Putting copper in FOWLR?

[harlequinnut]

I am desparate and are considering putting copper in tank that has LR. Can someone tell me what will it do to the LR other than killing the pods that are living in the LR? What will this do to the coraline algae? Will the LR still be able to perform it's biological filtration? This is my biggest concern.
:help:

 

[elfdoctors]

Copper will kill not only your pods but also the beneficial worms which are also part of the filtration system, both in your rock and your substrate. I am not 100% sure about coraline but I know that copper is widely used to kill other types of algae so I would predict that the coraline would die off.
The worst part of the copper is that it would permanently bind to your live rock (and your substrate) so it would become worse then base rock (i.e. you couldn't even seed it with some new live rock in the tank in the future). It would still provide a place for beneficial bacteria to live but there are a lot of negatives.
What are you treating? Copper may not even work.
Why not take the live rock (and substrate) out of the tank?
Even better, copper should be treated in a quarantine tank.

 

[karajay]

Originally posted by Harlequinnut
I am desparate and are considering putting copper in tank that has LR.
Don't do it...you will regret it.
For the amount of money you spent on the LR and sand, wouldn't it be worth it to set up a Q tank and save them?
Also, copper needs to be maintained at the correct levels to work while not killing your fish. Even if you could estimate the amount of actual water in your tank, the rock and substrate would absorb the copper to some extent. And then you'd have no idea how much you have in there.

 

[harlequinnut]

I have a 20g tank setup but I can't treat all the fish in it at the same time which means I have to put them in there one at a time. How long should each be in the tank for treatment?:help:

 

[karajay]

Unfortunately, without leaving the tank completely fishless for at least a month, the ich will not die off. It would just find a new fish to host. Treating one fish at a time would be going around in circles.
Sorry. Maybe someone could find a better solution for ya :thinking:

 

[nas19320]

If you have a refractometer and do not wanna buy a bigger QT tank you could do hyposalinity on the main tank and it won't have any lasting effects like copper. I would put all the LR and any inverts in something like a trash can with SW, heater, and powerhead for the 4 weeks while you hypo the main tank. The hyposalinity will kill any and all inverts. Thats about the best solution I can think of, maybe someone else will have a better one.