Life after copper in Display tank

[brandon429]

we were in other threads, agreed it was no concern here.

folks need to be able to see how strong these bacteria are, the kind of insult it really takes to break a cycle. this thread stands out markedly that cycles are darn hard to kill. this thread is already back edited into a few huge cycle studies/significantly useful for us.

it seemed he's been reassured by the other folks who did this option/time to use his pics and timelines for further study.

 

[Aries360]

Many years ago I did the exact same thing although I thought the Coppersafe was exactly that safe. Lol After which I had alot of friends tell me the system was doomed. I freaked out and got in touch with my then LFS and explained what I did. He tried to assure me it was going to be OK but at the time, I didn't believe him so we traded the complete system in for a new tank and I kid you not 2 days later he had that system set up with corals and everything. He said he wanted to prove to me that everything was going to be fine and it was. The corals survived and thrived. He said he just cleaned everything and kept going. Needless to say I was so upset, I loved the 180g system. Just wanted to share that story with you. Good Luck and keep going. Maybe you will have the same luck he had.

I am back up and running now. It took two water changes of 200 gallons. And I have been running sheets of poly filter. I have put back in my anemones and coral and inverts and they are all thriving. It took just over two months before I could put everything back in. But I am extremely happy I did it as I saved countless fish. It was a lot of work though. But it did all work out in the end. I wish I would’ve done it sooner because I did lose some fish I cared greatly about because I listened to the people on this website forum who freaked me out about putting copper in my main display tank

 

[Hal3134]

I have not personally pulled copper out of rock, because I've refused to add it to rock. With that said, active measures like you're taking are the only way at this point. Poly filters are good. Cuprosorb in a Reactor or two is your absolutely best option. Run passively in a media bag is very ineffective. The reactor will speed it up. The speed of water flowing through the reactor should be about equal to GFO. Barely bubbling is a bit too much. Change or reload your media often.

If you're wanting to test, don't use cleaner shrimp. Those are $25-35 a piece currently. A few snails in a sump compartment for a while will give you an idea.

 

[Hal3134]

I’m not sure why nobody mentioned it yet, but carbon will remove copper. Fill up a reactor and get working.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

I’m not sure why nobody mentioned it yet, but carbon will remove copper. Fill up a reactor and get working.

Carbon could be included, but is a Lot slower than cuprisorb and doesn't last nearly as long.

 

[lion king]

I am back up and running now. It took two water changes of 200 gallons. And I have been running sheets of poly filter. I have put back in my anemones and coral and inverts and they are all thriving. It took just over two months before I could put everything back in. But I am extremely happy I did it as I saved countless fish. It was a lot of work though. But it did all work out in the end. I wish I would’ve done it sooner because I did lose some fish I cared greatly about because I listened to the people on this website forum who freaked me out about putting copper in my main display tank

Keep running your poly filter as it will continue to mop up any remnants, and turn blue if there is enough copper to cause an issue.

 

[Aries360]

Yup. I am running two in my sump now. About to do a third 200 gallons in the next few weeks.

 

[Aries360]

To all of the people that said you cannot have coral in invertebrates after copper treatment in the display tank. Only two months later.

 

[Aries360]

To all of the people that said you cannot have coral in invertebrates after copper treatment in the display tank. Only two months later.

 

[brandon429]

did your ammonia ever spike this whole time/cycle broken at any point

 

[Aries360]

Yes ammonia went up a little but I just did a large water change and all was well. Water had same copper level before I put it in. I kept my level between 1.5-2 using coppersafe and the Hanna reader and I used the ammonia badges. The water tester with the drops was useless because the coppersafe gave it false positive. Also took a little bit of daily checking in the beginning because the rocks would absorb it so I had to keep adding.

 

[naterealbig]

This may be helpful. I thought @Randy Holmes-Farley may have done this, but i can't find the thread...

What you need to know about copper and coral - Reef Central Online Community

What you need to know about copper and coral The Reef Chemistry Forum

www.reefcentral.com

https://www.thomasnet.com/pdf.php?prid=100422

 

[Paul B]

My reef had copper in it for a few years because when the hobby started we didn't know what we were doing so the fish were always covered in parasites. We also didn't have Poly Filters or cuprisorb then so I used carbon. Lots of it.

That tank is still running and is full of corals. The gravel is the same as are many of the rocks. No problem.

 

[brandon429]

questions based on that

(this thread is being celebrated in two different ways, it has cycle input value, that's my line of interest in the tank)

-ammonia rising/how much was the rise? what was pre-measure and then rise level/what was the test kit? (asking so I can discern if it's nh4 you read, and we can factor that reading at the max level with other posts from the kit in question to verify trending on that kit in non copper tanks)


how can a water change fix the matter? rising ammonia = dead bacteria, and changing water does not replenish bacteria it reduces a stated ammonia loading, one time. You did not dose extra ammonia by hand, it came stated as backup from tank inability to handle fish waste. the rise is implied by the copper/that's dead bacteria. Your bioload, input rate, dilution all stayed the same and one water change fixed it without a repeat water change, is that right?

I gotta know what ammonia test kit this was. if it was hanna meter pls try and recall the readout max range you observed

 

[brandon429]

I see it was the ammonia badges, not a digital meter. Thank you for the input/I just read it above.

It's hard to find these system events being tracked on digital ammonia readers/have to get lucky. It's still cool your animals made it.

can a clean up crew live in there?