How To Remove Copper From DT

[Thomashtom]

If you remove most of live rock before treating a DT with copper my guess would be to put the rock in a 30 pail with DT water, heater and pump? Would you need to keep a light on them for a few hrs a day. I dont think you should use the rock in a another tank for fear of ich getting in that tank right? Any other suggestions because i have exhausted just about all treatments, QT, chloroquine phosphate, dosing food with vitamins and garlic, diatom filter, and i still have ich after nine months of fighting it? All of my fish (7 of them 6 inch or better) have been fighting through it so i have yet to pull the trigger and i really dont want to have to treat the DT with copper. Thanks for your help. Tom

No Replys

 

[4FordFamily]

No Replys

Removing rock to large 60 gal Rubbermaid is what I have historically done. I do use cheap powerhead, heater. Light is necessary for coral and some inverts, I’ve used cheap box leds.

The rock and inverts will simply have to go fallow for 76 days to rid them of native parasites.

 

[kevsqn]

And in my experience even the stain will go away given enough time ie a few years. Not sure how the copper ruins a tank forever myth got started, I have even used copper on live rock, ran the rock through detox and had a reef on it later. Some of the rock in my current reef was treated with copper about 10 years ago and everything looks and grow fine.
P8300139 by Scott Chase, on Flickr
P9180140 by Scott Chase, on Flickr

how did you find detox? was it good?

 

[Elgringodiablo]

If you are compiling data, I plan to dose my display with coppersafe tomorrow. My scape is too difficult to remove and I haven't been able to catch the majority of my fish after noticing velvet on my tang as result of lack of rigor in my quarantine process. I pulled the corals and inverts tonight. Can't pull my rock out, so hopefully Detox and Cupasorb will remove it well enough once this ordeal is done.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Ran CopperSafe between 1.5-1.8 in my display for 30 days. Pulling it out now, after running carbon, cupisorb in a reactor and poly filter and a 20% water change I am already down to 0.6.

I will probably use Triton Detox in a few days. Any clue whether bituminous or lignite carbon is best for removing chelated copper?

 

[4FordFamily]

Any clue whether bituminous or lignite carbon is best for removing chelated copper?

I have no idea, to be truthful. Let me know how triton works out!

 

[Humblefish]

Any clue whether bituminous or lignite carbon is best for removing chelated copper?

IME; carbon is slow to remove all forms of copper. Cuprisorb and/or a Poly Filter will work much faster.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

IME; carbon is slow to remove all forms of copper. Cuprisorb and/or a Poly Filter will work much faster.

Sure, using all three. Just wondering if one type of carbon might be slightly more effective than others.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

I have no idea, to be truthful. Let me know how triton works out!

Maybe I did it wrong, but the Detox didn’t really have an impact. Removed my polyfilter, closed the valve to my media reactors. Dosed 12ml in my 100g system. Cu was at 0.45 when I dosed. 3 days later I tested, 0.51... turned my reactors back on, did a 10% water change 0.35 now.

Only thing I can think of is my Zeovit reactor. Going to turn off my media and zeo next try tomorrow night and see if that works any better. Hope it’s at least pulling the copper out of my rocks.

Not in a huge rush to get coral back in that tank, but having no cleanup crew kind of sucks.

 

[JoshKReef]

Maybe I did it wrong, but the Detox didn’t really have an impact. Removed my polyfilter, closed the valve to my media reactors. Dosed 12ml in my 100g system. Cu was at 0.45 when I dosed. 3 days later I tested, 0.51... turned my reactors back on, did a 10% water change 0.35 now.

Only thing I can think of is my Zeovit reactor. Going to turn off my media and zeo next try tomorrow night and see if that works any better. Hope it’s at least pulling the copper out of my rocks.

Not in a huge rush to get coral back in that tank, but having no cleanup crew kind of sucks.

The first step was "
Before Treatment:
Remove all rock, coral, and inverts you wish to keep.".

I haven't read through this entire thread, so unless someone said that you can successfully remove copper absorbed by rock, you may need to get rid of that.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

I’m keeping the rock. 120lbs of TLF Stax... There is a finite amount of copper. It wasn’t sopping up massive amounts of copper (I tested daily) I have the Hanna tester and can ICP test once it’s below detectable levels. Others have been able to remove copper from rocks, I will be able to as well, the big question is how long it will take. I got it from 1.75 to 0.5 in about 24hrs.

