Copper treatment w/c question

[smokin'reefer]

I am am currently running a QT with copper and about to do a water change using my w/c water from main display.
I have two 13 gallon reservoirs i usually use. One to drain 13 gallons from the sump and another would have fresh mixed saltwater that I pump back in sump. Because it is from the sump it is pretty clean. It is not sanded vacuum type water change.

I would then have to treat the w/c water with copper before adding to my QT. Then simply pull 13 gallons out of my 29 gallon QT and pump the newly copperated water into QT.

So far so good.

My question is will my regular rinse out of my plastic reservoirs be enough to remove the copper before refilling with RO and mixing for my next w/c in my main display tank? These reservoirs are hydroponic type plastic. I would rinse with a sprayer attached to a water hose attached to a spigot.

I am probably overthinking this but just better to ask and be safe than sorry.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That is a really good question. For general use, I would say no problem, but for critical use in a coral exhibit, I'd probably want to take some extra steps. Why not add your DT water to the QT and dose it there? If that won't work, you can rinse out the 13 gallon container with RO water, and rub it with a soft cloth and rinse it again and be pretty confident all of the copper is gone.

Jay

 

[smokin'reefer]

That is a really good question. For general use, I would say no problem, but for critical use in a coral exhibit, I'd probably want to take some extra steps. Why not add your DT water to the QT and dose it there? If that won't work, you can rinse out the 13 gallon container with RO water, and rub it with a soft cloth and rinse it again and be pretty confident all of the copper is gone.

Jay

Thanks,
From what I have read. I would need to add water already at therapeutic range of copper to the QT. I believe the reasoning is if I add water first, the levels would drop below therapeutic levels and I would have to start the clock again.

I will take your suggestion and rinse-wipe-rinse to insure there is no residual.

Thanks again

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Oh, no that simply isn't true, dropping below therapeutic levels for the minute or two that it takes for the water to thoroughly mix has no adverse effect, guaranteed. We routinely run water changes on our systems, and because we don't know the exact volume, we let the water circulate and then test for copper and redose - total elapsed time can be an hour +, never gave it a second thought. Done that for decades...

Jay

 

[josephxsxn]

Oh, no that simply isn't true, dropping below therapeutic levels for the minute or two that it takes for the water to thoroughly mix has no adverse effect, guaranteed. We routinely run water changes on our systems, and because we don't know the exact volume, we let the water circulate and then test for copper and redose - total elapsed time can be an hour +, never gave it a second thought. Done that for decades...

Jay

Super happy to read this I also had assumed the same that all water would need to be pretreated to perfect levels and a tiny swing under would result in resetting the timer. Makes doing this 100x easier.

 

[Spieg]

I'm no expert, but personally I'd be nervous about taking water from an infected tank and using for a 50% water change in a clean QT without treating/medicating it first (how long does it take for a parasite or pathogen to infect a fish?). I'll use tank water to setup a new quarantine and then treat the water in QT, but after that I only use fresh mixed salt water (pest/disease free) for a large water change (if it were a smaller percentage of the tank volume maybe I'd feel better about it). I'm probably paranoid, but a 70 day quarantine is not something I want to take a chance of restarting just to save a few dollars of salt.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I'm no expert, but personally I'd be nervous about taking water from an infected tank and using for a 50% water change in a clean QT without treating/medicating it first (how long does it take for a parasite or pathogen to infect a fish?). I'll use tank water to setup a new quarantine and then treat the water in QT, but after that I only use fresh mixed salt water (pest/disease free) for a large water change (if it were a smaller percentage of the tank volume maybe I'd feel better about it). I'm probably paranoid, but a 70 day quarantine is not something I want to take a chance of restarting just to save a few dollars of salt.

I may have misread it, but I thought the fish were in QT and not being medicated due to having been in the DT with the disease. If that IS the case, then no, you don’t want to use that water while the tank is laying fallow. If however there was no active disease in the DT, then that is actually a good secondary use of the water.
Jay

 

[Spieg]

I may have misread it, but I thought the fish were in QT and not being medicated due to having been in the DT with the disease. If that IS the case, then no, you don’t want to use that water while the tank is laying fallow. If however there was no active disease in the DT, then that is actually a good secondary use of the water.
Jay

You didn't misread, we're both making assumptions without enough info from OP. ;Shamefullyembarrased