Pennies in the tank

[sanababit]

Well the other day i went to a restaurant and saw a 300 gal tall aquarium with a lot of tangs and decorations, i asked the person how long has it been setup, and what kind of filtration they have, they had a sump with a skimmer and bio balls that should be ok with a FO tank, anyways, i saw that the sump had some pennies inside and asked him why, he said that since its copper, they use it to treat ich, how true is this, anyone?, i ask because i have a tank with only fish and live rock, i was thinking of adding some pennies because i saw some ich on one of the fish, i am going to try it, i dont have any inverts in there.......please enlighten me

Sana

 

[davocean]

LOL, funny, I've heard stories of LFS competitors throwing pennies in tanks to mess them up.
Not sure even how much copper is in todays pennies.
I see no way to regulate dose for one thing(if it even worked) and some fish are sensitive as well.
I wouldn't add anything I couldn't regulate and or test for.

 

[sermech]

Check with paul B he has been into the hobby since the begin and has talked on a couple threads about how they put pennies in there tanks in the early days for ich he would have more knowledge on this and could tell you the ups or downs of this.

 

[sundancer]

How many pennies per gallon did he have in there? LOL.

 

[Toddrtrex]

The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year.

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/fun_facts/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=fun_facts2

 

[sanababit]

hmmm, i need to take a look at the pennies i put in the tank, i will see if they work or not.....

Sana

 

[MileHighFish]

I too have heard this from an old school hobbyist..this was in the 80's and he was doing this and had a very nice FO tank..

 

[davocean]

Just sounds funny to me, I mean how do you figure dosage?
Do you throw in a bunch of pre "82" pennies and when you think you need just a lil more say, hmm.. think I need about an "85" penny!LOL
I just got a display tank from a supplier, and there was a penny in there.
Had to wonder was this sabatoge, or just a kid making a wish!

 

[Arati]

Its verry true people used to use pennys all the time. On the flip side Zinc is super toxic , even to fish.

Next time you goto that place you are gonna have to check the dates on the pennys ~

 

[sanababit]

Well i got a couple of 1979 pennies in a 20 gal, lets see how it goes, lol

sana

 

[IslandCrow]

This is something that's more common with freshwater. I would strongly recommend against using this technique even in a fish only tank. Randy in the Chemistry forum could probably tell you more, but you have to be careful dosing copper. There's really not very much margin of error between being ineffective and being lethal. Also, if you have any invertebrates (crabs, snails, shrimp, etc.), copper is very toxic to them. I'm not sure what effect it has on biological filtration, but I'm guessing it's not very good for your isopods and copepods. You should never treat a fish in your main tank. If the few dollars you're going to save on medication is worth the risk to you, at least treat in a hospital tank.