what does copper do?

[Capt_Cully]

what would copper effect if it was in your tank?
what does it treat?
what is it harmful to?

 

[Largo50]

Copper is poison to most marine life, depends on the concentration. Used to treat ich and velvet for example. Can easily bond and pricipitate out into the tank. Fish can tolerate low doses, invertebrates and corals don't

 

[bheron]

It will melt your inverts pretty much! Used to treat some fish diseases but only put it in a FO tank.Oh, also, some say its nearly impossible to remove from a tank once it leaches into the silicone.

 

[Sk8r]

Used only in a hospital tank to treat [principally] the ich parasite: it does this by killing inverts [the ich] faster than it does your fish. Do not use it unless you know what the fish has. Do not use with carbon in the filter. Cannot be combined with other treatments. Stresses kidneys.

 

[Achilles1208]

Used to treat ich...cannot again cannot be used in a reef tank for the reason mentioned above...even if u purchased a used tank that was treated with copper it cannot be used for a reek tank

 

[Sk8r]

There is a way to remove copper, but it is expensive and takes time: polyfilter [which is pricey] will pull out as much as leaches out into the water. Unfortunately, this will possibly go on for months, depending on how bad it was.

Polyfilter is a good thing to have on hand: if you suspect a metal contamination, cut a small snip of this pricey stuff and put it into the water flow: it turns colors according to what metal/contaminant it is absorbing. If it turns aqua blue, this is copper. You can then determine whether to put the whole filter pad in or not.