2.0ppm?

BantyRooster97 · Jul 21, 2020

H T was a 20L and I ramped it up to 2.5ppm and ran it for a total of 45 days. I used Humblefish's copper treatment method, but ran it a bit longer JIC.

javisaman · Jul 22, 2020

Yea that's a good approach!

The numbers are a little weird though. To get to 2.5ppm in the 20L (assuming you filled it all the way) you would need 30 mL of copper power. Now consider the hospital tank as being a diluted copper solution. 20 gallons is approximately ~75,000mL; the amount of volume added from the copper power solution is negligible. For a 35 gallon tank like the Red Sea 170, you need ~2mL of copper power, assuming you filled it the whole way to reach 0.10 ppm. But instead of the copper power bottle, let's say you use the hospital tank. The calculation yields, 2mL/30mL * 75,000mL = 5000mL or 1.3 gallons, which seems like a lot from splashing. I would definitely double-check to make sure nothing is leaching copper.

It's late and I didn't check my math so forgive me if I made a logical/mathematical error.

BantyRooster97 · Jul 22, 2020

Based on the cal for copper power, I would need 2.54 ml to reach .10. Seems like a lot, I agree. I'm going to test it again today and see what it says.