Copper in FOWLR

espkh9

espkh9

Member
Will the die off from the rock cause an ammonia spike ? I recently saw my ammonia go from 0 to 0.25 after adding copper. I did several water changes to rectify the problem and removed the copper, does this make sense ?
 
keri

keri

Active Member
The copper in your tank may continue killing inverts as it leaches into your rock, sillicone, etc... and yeah, the die-off may have caused a spike. Are you missing any fish?
 
espkh9

espkh9

Member
No everything is OK. There are no Inverts in th etank and I removed the copper with floss and carbon...I ordered 50 lb's of LR coming tomorrow I wil cure it for 3 weeks. I wanna make sure all the copper is out so I dont kill the LR I just bought.I did a copper test and it was 0.
 
keri

keri

Active Member
Do you have sand in there? I've heard it can leach into EVERYTHING, including the sillicone (not trying to nag, i just don't want you to lose anything.)
 
joe 09

joe 09

Member
copper is not a good idea in fo tank.a lot of fish dont do well with copper.the flame angel will die with any copper in the tank.
 
espkh9

espkh9

Member
yes there is sand in the tank maybe a sb of 1/2 inch..I'm trying to put in some LR without it dying can it toerate small levels of copper ? it's all fiji rock and the copper now reads 0.
 
al mc

al mc

Active Member
Unfortunately it would be best to replace the copper exposed sand and clean the tank as thoroughly as possible before even attempting to put in new live rock. It has been postulated that the silicon holding the glass together can absorb copper and it will slowly leech out over time causing continual problems with low levels of copper virtually 'forever'.
I had a QT tank where I did a copper (cupramine) treatment with some live rock in it. After the treatment I completely washed out the tank and put the now 'dead' rock back in it and continued to use it as a QT. I never put any copper back into this tank. Initially the rock lost all it's coraline algae. Six months after the cleaning the rock is about 1/2 covered with coraline again...
my copper has tested negative in this tank since it's cleaning and seems to be supporting new 'life'. This is just one person's experience. I know the
established/accepted thought is that once you use copper in a tank that tank will alwys have some copper in it.
 
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