Coppersafe

[leepink23]

After I complete my 30 day coppersafe treatment in my 55 gallon quarantine, will I ever be able to put coral frags in there?

 

[Brew12]

After I complete my 30 day coppersafe treatment in my 55 gallon quarantine, will I ever be able to put coral frags in there?

As long as you don't have any rock or sand you don't want to reuse it won't be a problem. Drain the tank, clean it out really good, get rid of any porous media you used. Some people claim that the silicon seams will hold copper but I have seen pretty solid evidence that indicates they do not.
If you are really worried about it you can run some cuprisorb or poly filter just in case trace amounts of copper remain after your cleaning.

 

[leepink23]

Thanks, no sand no rocks, just pvc pipe for hiding spots. Thanks for the recommendations!

 

[PatW]

You could acid wash the tank. A 5% or 10% hydrochloric acid solution is a great way to strip out cations. Cations are just positively charged ions like copper. You can go down to your local Lowes or Home Depot and buy muriatic acid which is hydrochloric. Be sure to add acid to a larger volume of water and never the reverse.

A less berserk approach is a vinegar solution soak.

 

[don_chuwish]

Good to know. I'm doing Cu in a 55G right now too.

 

[Maritimer]

Gosh, I hope so . . .

I've got a 220 sitting empty next to me, which was once a fish-only display in a store that ran copper. Ran a one-week leak test with a couple of gallons of vinegar added (did wonders for hard-water stains and old coraline!). Got a couple of packages of CupriSorb to run in the sump.

I'll keep the R2R community posted!

My chemistry teacher used to say "Do as you oughtta, add acid to waughtta" as a reminder of how to handle that mix.

~Bruce