To tell the truth, crooks, I've never seen any empirical evidence to confirm the rumor that a glass tank cannot be used for a reef tank after being exposed to copper treatments.
Does anyone have any information on controlled studies or clinical testing that has measured any copper leaching back out of silicone, or is it possible this could simply be another reefkeeping myth circulated by overly cautious aquarists?
Copper is a naturally occurring trace mineral in seawater at an average level of 3ppb.
A 2005 article in Advanced Aquarist's showed different brands of salt mix to contain between 5-7ppb copper, and in a 1999 study, a test sample of Instant Ocean salt mix was shown to contain 115ppb.
Other marine bio studies have shown a level as low as 10ppb can negatively impact the larval development of some invertebrates, and levels under 1ppm can cause a 100% mortality rate in certain species.
So in order to determine if a tank were truly safe to house inverts/corals after being exposed to copper we would have to know the amount of copper (if any) that is leeched back into the water column from the silicone over a set period of time between water changes.
Does anyone have a link to that information?
Perhaps this should be posted in the chemistry forum?
I've been wondering about the answer to this for a while now.