Removing Copper Traces From Water?

[minxfishy]

Having tried and failed on two occassions to keep shrimp, my only conclusion for their deaths was that I have old copper piping in my house. As the tanks were specifically set up for them, no ammonia, nitrites etc, fully cycled tanks.

Is there a product that can safely be added to the water to remove any traces of copper? Or should my dechlorinator be able to handle any?

I would like to try again, but dont want to subject any more shrimps or myself for that matter thru another loss of (somewhat expensive) shrimps.

 

[OldMan47]

The best advice I think I have seen on copper is to make sure you run water through your pipes until all the water that has been sitting in them has been flushed out before you start to fill your buckets. This time of year I can tell when I have run my water that long since the cold tap becomes much cooler when the fresher water starts to arrive.
In an extreme case the only thing I know that removes everything is an RO unit. The problem is that with shrimp you need high levels of some minerals, obviously not copper, so once you have pure water it will need to be "reconstituted" with a mix of minerals. Products are made to do that but it can get expensive to use them on a tank of any size. I think I would try the flushing approach first because things like RO Right just cost too much to use on a large scale.

 

[minxfishy]

OK thanks, hadnt considered it would be worse from sitting in the pipe, but that makes sense

 

[Colin_T]

Oldman is spot on with the old water sitting in the pipes. I always run the tap for a couple of minutes before collecting any water for drinking or the fish. This flushes out the old potentially contaminated water and gives you cleaner water to drink.

Carbon will absorb copper, activated carbon is better than normal plain carbon but you can use either. You can run the tap water through the carbon or have a box filter with carbon in the tank.
I make up my water in holding tanks and let them aerate for a few days before using them. I add dechlorinator first and then after a day I put a box filter with carbon, peat, coral rubble or whatever else I am using into the container. I leave it for a couple more days then use it for the water changes. The carbon gets thrown out after each use.

Chemicals are less toxic in hard water compared to soft water. This is because the minerals absorb some of the chemicals and reduce the concentration of it in the water. You could try increasing the general hardness as well as doing the above and then you should be fine.