If Copper can kill a reef tank..What else is a No No?

[CSJIII]

Everyone knows the standard warnings about using copper in a saltwater aquarium in so far that it should never be used with live rock, filter bacteria, inverts, or corals, it should never be used in main display tanks and that any tank that has ever had a copper treatment should never be used for setting up reef tanks. Copper can be absorbed into the rocks, substrate, and silicone in the tank and leach back out over time.

This can to mind the other day when my youngest daughter was thinking that it looked like a good idea to throw a penny in my tank and make a wish. Glad I was there to stop it.

So, if copper is a No No....What else would be detrimental to a reef tank?

 

[AZDesertRat]

Most medications for a virus or bacterial infections are a no-no as any amount of chlorine, bleach or chloramines.

 

[CJO]

Ammonia cleaners

CJ

 

[Dowtish]

Would seachems prime be detrimental?

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[AZDesertRat]

Really all it does is remove chlorine and you shouldn't be using tap water with chlorine in it anyway. it does bind a few other chemicals but binding them and removing them are two different things.

 

[Dowtish]

I understand that, I just was using it on a hospital tank, hoping it would detoxify some ammonia. I have never used it in my display

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[palvyre]

Brass!! Learned the hard way. Brass has copper in it.

 

[Raggamuffin]

so does bronze

 

[aquabull]

Aerosols, room deodorizers, carpet fresh, lysol, febreeze, pledge, perfume, cologne, etc. et al. Long story short, if you can take a couple of squirts in the mouth, and not end up in the hospital or morgue, the tank can take it too. If it will kill you, the reef does not stand a chance. Oversimplified, i'm sure, but you get the drift!

 

[Momma_Fish]

Phosphates

Does anyone know how to get phosphates out of a aquarium? We have a really good reef tank, but we are having problems with phosphates. We also came into a problem when some of our plumbing was metal. I don't know what type of metal, I know it wasn't copper. But I also was wondering if there is a way to tell what types of metals are in the water and if there is a good source of finding out how to get rid of it. If anyone has any idea's, I'm up for them. The last thing I want to see is my husband's hard work go down the drain.

 

[aquabull]

Polyfilter, by Poly-bio Marine is a chemical adsorbent/absorbent media that can strip metals and minerals out of the tank water (without adversely affecting pH or trace elements). As well, it changes color to indicate what it has pulled.

 

[Murfman]

One of our locals works at lab and now found tin in his water. Any ideas of toxicity of tin in the water?

 

[Madreef]

IIRC there's lots of harmful elements in our tanks. Most of the time we dismiss them as "trace elements" they occur in such low concentrations that they are not harmful. Sometimes they can build up over time and cause problems. IMO doing regular water changes will eliminate most of the issues.

If it was a non plastic fitting it was likely made of brass or a galvanized metal. Running a polyfilter pad, carbon, and waterchanges should remove anything left behind once it's been removed.

The general rule of treating the tank as if it's any other living organism is a good rule of thumb, only they seem to benefit from vodka

 

[aquabull]

Tin greatly reduces plankton and algae populations and performance. Es no bueno.

 

[AZDesertRat]

Phosphates and many other contaminants can be removed with Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO), Phosban is one example in the aquarium hobby. Other methods are macroalgaes and the Poly Pads which are impregnated with ferric oxide but those can get expensive vs the first two methods which have a much greater capacity fo phosphates.

 

[Gitsoe]

made a newbie mistake just yesterday, when I went to manually add ro water in my tank I accidentally added a jug of ro that had Kalk in it and my tanks PH raised to 8.8 so I freaked and remembered Vinegar lowers ph so I quickly poured some in and that was the biggest mistake I ever did, within seconds my ph dropped to 4.2 all my zoos retracted and looked horrible my chalices immediately started sliming up, pods started dying, snails on my glass started to pretty much melt there shells were hanging about a half inch below there foot right b4 they dropped to the bottom of the frag tank, i had to quickly transfer all the frags (prolly over 60) into my DT which had no space to begin with, i had no time or possible way to acclimate them so hopefully they'll make it.

 

[palvyre]

Ouch!!

 

[swannyson7]

made a newbie mistake just yesterday, when I went to manually add ro water in my tank I accidentally added a jug of ro that had Kalk in it and my tanks PH raised to 8.8 so I freaked and remembered Vinegar lowers ph so I quickly poured some in and that was the biggest mistake I ever did, within seconds my ph dropped to 4.2 all my zoos retracted and looked horrible my chalices immediately started sliming up, pods started dying, snails on my glass started to pretty much melt there shells were hanging about a half inch below there foot right b4 they dropped to the bottom of the frag tank, i had to quickly transfer all the frags (prolly over 60) into my DT which had no space to begin with, i had no time or possible way to acclimate them so hopefully they'll make it.

Been there! A couple years ago my float switch on my ATO stuck and overdosed my tank through a kalk reactor. My pH was up over 9 so I added a little bit of vinegar. Poured a tiny bit into the sump of my 125 and the pH plummeted down to about 6. Then I went back to the kalk route to bring it back up. Overall, I probably made things 10 times worse with my mad scientist dosing, but managed not to lose anything. Best of luck Gitsoe!