Can sand exposed to copper ever support inverts?

[fingersdlp]

I have a FOWLR tank that I removed the live rock and inverts from and treated with copper for ick. I left the sand and two pieces of rock as I did not want to totaly disrupt the biological filter. (Too many big fish to move to seperate tank and I was worried about fish loss in a smaller tank with insufficient bio filtration).

I did monitor and dose copper as necessary to make up for the sand/rock absorbing it (twice a day for 5 weeks - now that is fun).

Good news: Tank appears to be ick free and no fish loss

Bad news: I have two rubbermaid tubs of live rock, snails, and crabs (with powerheads heaters and lights) that I would like to move back to the fish only display some day.

I have done several large water changes and plan to do more to reduce the copper level in the water as much as possible and I will run poly filters / cuprisorb soon.

Questions:

1) Has anyone had any experience with snails and crabs going back into a tank with sand/rock exposed to copper? Should I just replace the sand and discard the two pieces of rock (easy answer but expensive).

2) Is direct exposure of this sand to a snail or crab crawling on it the problem or is it more of a leaching copper back into the water problem? Anyone think I could use this sand for a "deep sand bed in a bucket" for nitrate control where there would be no direct invert exposure rather than competely discard it?

3) I have read that snails do not like to crawl over a copper strip. Anyone belive they will be "smart" enough to stick to the copper free rocks and avoid the sand?

My current plan is to get rid of as much copper in the water column as possible (testing shows none) and then introduce some rock and a few snails and see what happens.

Am I in denial? Should I just bite the bullet and replace the sand/rock? If anyone can tell me from direct experience that the sand will kill the snails/crabs I will be inclined to remove it. Any other thoughts?

B.

 

[spookybfc]

I treated a 210 reef tank with copper for ick. I had a 90 gallon to move the corals and invertebrates to. I would say about 2 months later i had invertebrates back in the tank with no problem. The one and only invertebrate that died when i put it in was a green brittle starfish so i waited a couple of months more before i added another one and its doing fine.
After treating the tank i did a 90% water change. Set some bags of active carbon, and a filter pad that is suppose to clear out the copper out of the water. I also stirred the sand and ran a power head thru the rocks.
I haven't had itch problems since then.

 

[fingersdlp]

Thanks for the info. Did you constantly add copper while you were treating or did you just dose it once? I added some almost every day with testing to make up for the absorbtion. Just trying to figure out if we are talking about a similar amount of copper.

Thanks again

B.

 

[tkeracer619]

Please don't. Copper is not safe for reef's.



Way too late :lol: This is not the easy way to do this.

I would throw away the sand and 2 rocks. Do a lot of water changes, and run carbon (change carbon every couple days).

actually I would get a new tank and use the one with copper for a qt. Sounds like you need one anyways.

 

[Steven Pro]

I would replace the sand and two rocks. It is really not worth the risk to me.

 

[spookybfc]

I only added copper to the water once. By the time i had decided to go with copper i had already lost a powder blue and a sohal tang. I had tried three different reef safe products but they all failed so i had no choice.

I agree with Steven and Fingersdlp. Copper is not good for a reef tank but i had no choice. When i decided to go with copper i only asked LFS ut copper treatment. Based on the info i got i decided to go with it and like i said before, today i have no problems with any inverts in my tank. But just so you know i would much rather take the fish out into a hospital tank in the future than to go thru that again in my reef tank. It would be way too much work and too risky for all the things i have added since then.

Just keep in mind that you do need to stir up the sand once you have the copper removed from the water and run water thru the rocks.

 

[fingersdlp]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I know copper is not safe for reefs and I did say this was in a fish only tank. I have a seperate reef tank, another 40 breeder tank for breeding bangai, two 30 gallon QT tanks one of which is always running and cycled.

I got the ick after adding "live sand" (not the stuff in a bag - real live sand shipped directly from location). And no I did not QT the sand. I should have.

I resorted to copper in the fish only after 6 weeks of hyposalinity at 1.008 - 1.009 failed to kill the ick.

This is a 180 gallon fish only tank. Lots of big fish. I had no way to treat them in a seperate tank(s) as my 30 gallon would not even come close.

Yea I am feeling a little guilty about using copper in a display tank (even though it is fish only) but that was the best choice I felt at the time to keep all the fish alive.

Most important to me is I did not loose any fish (including my kids pet puffer fish they feed by hand - that dang fish is completely defensless against ick and has cost me plenty trying to cure him).

Thanks Steven - I know that is the right answer (replace the sand/2 rocks). Just need to convince myself to do it.

I am a little worried about losing the cycle on the tank if I remove all the sand but I guess adding back all the saved live rock should lessen that problem.

Thanks

B.