Copper and live rock

[Guest beatle]

I had an ich outbreak while I was out of town and my UV was out of commission. My fiancee attempted to set up a QT and treat my midas blenny. I told her to use a chunk of LR from the sump as I believed the copper she bought would ruin it for my reef tank. Am I right not to put this back in my system? Is there any way to use this rock now or should it be pitched?

[ChrisS]

Pitch it. Even small amounts of copper will kill inverts and the rock will leach copper back into the water.

 

If you have a QT system that you keep running you could just leave the rock in there. Make it a dedicated QT rock.

[fab]

Toss the rock. You really did not need anthing in your quarantine tank but water and water motion. Some people put a couple of pieces of pvc pipe for the fish to have refuge.

 

fab

[Guest beatle]

So no need for biological filtration in a QT?

[jamal]

you can put a power filter in there or sand if it is a large enough tank but it isnt necessary

[davelin315]

The copper will be absorbed into the rock but will still be present in the water and leach back into the system so don't use it in your reef again. I wouldn't toss it as there are plenty of people out there who have systems that have no inverts in them that could use it. Like others said, too, you could always keep it in a QT tank for treating fish.

 

By the way, you do need a source of biological filtration in your QT tank. If you don't have one, the ammonia that builds up in the tank will quickly kill your fish or at the very least stress them out enough where the point of a QT is defeated. Lots of people will keep some extra sponge filters in their sump just for this purpose, something they can use and then dump when they have finished QTing the fish.

[DaveS]

Lots of people will keep some extra sponge filters in their sump just for this purpose, something they can use and then dump when they have finished QTing the fish.

 

 

Any special reason to dump the sponge filter after use? I'd think washing/rinsing/soaking in freshwater would be enough to clean out anything bad in it. Sure you'd have to put it back in the sump to grow bacteria again but just wondering if there's a specific argument for throwing it away.

[flowerseller]

 

 

Any special reason to dump the sponge filter after use? I'd think washing/rinsing/soaking in freshwater would be enough to clean out anything bad in it. Sure you'd have to put it back in the sump to grow bacteria again but just wondering if there's a specific argument for throwing it away.

 

They're cheap compared to what's likely in your tank. Not worth the risk if you've treated with anything other than HYPO.