bang guy
Moderator
To quote Dr. Ron Shimek, noted Marine Aquarium Biologist:
"Copper adsorbs on to all surfaces. That is to say it binds with all surfaces in the tank, so... yes, the glass, the rock, the sand, the thermometer, inside of plumbing.... you name it, it binds to it. Then, it can slowly leach off (or rapidly come off in a pH swing). It is lethal to some inverts at 0.5 ppb, causes damage to most at 10 to 100 ppb.
It is also poisonous to fish by the way, except they die less rapidly than the parasites it normally treats for, so they can be expected to live through a treatment."
0.5ppb = 0.0005ppm
Remember that Diatom munchers like some snails are extra vulnerable because they are scraping the Diatoms off of a surface and get a mouthful of copper if any is on the surface of the rock or glass. They are usually the first to noticeably die in an affected tank. If your Snails are not living anything near their natural lifespan then heavy metal poisoning is a likely cause. FYI - Most of the Trocus species have a natural lifespan of 10 - 20 years. They are probably 2 or 3 years old when we get them.
On the plus side, a Copper concentration around 0.01 will quickly kill an ugly Cyanobacter outbreak. On the minus side, Cyanobacter is one of the primary organisms in the Nitrogen cycle for marine aquariums.
"Copper adsorbs on to all surfaces. That is to say it binds with all surfaces in the tank, so... yes, the glass, the rock, the sand, the thermometer, inside of plumbing.... you name it, it binds to it. Then, it can slowly leach off (or rapidly come off in a pH swing). It is lethal to some inverts at 0.5 ppb, causes damage to most at 10 to 100 ppb.
It is also poisonous to fish by the way, except they die less rapidly than the parasites it normally treats for, so they can be expected to live through a treatment."
0.5ppb = 0.0005ppm
Remember that Diatom munchers like some snails are extra vulnerable because they are scraping the Diatoms off of a surface and get a mouthful of copper if any is on the surface of the rock or glass. They are usually the first to noticeably die in an affected tank. If your Snails are not living anything near their natural lifespan then heavy metal poisoning is a likely cause. FYI - Most of the Trocus species have a natural lifespan of 10 - 20 years. They are probably 2 or 3 years old when we get them.
On the plus side, a Copper concentration around 0.01 will quickly kill an ugly Cyanobacter outbreak. On the minus side, Cyanobacter is one of the primary organisms in the Nitrogen cycle for marine aquariums.
