removing copper from live rock?

[buschwacker]

I have aquired some live rock from a friend and he said that he ran copper based meds. in the tank about 2 years ago. If their is copper still present in the tank, is their any way to remove the copper so the rock will be safe to run in a reef tank? Or do ya'll think that since it has been so long ago that the rock would be safe to use? Have read stuff that stated that using a poly filter in the tank would remove copper! Just wondering if any of you have any experience on this subject.

 

[clown2be]

I'd say less than half my rock was treated with copper when my tank was FOWLR tank. I've always have ran carbon 24/7 and never have seen any negative results. Here is my tank today and seems to be doing fine. I've been told by the LFS that a high PH of 8.8 would cause the copper to resurface. I don't know how true that is.

 

[buschwacker]

Man!!!! That is a beautiful tank Clown2be.

I have heard from some that it has a negative effect on corals and invertes from LFS guy who seems to be very knowledgeable and reef tanks. I just don't know what to beleive. I have brought the rock home and have it in a tank with some of his water and have added some FSW to it just trying to decide what to do with the rock wether or not to put it in to my tank or not. My tank is FOWLR with a few mushrooms, not really ready for coral or anemenes. Just trying to move in that direction and don't want to cause anything to prevent success.

 

[clown2be]

Thank you, That's what I did , Started with mushrooms, then polyps, then frogspawn, bubble, torch, and then to the SPS. Its been about 3 years since my FO tank. I've never had any signs that the copper has slowed or caused any deaths in my tank. I don't recommend what I have done, but it seemed to been o.k. for me.

Buy a $5 dollar peppermint shrimp and see what happens. Start off with the cheap stuff. :smokin:

 

[bertoni]

I thought a low pH event could release the copper...

Personally, I'd toss the rock. You could consider dumping it in muriatic acid for a while to try to dissolve away any copper deposits. If you don't mind gambling, you could just ignore the issue and hope your pH stays stable enough that it's never a problem.

 

[eleodes]

so as not to waste it, maybe you could look for somebody else interested in setting up a FOWLR tank.

 

[jgoodrich71]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6526554#post6526554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
You could consider dumping it in muriatic acid for a while to try to dissolve away any copper deposits.

You would be disolving more than copper deposits. Try the whole rock.

 

[buschwacker]

I read somewhere that you can use muratic acid for this problem by dipping for 15mins flushing and dipping for 5 mins. and flushing over and over as much as possible. I am very leary about doing this though. Do you all think that by testing the 10 gallons of water that I have from his tank to see if there is any trace of copper. It has been around 2 years since the copper based meds. we're used.

 

[bertoni]

Okay, I should have said a brief dip in muriatic acid.

The copper tests really are useless for reef tanks since they can't detect amounts that are lethal to a wide range of invertebates. They do work for treating fish, which tolerate copper much better.

 

[buschwacker]

I was just explaining what I had read to see if it was the same as you have heard/read/tried!!! So copper test are useless. What about poly filter?

 

[buschwacker]

I have hear that poly filters will remove copper and turn blue.

 

[bertoni]

If the copper is bound to the rock, even the polyfilter isn't going to do much. When and if a low pH event releases the copper, that's when the fun starts.

 

[jmicky41]

3 years ago or so I treated my FO tank heavily with cupramine. I reused the sand from that tank for my FOWLR with seemingly no ill effects. I now keep hermits, cleaner shrimp, nassarious snails and 2 hitchhiker mushrooms. However, I can't keep turbo snails alive in this tank - because of copper, who knows?

 

[Anemonebuff]

I had/have rock that was treated with copper. I do not think it will affect things unless it was soaked in copper for a long time.

No problems here.