While I realize it would have been easier to detoxify the tank if I threw the rock away, I don’t buy into rock or silicone having some insane copper absorption properties, that somehow still bleeds it out into the water? What, does copper multiply in rock??

If I end up being wrong, then I’ll just be a cautionary tale for everyone else, right?

At this point, if it takes less than a couple months, I will be pleased, but I am prepared for it to take much longer.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Interestingly enough, the Cu readings on my Hanna Checker go up slightly (went from 0.29 t0 0.48) after dosing Triton Detox, I've also noticed my rock changing color in a good way, dark brown diatom buildup has gone away. I think that the Detox is actually pulling ionized Cu out of the rock and binding it to organics in the water then the expectation is to mechanically remove those organics via skimming and carbon. Guess we shall see what results yield after I turn my reactors back on tonight with new carbon.

 

[4FordFamily]

That’s pretty interesting! Thanks for sharing keep us updated!

Interestingly enough, the Cu readings on my Hanna Checker go up slightly (went from 0.29 t0 0.48) after dosing Triton Detox, I've also noticed my rock changing color in a good way, dark brown diatom buildup has gone away. I think that the Detox is actually pulling ionized Cu out of the rock and binding it to organics in the water then the expectation is to mechanically remove those organics via skimming and carbon. Guess we shall see what results yield after I turn my reactors back on tonight with new carbon.

 

[kevsqn]

Interestingly enough, the Cu readings on my Hanna Checker go up slightly (went from 0.29 t0 0.48) after dosing Triton Detox, I've also noticed my rock changing color in a good way, dark brown diatom buildup has gone away. I think that the Detox is actually pulling ionized Cu out of the rock and binding it to organics in the water then the expectation is to mechanically remove those organics via skimming and carbon. Guess we shall see what results yield after I turn my reactors back on tonight with new carbon.

Looking forward to the result!

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Yeah, I am pretty positive that Detox is just a chelating agent that bonds to ionic copper and makes it removable via mechanical filtration. Probably better as a last step after Cu levels are already really low when removing chelated copper.
https://reefbuilders.com/2015/04/07/triton-detox-innovative-remove-trace-heavy-metals/

Ran Detox again for a second set of 3 days and put brand new Rox 0.8 GAC in my reactor which I just turned back on. After running the reactor for about 2 hours my Cu is testing at 0.57 (higher than a few days ago pre-Detox). Will test again tomorrow before I put polyfilter and cupisorb back in. At this stage is think I won't use Detox again until I am pretty close to 0ppm.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

I was able to confirm this with Triton. So for removal of chelated copper, Detox is likely only useful as a final cleanup for any free copper that is left over.

On a side note, my Cu levels are back down to 0.4 after 14 hours of new carbon and a clean skimmer cup. Added polyfilter and will perform another 20% water change this evening.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

Down to 0.25 now. It's almost like dealing with radioactive half-life. I think what has made this easier for Ford and potentially others is the huge water changes. I got it from 1.75 to 0.6 or so in no time, but knocking it down from there has been a slow road, granted I am only two weeks in. Unfortunately I don't really have the capacity to make more than 25 gallons of new salt water at a time, so doing a 50% water change would likely take me a few hours. Maybe I am nuts, but this has been an interesting experiment.

 

[Toofattofish]

I'm curious if anyone has tried adding bicarb/carbonate to remove copper as copper carbonate isn't soluble in water.

 

[Elgringodiablo]

I'm curious if anyone has tried adding bicarb/carbonate to remove copper as copper carbonate isn't soluble in water.

Like adding Sodium Bicarbonate Alk supplement? I can give that a shot if that's what you are referring to. I haven't been dosing anything in that system since removing the corals, but if there is some evidence that bicarb would speed up the removal, I'm willing to try it.

 

[Toofattofish]

Like adding Sodium Bicarbonate Alk supplement? I can give that a shot if that's what you are referring to. I haven't been dosing anything in that system since removing the corals, but if there is some evidence that bicarb would speed up the removal, I'm willing to try it.

I'd think that carbonate would work better that bicarb. It's pretty easy to get carbonate out of bicarb though.
Im wondering if @Randy Holmes-Farley or any other chemistry experts on here have any thoughts about it.
Theoretically it should work, but a reef tank complicates the chemistry and would want to be sure that none of the formed salts are toxic or harmful.