quarantine corals for copper treatment problem

jport828

New member
I have a problem with velvet in my tank .. so the plan was to treat it with copper, and the guy who services my tank said im going to remove your corals or they will die from the treatment..
Had about $1000 worth of corals mostly hammers..
They all looked very healthy..
when the guy came back the next week to service the tank again, he said all the coral died.

why would that happen if they looked fine in my tank?
he told me they kind of melted when he put them into whatever tank he was going to hold them in.
is he lying to me or is this common?
 
From what I understand Coral and most invertebrates, are sensitive to copper to the point of death. That said, melting in my experience is usually a sign of brown jelly disease which can take Euphyllia out quickly. That said, it’s not really known, or at least not to me, what causes brown jelly to occur. Other things could be he had copper in the holding tank at one point and there was residual copper that killed them, too much light, rough handling, etc.
 
I have a problem with velvet in my tank .. so the plan was to treat it with copper, and the guy who services my tank said im going to remove your corals or they will die from the treatment..
Had about $1000 worth of corals mostly hammers..
They all looked very healthy..
when the guy came back the next week to service the tank again, he said all the coral died.

why would that happen if they looked fine in my tank?
he told me they kind of melted when he put them into whatever tank he was going to hold them in.
is he lying to me or is this common?
The flaw I see is even if things had gone to plan, how was he expecting to eliminate all traces of the copper to guarantee safe return of the corals? I'm not a fish guy but I don't see how you could treat a reef tank that you still want to be a reef tank with copper. As much of a pain as it would have been, catching the fish and treating them in a quaranteen system would have been a better option, then leave the reef system fish free for 6 weeks to kill the parasite life cycle. Perhaps he should be fired - after he compensates you for the coral you no longer have.
 
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