SOS!!!!!!! SOS!!!!!!!

[seabass]

I just noticed a copper fitting was thrown in my sump by my 4 year old! It was in there all day. its a 1/2" copper fitting you use for water pipes. its a (its a 90 degree fitting) I noticed my macro algae not as green tonight, fish & corals look ok, 1 snail is dead, is this linked pleas tell me what to do?

 

[miner]

I would change as much water as possible. Take Corals, anenome's snails out as soon as You can. There is a produck called " Copper Safe" I have never used it though. I did hear that You can use it in a Reef. I don't know if it is true. Get all inverts out ASAP.
Good luck !! marym1@peoplepc.com

 

[seabass]

ok doing that now putting them into other aquarium. is this copper safe...safe to use? anyone else?

 

[@knight]

ld buy a copper test kit to test the copper levels and proceed from there. I have no idea how much could leech from the fitting, but any ammount is not good.
I have heard of people using coppersafe. might do a search for it and see what you find.

 

[adrian]

Some fresh carbon and a product called Cuprisorb by seachem will help to suck the Cu out of the water, water changes would also be a help. I would not be so hasty as to blame the death of your snail on the copper, definitely a possibility, but as mentioned above you may want to test the water before jumping to conclusions. Silicone is known to absorb copper, and if your tank was exposed it may not be safe for inverts anymore. Good Luck

 

[tomato clown]

I have to agree with @Knight and sammy, Copper is very resilliant when in a solid statethat is why they will use it in underwater piping at times. usually copper piping that is easy to bend will have the best chance at rusting and diffusing. Anyway do the water testing first, that doesn't sound like an extreme ammount of time that the pipe was in there.

 

[tacks]

How bout' an update seabass... I think we are all pretty curious.

 

[thereefman52]

The snail died because of that, i had 30 snails, added the copper medicine (god was that stupid) and when i came home later, all the snails were off the glass and upside down on the sand... R.I.P.

 

[thereefman52]

The snail died because of that, i had 30 snails, added the copper medicine (god was that stupid) and when i came home later, all the snails were off the glass and upside down on the sand... R.I.P.

 

[seabass]

OK guys I have all live creatures in my other tank. I didnt do a water change cause I also want to see how much copper is in my tank now. I will test the water early morning and post my results. Thanks for all your input, I kinda feel better but still worried. oh ya, also when I took the copper fitting out of the tank the fitting's shine was all gone. It looked like someone took sandpaper to it
[ November 24, 2001: Message edited by: seabass ]

 

[flydan]

Hey,
I read a post once where someone found a penny in their tank and went nuts. Turned out it didn't leach any copper into his tank and everything was fine. I'd say all you had to do was get it out and test your water for copper. Kinda Monday morning quarter backing here I realize, but I just wanted to make that point that having a good test kit handy will save a lot of stress.
Dan'l

 

[seabass]

I never ran into a copper problem but I quess anything that can go wrong will go wrong. I;ll keep all tests in hand by tommorow morning

 

[got krabs]

As far as Pennies go in 1985 they changed the alloy in the makeup of a penny,Therfore before 1985 they pennies were more copper than zinc which could be detrimental to a reef, the reason why I know this is because a friend of mine had a kitten that ate a penny and he took it to the vets/they had to opperate to get it out,if the penny was 1985 or before it would be ok if it were a new one the kitten would need to be put down it was a 1985 so the cat lived

 

[seabass]

OK, this is the result. bad and good. My tank has no trace of copper in it. the pipe was in there for a day, so i put a copper fitting in a glass of water for a day, than I tested the cup of water. The test in the water flew off the charts! very very high, well passed 2,5 mg/1. my tank is 100 galons, I know theres copper in there even though the test say none, or not enough to show. anyway I put a carbon bag in my sump and I'll leave that in for a few days just to be sure. Thanks all that helped

 

[seabass]

all my corals are slowley going back into the tank. the first one to go in was the ganiporia and he is doing great