Ugh! Did I just make a big mistake?

[ReefKeeper666]

So I was scooping out uneaten food in my QT tank that’s being treated with copper. I noticed one of my frags in my currently fallow main tank had fallen over. Like an idiot I didn’t wash my hands and put a hand in the display tank. My concern is that some copper just got in my 55 gallon main tank. Do I need to worry?

how much copper is needed to start affecting corals?
am I maybe ok since it was not so much water on a wet arm?

 

[r20crazy]

should be fine.

 

[fcmatt]

No where near enough water would ride on your hand or arm to hurt the display.

 

[Vette67]

I dip whole pieces of my live rock into my hospital tank treated with copper and leave it there for a week. I let the excess copper water drip off the live rock and drop it right back into my DT. Kills the aptasia, and I promise more copper water is in that rock than on your hands. You shouldn’t worry about it, unless you have a 3 gallon pico tank.

 

[andrewey]

100% fine

 

[andrewey]

If you really want to feel better, the math is even more fun

If you were running your QT at 2ppm copper and you injected 10mL of that directly into your tank, the tank would dilute that out to 0.000048 ppm (this discounts the copper levels already present in your saltwater).

 

[ReefKeeper666]

Thanks all!