What a mistake?

[tiencvu]

I made a stupid mistake by taking a quick action. To make a story short, one of my fish got ick, the LFS told me to put in the tank the Copper Base medication to cure the ick and prevent it from occuring again in the future. I did as I was told. The problem is now that I can't put the cleaning crews in the tank because of the Copper Base, it will kill the cleaning crews. I have 55 gal. FO, no coral or inverts. How do I get rid of the Copper so that I could put in some cleaning crews.
Thanks for your advice in advance.

 

[daniel411]

I know of no way to guarantee all coppers being removed. Even a complete tear down, clean, new substrate, etc.. may still leave traces.

 

[jedininja]

Theres really no way of getting 100% of the copper out. There are things out there that advertise to remove copper and you can try that. But short of starting a brand new tank, theres not much you can do to get rid of all of it. Sorry to hear that you listened to a LFS and gor burned.

 

[1journeyman]

I'd go back to your LFS and make quite a public display of your displeasure!
If they recomended copper based medication then they really should have explained the risks.
Good luck with the tank.
John

 

[bang guy]

There is a way to remove 99.99% of the copper from your tank. It might not be practical but it has been done before and proven effective.
Remove everything from inside the tank and throw it away.
Rinse the tank with Hydrochloric acid. You can find this at most pool supply stores under the name of Muriatic Acid. Rinse well with copious amounts of water. Scrub with limewater and you're all set to start over.

 

[tiencvu]

Poasted by 1journeyman
If they recomended copper based medication then they really should have explained the risks
I agree with you there 1journeyman. They didn't warn me at all, but it is also my fault as well. I should have research it before adding the copper base medication into the tank.
For those of you out there who are intending to add any medication to the tank, please do research before doing it. It might come back and bite you in the butts later.

 

[atf88]

I guess thats one of the reasons to use a quarentine tank?

 

[lesleybird]

Originally posted by 1journeyman
I'd go back to your LFS and make quite a public display of your displeasure!
If they recomended copper based medication then they really should have explained the risks.
Good luck with the tank.
John
I doubt that would help. Only make it impossible to go back to the fish store to buy.

 

[bang guy]

Lesleybird,
You don't have to quote everyones entire post. Just keep the part you're answering. We've all already read the post once.

 

[doodle1800]

Buy a new 55 gal tank - keep the one you have now for a quaranteen/hospital tank.

 

[acuaman]

hey man i have used Kick Ich in my 100 gallon FO tank before and that is a copper based med i believe, I was then told to put activated carbon in my canister filter to remove the copper, granted it doesnt remove 100 percent of the copper but i will say this, i did not have inverts before the med, but after about 3 months of changing the carbon regularly, i put 2 scarlets and about 20 blue legged hermits and all are still alive today.and this about six months later. So this is my personal experience with copper, I realize it is not the more potent copper that is used but nevertheless i have some success. One more thing, I dont recommend doing what i did , cause i do know copper will linger in a tank for many years, i only tried it because i wanted hermits in my tank and they are inexpensive. so far so good.

 

[1journeyman]

Originally posted by Lesleybird
I doubt that would help. Only make it impossible to go back to the fish store to buy.
I wouldn't be going back there to buy jack anyway...

 

[tiencvu]

I learned my lession very well now, can't trust the LFS salesman.
I always do research first before putting anything in the tank, even the new fish. Thank you all so much for your opinion.

 

[tiencvu]

Acuaman posted:
i only tried it because i wanted hermits in my tank and they are inexpensive. so far so good.
Acuaman, I might try your method then wait for a few months then put a few hermits in the tank. I definitely don't want the copper base to stop me. Hopefully, I might get lucky.