copper ???? with live rock use

[litenyaup]

OK so I'm getting a bunch of rock from a friend, but it has been in a fowlr tank and he treated with copper. this rock will be used in a reef tank, but it will be dried out for up to a month or two. my question is, will it be OK to put into a reet tank after it has dried out and fresh water washed for that period of time?

 

[tampasnooker]

I suspect the copper will still be in the rock. However, I was able to sponge out A LOT of copper from my 180 using Poly Filters. They turn blue with copper, get crusty then sink once saturated. Keep replacing the filter pad until it stops turning blue. In my case, I had to remove all the copper from a Visitherm heater that burned up in my sump. Took about a dozen pads. In another case, I recently took on a client's tank that was originally set up with brass fittings. That one only required 3 pads to remove all the copper from 2-3 years of contact with the brass.
Alternatively, Julian Sprung recommended to me to use C02 if you have it (much cheaper) and drop the pH to about 5. Bathe the rock and the copper should come out into the water. This method is cheaper if you have C02 and a controller already but I did not go that route since I had a shelf full of Poly Filters.
A snail is a fairly cheap way to test for the copper as it will not come out of its shell in the presence of Cu.

 

[litenyaup]

i dont have a tank setup to have the rock soak, what i was going to do was let it sit outside for a month or two. would by leaving it out, and spray with the hose every day or two remove the copper?

 

[tampasnooker]

Don't think it will work. Soaking and rinseing would do more good since the copper is probably imbedded inside the rock. Stay tuned. I'm off to see a new customer whose previous service treated the tank with copper. We'll see how the tank responds to Polys.