Coral Beauty

[saltwaterfanatic]

yesterday i got a coral beauty to put in a 30 gallon so i put it in....The next morning it had 4 ich spots on it so i dipped it in freshwater for 1 minute and they were all gone it is in the tank with a green chromis its is a fowlr tank only so i got some rid ich by korton and put in 15 ml just to make sure there was none left in the tank and i left in the the live rock is there anything else i should do and will the stuff kill copepods and my biological filtration on the live rock? the tank has been set up for a month. Thanks!

 

[seffieuk]

Does the medication have copper in?

Rule is: Never put anything in your tank unless you have tested and know exactly what is in it and what it will do

Seffie x

 

[saltwaterfanatic]

Does the medication have copper in?

Rule is: Never put anything in your tank unless you have tested and know exactly what is in it and what it will do

Seffie x

yes malachite green and it is a fowlr tank only

 

[seffieuk]

The problem you now have is that the copper will leach back out of the rocks, sand, silicon in fact most everything you have in your tank. Fish who sift the sand will absorb it and it will likely kill off your inverts! Large water changes will help, I also seem to remember reading about a product called CupriSorb or something like that which may help too

Seffie x

 

[saltwaterfanatic]

i did a large water change today and i also put in the activated carbon i have a coral beauty angel and a singapore angelfish in the 30 gallon rite now i also got prime reef flakes with garlic extract in them were can you buy liquid garlic extract?

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Garlic doesn't actually help at all with ich or raising fishes immune system. About the best it does is work as an attractant which can help to get fish to eat.

If its FO with no inverts in at all then the copper isnt really an issue. I haven't seen anyone that has had issues with marine fish when using copper in the short term. It is true that it will kill inverts (so your pod population is going to take a hit) but again as long as its a FO and you dont have any fish that relies on the pods for a food source it shouldn't matter.

Large water changes, polyfilter (not the wool like stuff but the "polyfilter" branded stuff) and active carbon will help mop up any last traces of copper.

Sand and rocks will absorb the copper but as long as you run some chemical media that removes copper you will be ok IMO. I wouldnt ever try selling the LR to anyone though as it is possible it may be leeching copper for a long time to come and it would potentially destroy a reef system.


If your that worried about it get a copper test kit and check it out.

Personally I would still recommend using a QT for treating fish as then you dont have to worry about using copper or its long term effects as the fish are only in there during the treatment period.

 

[Crazy fishes]

I remember some time back now reading a story about a guy who had a massive SPS setup and had a issue with an exploding heater. The heater dumped a huge amount of copper in to his tank and of course he was very worried. In an attempt to save his prized tank he threw a lot of polyfilter in to mop up the copper and to his amazement he only lost one colony of acropora. The issue with the copper in this case is that the copper will get in to the seals and so acquisition of inverts later, if you choose to, will be risky in this tank. I will of course depend on how much copper is in the water column in the first place.

Regards

Joe

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Just as a side note. The 150l tank in my sig (i really must update that) was used as a FW tropical tank for about 4 years before I turned it into a marine tank. I had used copper medication on it on more than one occasion. When I turned it into a marine tank I just left if to soak in RO water for a few days then used it, never had a problem with any invert in there due to copper poisoning.

As always your results will vary so just because I got away with it does not mean you will. However I don't believe that the odd one or two treatments of copper in a tank will mean that tank will leech copper into the system forever more. LR and sand may however be a completely different matter.

Good story on the polyfilter. It is amazing stuff, unfortunately just really expensive. Always very handy to keep some to hand though for emergencies.