Copper treatment and beneficial bacteria

[RichtheReefer21]

I did a few key word searches but couldnt find an answer.

If live rock is used in a QT that has been treated with copper, does the good bacteria for bio filtration survive all treatments or are they wiped out during treament?

I guess I'm wondering if I can maintain beneficial cycled/established media in a Copper treated tank or if there are treatments for fish that kill off bacteria as well?

tia

 

[CC13]

I did a few key word searches but couldnt find an answer.

If live rock is used in a QT that has been treated with copper, does the good bacteria for bio filtration survive all treatments or are they wiped out during treament?

I guess I'm wondering if I can maintain beneficial cycled/established media in a Copper treated tank or if there are treatments for fish that kill off bacteria as well?

tia

Found this for you:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/does-copper-kill-beneficial-bacteria-in-a-hospital-tank.193381/

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Thanks.

 

[CC13]

Thanks.

No problem.

 

[User]

I’ve had no issues with ammonia building up in a 10g with aquaclear 20 hob, treated with copper at 1.75 ppm fir 2 weeks, with about 4” of fish (eg 2x 1.5-2” clowns or a small tang)

Whether you could extrapolate this to mean the bacterial colony that acts as your biofilter is intact, and undisturbed by copper, is hard to say. As a microbiologist, my training tells me that a percentage will find The copper toxic, and die, but the surviving pool will repopulate. If you raise copper slowly, they also have time to adapt- which bacteria can do surprisingly quickly.

To test properly you’d have to set up two filters— in the same tank to be fair— let your bacterial population get up to ‘cycling’ density, move one to a new tank (change out old water in the first Tank to the same batch as the second to be fair) then dose one with copper. Then leave it 48 hours (longer and the surviving population may start to rebound, skewing your answer to ‘no’,) remove filters, and do bacterial plate count dilutions. Problem with that is you need to do a couple dozen plates each at various dilutions, and be sure you can grow ALL the bacteria on the media you selected (you can’t) abs then repeat it all with fresh filter and tanks 8-10 times. Then realize that,even though you tried to standardize everything every time, your final numbers still have a 400% variation, because that’s how accurate plate dilution counting is.

So, anecdotally, I assume my bacterial population is intact, because I’m not encountering any ammonia in my tanks during a 14 day period of feeding and fish pooping

 

[Reefahholic]

I wouldn’t put rock in a QT. It can absorb the medication and affect stability. Not to mention... you’ll never be able to use the rock for anything other than a FOWLER tank.

Test for ammonia, use an alert badge, and control ammonia w/ water changes when needed.