Copper in FOWLR

[arbageddon]

Hi, anyone knows if its safe to put copper in FOWLR? If i put copper in my tank, will i be able to keep inverts and macroalgae in the future? Thanks!

[kareen]

A few questions....

Why add copper? Are the fish sick? If no, why add copper? If yes, even the fish are running into illness, what's the chances for the more sensitive inverts in your tank?

Think thru' the questions and decide yourself....

[Earth]

My humble experience with adding copper is firstly all your invert will die. You will be shocked to see the amount of pests in your tank after administering copper

Secondly, you must be precise with the amount. Too much copper will kill your fish too. So you must get a good test kit to test for copper to ensure that the correct amount is added. In addition, some fish can't tolerate copper, hence its good that you read up more before commencing

Lastly, when treatment is completed with no sign of ich discovered, u can remove copper with carbon and do a major water change. If confirm no more copper, all the life will grow back subsequently.

[Ah-lim]

It is best to place the fish in a quarantine tank if it is sick, I would not advise on dosing copper to the whole display tank, as copper is rather deadly to inverts.

Furthermore, live rocks and sand will absorb the copper too.

[Underwater]

Bro, he's asking a good question mah and we are all here to learn, think no need to be so hard on him le...

i think he mentioned he's a FOWLR and has no inverts at the moment but worried if add copper now in the main tank, can he still add inverts & macroalgae later.

i'm not sure myself too even after using rounds of carbon and multiple water change. Not sure if there'll be any copper residue in the LR, sand and tank silicon. IMO, best and wiser not to dose any copper in the main tank if one intends to keep inverts and corals later.

And like Bro Kareen said, if the fish is not sick, no need to dose copper le. If sick, you can try hypo treatment in main tank since no inverts and corals, or fish out the affected fishes out from the main tank and put into a separate quarantine tank to dose copper.

[Underwater]

Just read Bro Earth's comment. And yah, agreed with Bro Earth that some fishes cannot take copper and too much copper will kill fishes too...

l have tried on PBrT and it didn't take copper well.

[arbageddon]

My fish is sick... because of ich, i put them into quarantine tank and put in this sera costapur as recommended by a LFS. After a few days the ich went away but now i think it acquired velvet disease. Upon further research i notice that i should dose copper instead at the beginning as copper is very effective on ich and velvet disease. Anyway i lost 5 fish to the ich outbreak.

But now i think if in future my tank got ich again, whether i should dose copper directly. To be precise my tank is a FOWDR (fish only with dead rock) at the moment. Because if got sudden outbreak of disease, parasites, then we scamble to setup a quarantine tank without a proper mature filtration. This would cause the fish even more stress, right?

[arbageddon]

And yes i do have a test kit for copper and i test the water twice everyday to ensure an optimum copper level in the quarantine tank.

[tijou]

Bro, my tank is a FOWDeadRock setup. It does not have a single piece of LR in it and no corals or sps. The last time an ICH breakup, I added copper solution to the tank and it cured their dieases and after some many months, things has been ok. I did put a bag of carbon to absorb back the copper after the ICH was cleared. But you must ensure your tank is free from LR if you ever decide to add copper.

The other method(for my type of tank) of removing ICH is to reduce the SG to 1.013 BUT you must slowly bring it back to around 1.02-1.023 once the ICH is clear. No doubt the fishes is very active at low SG but in a long run, their organs will fail as shared by some experience reefer on the net.

I have tested some of the shops water condition where I bought fishes The SG is only around 1.017, that's one reason why fishes are so active in the shop becasue they can breathe better.

Just my thought...

[reeftask]

LR will absorb copper. No point arguing this.

If you want Tangs, you must have quarantine tank. You can choose not to have a quarantine tank but risk is yours and fishes are yours too.

If you dont think you want to add tang anymore, you can throw away the quarantine tank. If you still want to add a tang months later, why dont let this quarantine tank cycles? If months later, your tank have parasites again, this means you shortcut everything hence resulting destroying everything again.

You can keep algaes or inverts but eventually some will die off if your LR are coppered.

Hypo salinity is bad for the fish health? Certainly yes. Keeping the fish in your tank will damage their health too. Fish, corals, inverts will strive better in the oceans and not our tanks.

It depends on which shop. Some shops salinity at 1.025. Some tanks at some shop varies from 1.019 to 1.26. Who cares? I just care my tank to be in my range.

It is best to check on the internet what suits you. Asking around here will not do you good much. Every fortnight people asking here about this and that without even check up first what they need. So most reefers are fed up and not answering. If you want to ask something here, pls check on the internet first. Forum will be the last resort to final judgement if you still in doubt.

[XPeriment 626]

It is best to check on the internet what suits you. Asking around here will not do you good much. Every fortnight people asking here about this and that without even check up first what they need. So most reefers are fed up and not answering. If you want to ask something here, pls check on the internet first. Forum will be the last resort to final judgement if you still in doubt.

Yes, it's true that a lot of info can be found on the internet and also hear on this site if the search function is properly used.

Having said that, a lot of newbies feel overwhelmed by how much there is to know. The point of this forum is to bring them closer to experienced reefers who can assist them. So I think we, who have all benefitted from the wisdom of people before us, should also do what we can to help those just starting the hobby, or at least exercise some patience and politeness to point them to use the search engine to find what they need.

[arbageddon]

I thought the forum is to promote a healthy discussion, hence i brought up the matter. But it seems that some forummers here are so defensive. About checking the internet, believe it or not there's also alot of crappy info out there. Some say its ok to put copper if no inverts by doing water change and carbon after the treatment, while some sources say once you put copper you can never add any inverts again. That's why i put up the topic here with hope the confusion can be cleared with help from other more experience forummers.

[tijou]

I must agree with Bro X626, let's just share what we learnt and what we have experienced, thus there's no harm sharing and be nice.

For those who do not wish to share but wish to pass bad remarks, guess you have the choice to ignore the thread and not give lectures telling people what they should do before starting a thread...

Thanks....

[Underwater]

Bro Arbageddon, no worries, you can always post any marine related question to seek opinions in this forum and there'll still be kind reefers ard to share their experience or comments. Some may be different though so it's good to hear from different reefers also.

That's the purpose and spirit of this forum. To help each other to reduce or avoid mistakes so tt our marine friends can live happier.

Anyway, the search function here is very good and you can sometimes receive many past threads/discussion on the particular topic you re looking at.

[tijou]

Bro Arbageddon.. welcome to the club.....