Toxic killer or miracle cure: Have you used copper in your tank?

Have you used copper in your tank?

  • Yes, I have used copper successfully

    Votes: 75 19.5%
  • Yes, I have used copper with mixed results

    Votes: 20 5.2%
  • Yes, I have tried with poor results

    Votes: 11 2.9%
  • No, but I am open to using copper in the future

    Votes: 59 15.4%
  • No, I have no plans to use copper in my tank

    Votes: 219 57.0%

  • Total voters
    384

Batt

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Copper is needed in a reef tank. Take a look at you ICP test. It has to be a certain range. Alot of sps farms dose copper when needed.
 

Coral Loggers

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I have never put it in my display and most likely never will. I have run a qt tank with it tho and it saved my entire tank of fish once
 

exnisstech

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I use copper in QT and I saved some fish using it in a hospital tank after a velvet outbreak once. I did dose a display once several years ago that only had fish. I ran cuprisorb after and all of that rock is still in the display and has not been an issue with inverts corals or nems.
 

hunterallen40

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I figured I might get some questions, haha.

Please clarify your dose/day and how you do this. I know the amount added is extremely tiny and when I read this I became curious about the process.

I dose 0.015 μg / L daily, which is a value I have tuned up following my ICP-MS trends. I do not recommend anybody do this blindly, and I would not use ICP-OES alone to determine this is necessary. The ICP test I use is the Oceamo ICP-MS test, and I observe trends in copper concentration on a monthly basis.

Also, someone trying to save a fish using copper might think your method could work for that, and nothing could be further from the truth in application than what you are doing and trying to cure a sick fish need to do, imo.

No. The amount I dose is less than 1000x the amount needed for curing a sick fish.

I didn't know running UV had these kinds of impacts upon the water contents. I guess I still have lots to learn. Thanks!

Just want to clarify... I don't think UV has an effect on copper concentration. I have seen an effect from ozone, however.

For what purpose are you dosing copper daily and what product are you using?

I dose daily to keep my concentration of copper detectible. Since copper is essential for photosynthesis, I keep it in a slightly detectible range so the corals can photosynthesize appropriately.

I use reef moonshiner pump copper element to add the copper.

I should also mention that many trace element solutions include copper, such as KZ and Zeovit.

Please, anybody reading this and getting excited about copper... Make sure you have a deficiency BEFORE you start dosing. It is a dangerous element, and should be treated as such (as for most additives).
 

Miami Reef

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Sleepydoc

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Here we go. Someone else disagrees with you so they are clearly "ignorant."

I believe that there is a difference between a poison and a treatment. You don't? Chemotherapy is a poison, antibiotics aren't. Neither is good long term, but which one will get you first??

Wow, 5 years!! All those huge fish in the ocean are only 5 years old??

I've had fish hide all the time, not eat regularly, etc in qt. As soon as they are in the DT they come to life. Bare bottom with pvc "caves" isn't normal. They aren't happy. If you think so, there isn't anything else to say.
I didn't say you were ignorant for disagreeing, just that you were ignorant for not recognizing that other medications can also be toxic. Your reply has reaffirmed that. Antibiotics can absolutely be poisons. It's a mater of relative toxicity and therapeutic indices.

The 5 years was referring to your statement - I have no idea how long they'll live at this point but comparing the lifespan of a fish in your tank to the ocean is pointless. We are taking these fish of of the ocean, transferring them them to small containers multiple times, transporting them thousands of miles, then putting them in a small that's a fraction of the size of the area they normally would live in (not to mention the ocean itself) that we use as an attempt to recreate their habitat. How do you adequately compare the two? And do we actually know the lifespan in the wild of the fish we keep?

You stated you never used copper yet say your fish were clearly stressed and unhappy in QT. I'm not sure how you think that proves your point.

My goal is to have my fish as healthy as possible for as long as possible. I have seen no evidence that appropriate treatment with copper compromised that in any way.
 

kenchilada

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My goal is to have my fish as healthy as possible for as long as possible. I have seen no evidence that appropriate treatment with copper compromised that in any way.
The big factor for me is that major public aquariums use copper. If these are "top of their field" qualified aquarium staff, many of which are likely actual biologists, I have to assume that I do not know better than they do.
 

Urban Reefer Detroit

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Toxic killer or miracle cure: Have you used copper in your tank?

Copper in your tank can make an impact – both good and bad. It can be used to medicate fish, control algae, and promote the health of certain livestock; however, it can also be toxic and should be used with caution. Small amounts of copper come in to our tanks as an ingredient, but let’s talk about directly adding copper to your tank or to the food. Have you used it successfully? Do you completely avoid directly adding copper? Have you used it with mixed or negative results? Please tell us about your experience with copper in your reef tank and share any tips in the discussion thread.

merlberg_copperpower.jpg

Photo by @merlberg
Fresh water dips,regular water changes and a good in sterilizer works the best.

fish compatibility is important as well. The less stress the better.

The goal is to keep diseases under control. You will never eliminate them.
 

kenchilada

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Fresh water dips,regular water changes and a good in sterilizer works the best.

Best at what? Maybe you get lucky and knock some flukes off?

The goal is to keep diseases under control. You will never eliminate them.

You literally can eliminate many pathogens from your aquarium by following quarantine procedures that have been well documented and used by public aquariums for decades. You can, via prophylaxis, eliminate many of them (ich, velvet,etc) without chemicals.

The hard part is not reintroducing them. That takes discipline. You can’t just buy a $5 mushroom at the LFS and pop it in your tank anymore. This is the part where most people go wrong. Maintaining ”pathogen free” status is a huge pain in the butt and not for everyone.
 

Saltees

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Copper had stopped velvet in its track for me. It's TTM with Copper or HTTM for all my new fishes from now on.
 
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laythy

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other than the obvious usage of copper in qt tanks, i too dose (correct) my copper in my corals grow system to 5 ug/L after every icp result that comes back. i split the dose over 4 weeks to make it less of a spike. copper is very important for coral growth.
 
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