Copper Sticks to Glass - Toss Out Old Tanks

[Curtswearing]

Seachem USE to make a product that will dissolve all the copper left behind from copper meds and put it back in solution but I do not know how well it really worked.

Maybe it was the "amine" ligands from their cupramine product.

I think that this might be it. http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/CupriSorb.html

I'm glad that this thread came along and it is very timely for me. I turned on the lights in my nano tank today to see the sand and rock covered with dead amphipods, bristleworms, snails, corals, mini-brittlestars, featherdusters, and chitons out the wazoo. I thought I only had one chiton in this tank but I was clearly wrong. Basically, everything in the tank is dead. I've been hoping for another peacock mantis so this tank didn't contain any fish....only inverts. I probably had about 1000 mysid shrimp swimming around at all times because I had no fish. They looked like fleas there were so many. (This should also dispel the myth that corals eat a lot of them).

I heard David at one of my nano's last night but I thought he was only adding topoff water. There are several things that could have done this overnight. One would be a massive swing in SG. (It was at 1.024~1.025 via swingarm but that wasn't that far off my normal 1.026). A major swing in temperature. That apparently didn't happen either. The obvious culprit is copper. I'm going to get a test kit tomorrow. (It's not like I need to be in a rush...everything's already dead). My nano has a sponge pre-filter before the protein skimmer and a sponge bubble-trap sponge after the skimmer. I rinse them everyday. David (who has been told repeatedly to not touch my tanks for anything other than top-off water) replaced my sponge pre-filter with poly and replaced the sponge-trap filter with Doc Wellfish's Big Job Algae pad.

Note the freshwater fish on the picture. I'm guessing there's copper or other heavy metals in this pad. I've used them on used aquariums in the past for cleanup purposes but never as a bubble-trap (obviously).

Can you tell from my post that David is grounded for the weekend???

 

[Boomer]

No Curt that is not what we are talking about. It is AntiCopper, it is a solution not a media. Hypersorb is a media. AntiCopper put copper, that is tied up in the filter bed in solution, where you could then use Hypersorb or GAC to remove it.

It was called AntiCopper. *110 ml * treated 250-1000 gal

That pad Curt should not do anything, it is bascially inert. These pads or others like them sell by the millions and have been in this hobby for like 2 decades. Almost all algae scrubbing pads are one of these, be they blue, white or green. There are aslo sold in grocery stores for clean sinks, glasses etc.. It is basically the same thing that many used as a pre-filter at times in reef TF, where they were bought in large sheets. You wll not find any cooper there is none in these pads. The are just a plastic polymer.

He must of done something I would think but the pads are not it, UNLESS it was used for something else before that had toxic substances in it that leached out

 

[Curtswearing]

Thanks for the info Boomer. He certainly did something but I don't know what. Apparently it wasn't the pad. Your post gives me hope. Maybe it wasn't copper after all and at least the LR and LS are still usable in the future.

I'll try to figure it out after I talk with him when I pick him up from school.

EDIT: The pad was brand new. The only reason I knew the product used was because I fished the wrapper out of the trash.

 

[Paul B]

Are we talking about copper or nuclear fallout? MY reef with it's rocks and gravel had copper run in it for maybe five years on and off. In the seventees we always used copper because all fish had ich. That same tank is home to many inverts and very old corals. It just evolved into a reef from a fish only and was never even cleaned. It has not even been emptied since probably the early sixtees. The tank itself I did replace about 1978 but I did use copper in this one too. All of the contents of the tank were moved to this larger tank. I think people get too crazy about copper. If it ever does come out of where ever it is bound I believe it is in such small quantities as to cause no harm. The amounts that are being mentioned are supplied from tap water and I used straight tap water for about 20 years.
Lee, Bob Goemans is also a friend of mine. I spoke to him yesterday. He was at my home about 15 years ago. I am helping him with a New York problem.
Could I raise over 100 of these lettuce slugs with a copper problem? How about that 10 year old bubble? Fairly sensitive to copper I would imagine.
Have a great day.
Paul

ps Since Bob Goemans was mentioned, last week I found something he wrote about his trip to my home.
http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/guest/baldassano/baldassanointro.htm

 

[Curtswearing]

OK....false alarm regarding the Copper. David noted that some of my sand was dirty so he used a spoon to get all of the clean sand to the top. I'm guessing a Hydrogen Sulphide burp at this point.