Copper Precautions

[Tommy Gun]

Hey all!

I am wondering if anyone can tell me with some certainty if moving a pump from a tank that has been previously used as a hospital/q-tank and subsequently has been exposed to copper, to a reef tank would be a completely bad idea or not?

If it is a bad idea, would it be best to assume that the pump and/or all equipment that was used on the hospital/q-tank should always be excluded from use on another tank?

 

[pengy666]

No experience myself but if anything comes in contact with copper its not good, No one will touch equipment with copper treatment history?

SO yes I would say DONT use it!

jmo

hth

 

[andywg]

I do have experience and say there is no problem if you are careful.

I treated a tank with coper based meds and am currently using all the live rock in my reef and live food holding tank. All I did was drain them out. Dry them off, and then rinse them through. First off I just connected the RO waste to a bucket with the rocks in and let it go like that for a few nights (I tend to fill up my water butts over night). The smaller bits got to live in my toilet cistern for a fortnight.

After wards I let the rocks sit in RO water for about a day with at least 3 complete changes of the RO water.

If any copper is still in the rocks after the above it is not going to come out too soon at all. The rocks are in the tank now and I have seen no problems. The way I saw it, I cure my DIY LR in the toilet cistern that has "coppered" water in it, so the tiny levels that may remain are not going to be a problem.

If you did something similar to the above with the pump, I can't see any problems.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate it.

For now, I am taking pengy666's cautious route and haven't moved the pump at all yet....it is, after all, keeping my q-tank up and running right now. To be honest, my main reasoning behind asking this question is because the pump I am talking about has been my 'back-up' for any pump that might fail for a few months now...which is not to mention it is a somewhat expensive pump as well, so I would like to keep justifying that purchase.

If any copper is still in the rocks after the above it is not going to come out too soon at all.

Thanks for pointing out the live rock thing....I do have quite a few pounds of it in this q-tank so again, I would love to get the most out of it on a regular basis.

Quick question(s) though....and probably a dumb one, but I am wondering how I might go about ensuring that my life rock and or equipment is 'copper-free'?

If my assumption is right in that the live rock must be in water so a copper test can be done, how long would you say it takes for any of that copper finds its way off the rock and into the water? Of course, I am also making the assumption that I would be removing some of that copper via each water change, which I also assume means that shortly after adding the new water, the copper test results could possibly provide misleading readings...or am I way off base on that?

Again, thanks for the help!

 

[n3ont3tra]

Try putting a few snails in there with the rock and equiptment and leave them there for a few weeks?

 

[Tommy Gun]

Kinda against my moral fabric I guess, but I am sure that would add to a pretty decisive answer.

 

[n3ont3tra]

It's better than putting ALL of your snails in there and having them die because you guessed wrong.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Very true. I didn't mean to sound like I was being rude or anything, and apologize if that is how it seemed.

Since I have a copper test kit, my question is more related to when I should be testing in order to get the most accurate result, versus asking how much copper can be present before inverts start dying.

 

[SkiFletch]

Drain/rinse the rock thoroughly as andy mentioned, then put them in a bucket of water you know to contain no copper. Test for copper say a week later. If it's not detectable, that means there isn't enough available to leech back out into the system...

As for the pump, it's fine. Give it a rinse in RO water and you'll be all set. The hard plastics, magnets, steels, and rubber gaskets invovled in submersible pump construction cannot absorb copper.