OK all so heres the situation a few yrs ago i was gone on vacation and while i was gone my PBT got some ick and my mother decided to treat it on her own she went out and bought something Now i say something because she didnt remember what she used and i couldnt find anything that was empty so i have no idea what she used but she only dosed it once and the ick was killed and has been gone for years, now i have since tried to put a sally lightfoot in the tank from one of my other tanks because it was getting too big and after a week id say it died mystertriously. so it got me thinking what if the product my mother used had copper in it and now the rock has absorbed this copper and now i cant put any invertibrates or corals in this tank because of the copper. but in the tank in question there are a few snails that live just fine this whole time and i have lots of sand worms and brittles and everything so it got me thinking does copper only kill crabs? and are snails inaffected?. also another thing i have taken a few rocks out of the tnak in question and put them into my reef tank over a yr ago and i have corals and crabs and evertthing in that tank basically and i dont see any adverse affects to any of them so i was wonderibg if there is a copper test that would be able to read the slightest amount of copper in my tank water? because now all the copper would be absrobed into my rock. maybe i can test the rock sumhow? Also is the rock that is in the tank now not good to be used in a reef?well any feedback is appreciated
cOPPER AND SNAILS AND CRABS
- Thread starter REEFRHEAD
- Start date
Reeferhead,
Unless the snail is closed up and has shut its operculum, (like they do when they are out of the water) they will always be more sensitive to copper than a crab would be.
While the drug that was used could easily have been a chelated copper product (based on the one time dose) if that was "years" ago, and you've been doing proper water changes, there is likely any copper in solution any longer. Remember, the amount of copper that could possibly be bound up in your rocks is only a percentage of that one time dose. All the horror stories you hear about copper leaching back out of rock is from cases where ionic copper was used in the tank with the rock over a long period....years in some cases, and then, the copper is bound very tightly to the rock (that's why its there in the first place!) so a drop in pH is needed to release any copper back into the water.
JHemdal
Unless the snail is closed up and has shut its operculum, (like they do when they are out of the water) they will always be more sensitive to copper than a crab would be.
While the drug that was used could easily have been a chelated copper product (based on the one time dose) if that was "years" ago, and you've been doing proper water changes, there is likely any copper in solution any longer. Remember, the amount of copper that could possibly be bound up in your rocks is only a percentage of that one time dose. All the horror stories you hear about copper leaching back out of rock is from cases where ionic copper was used in the tank with the rock over a long period....years in some cases, and then, the copper is bound very tightly to the rock (that's why its there in the first place!) so a drop in pH is needed to release any copper back into the water.
JHemdal
pescadero
In Memoriam
one thing that i have thought about for treating rocks that have been exposed to copper is acid washing them. in theory you could take all of your live rock out of the system one rock at a time, acid wash it to remove the copper, and then return the base rock to the system to be recolonized.
JHemdal
Thanks for the reply, yes there are snails in the tank that are fine and have been for a long while like ceriths an astrea and a queen conch, so you think that the copper isnt in the tank anymore and its not something i have to worry about? And I also figured that with the one time dose it had to have copper in it as well. Thanks again
Thanks for the reply, yes there are snails in the tank that are fine and have been for a long while like ceriths an astrea and a queen conch, so you think that the copper isnt in the tank anymore and its not something i have to worry about? And I also figured that with the one time dose it had to have copper in it as well. Thanks again
